System, method and computer program products for creating and maintaining a consolidated jobs database

• US 20070239777A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geographic Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Geographic Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Toomey, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,422 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products include job bots that are configured to periodically visit network sites that have stored therein one or more job postings. During each visit, the one or more job postings are analyzed and a searchable job post database is updated to add new job postings, modify changed job postings and delete any removed job postings. A search engine is provided for job seekers to search the searchable job post database where a consolidate list of job postings from the network sites is stored.

Claims

1. A method for creating and updating a consolidated database of job postings, the method comprising the steps of:

manually identifying a set of job post hosting sites having job postings therein;

for each site within the set of job post hosting sites;

creating a job bot adapted to visit said each site and adapted to extract job post information for at least one of the job postings stored at said each site and adapted to store the job post information in a searchable job posting database; and

running the job bot to visit said each site and extract the job post information into the searchable job posting database; and

periodically running the job bots to update the searchable job posting database.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising between the step of creating and the step of running, the step of:

testing the job bot against said each site to verify that the job bot extracts the job post information correctly.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the set of job post hosting sites is accessible through a world-wide-web.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the set of job post hosting sites includes at least one corporate web site.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the set of job post hosting sites includes at least one government web site.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the searchable job posting database is searchable by a job seeker.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the job seeker accesses the searchable job posting database through the world-wide-web.

8. A system for creating and updating job posts in a consolidated database of job postings, the system comprising:

a computer connected to a network;

a storage device operationally adapted to the computer;

a searchable job posting database stored within the storage device;

a plurality of job bots, each of the plurality of job bots adapted to visit an assigned job post hosting site through the network, adapted to extract job post information and adapted to update the searchable job posting database with the job post information; and

a dispatcher running on the computer, the dispatcher adapted to periodically run the plurality of job bots.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the network is a world-wide-web.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the job post hosting sites includes at least one corporate web site.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of job post hosting sites includes at least one government web site.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a search engine program running on the computer, the search engine program adapted to connect with at least one client workstation through the network, the search engine program adapted to accept search criteria from the at least one client workstation, the search engine program adapted to search for stored job postings in the searchable job posting database that match the search criteria and the search engine program adapted to return to the client workstation a copy of any matching job postings found in the searchable job posting database.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the computer comprises multiple processors.

14. An computer readable medium including computer programming instructions that cause a computer to perform the method for creating and updating a consolidated database of job postings, the method comprising the steps of:

accepting a list of job post hosting sites having job postings therein;

for each site within the list of job post hosting sites;

creating a job bot adapted to visit said each site and extract job post information for at least one of the job postings stored at said each site and store the job post information in a searchable job posting database; and

running the job bot to visit said each site and extract the job post information into the searchable job posting database; and

periodically running the job bots to update the searchable job posting database.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising between the step of creating and the step of running, the step of:

testing the job bot against said each site to verify that the job bot correctly extracts the job post information.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the set of job post hosting site is accessible through a world-wide-web.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the set of job post hosting sites includes at least one corporate web site.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the set of job post hosting sites includes at least one government web site.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the searchable job posting database is searchable by a job seeker.

20. The method according to claim 20, wherein the job seeker accesses the searchable job posting database through the world-wide-web.

21. A computer program product for use with a computer system for creating and updating a consolidated database of job postings, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer-readable code means embodied in the medium, the computer-readable code means comprising;

a plurality of computer readable code means for extracting job posting information from a respective job post host site and updating a searchable job post database with the job postings information.

22. The computer program product for use with a computer system for creating and updating a consolidated database of job postings according to claim 21, the computer readable code means further comprising:

a computer readable code means for periodically dispatching the plurality of computer readable code means for extracting job posting information.

23. The computer program product for use with a computer system for creating and updating a consolidated database of job postings according to claim 21, the computer readable code means further comprising:

a computer readable code means for searching the searchable job post database.