SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING INTERNET CONTENT AND CORRELATING TO EVENTS

• US 20070255701A1
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Vyante, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Vyante, Inc.
• Inventors: Halla, Jason, Ranck, Benjamin
• Application Number:
  US11/380,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20070255701A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A computer system and method for allowing a user to request quantitative, qualitative, and predictive analysis of a growing information set over time is provided. The user accesses the engine over a computer network, such as the Internet, from a client computer. Examples of client computers used to access the engine include desktop/laptop personal computers, Internet-enabled cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and others which may be apparent to one of skill in the art. The user submits a text based search query corresponding to information the user is interested in along with a date range over which information should be collected and tracked. The engine then receives the request from the user and begins periodically counting and analyzing identified resources (e.g. web pages, RSS feeds, advertisements, etc.) in the growing information set over time. The results of the search are then analyzed, formatted, and displayed to the user in a graphical form on the client computer.

Claims

25. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps comprising:

receiving a text based query from a user;

searching content in a plurality of information sources periodically during a specified timeframe in response to the query;

storing a set of search results received; and

identifying one or more periods of time in the timeframe in which a significant growth occurred in the quantity of search results identified without manual intervention.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the text based query is input by the user.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the text based query is a group of words.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the text based query is a stock symbol.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the information sources are internet search engines.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29 wherein at least one of the Internet search engines is accessed using an API.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the searching is performed at least once per hour.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the searching is performed at least once per day.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the searching is performed at least once per week.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the specified timeframe is longer than one week in duration.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the specified timeframe is longer than one year in duration.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

determining one or more events which contributed to the significant growth in the search results for the at least one period of time.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 25 having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

forecasting one or more periods of time in the future during which a significant growth in the quantity of search results is likely to occur.

38. A method for collecting and analyzing information in a growing information source over a period of time comprising:

receiving a search request from a user;

searching for resources within the information source periodically during a timeframe in response to the search request using a set of search tools;

storing a count of the number of resources identified during each search;

assigning a qualitative score to at least one resource as a function of its content without manual intervention; and

identifying one or more time periods in the timeframe during which a substantial change occurred in the number of resources identified.

1. A computer system having one or more central processing units, one or more memories, and one or more network interfaces connected to one or more networks, the system further comprising:

a server process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the server process adapted to receive one or more search requests from one or more users through the one or more networks;

a location process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the location process adapted to identify a result set comprising one or more resources in response to a specific one of the one or more search requests using a set of one or more search tools, each resource having an associated time value;

an aggregation process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the aggregation process adapted to determine one or more counts, each count indicating the number of resources in the result set whose associated time value is within a specific timeframe; and

a detection process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the detection process adapted to identify, using the counts, one or more time frames for which the growth in the number of resources identified with respect to a particular search request is above a predetermined threshold.

2. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a sampling process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the sampling process adapted to assign a qualitative value to at least one of the one or more resources based upon its content.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the aggregation process further determines one or more counts, each count indicating the number of resources in the result set whose associated time value is within a specific time frame and whose qualitative value is within a specific qualitative range.

4. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a cause determination process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the cause determination process adapted to identify one or more events, using the resources, which are potentially responsible for one or more of the periods of time in which the growth in the number of resources identified is above a predetermined threshold.

5. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a forecasting process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the forecasting process adapted to predict a future characteristic of the search request.

6. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the system further comprises a topic identification process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the topic identification process adapted to suggest one or more alternate topics which the user may be interested in based upon the content contained in the resources identified.

7. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a display process, executable by one or more of the central processing units, the display process adapted to present the counts to the user in a graphical format.

8. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the one or more networks includes the Internet.

9. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the search tools include at least two search engines.

10. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the search tools include a meta-search engine.

11. The computer system of claim 9 wherein the system connects to the search tools using an application program interface.

12. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the one or more resources are web pages.

13. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the one or more resources includes blogs.

14. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the one or more resources includes wikis.

15. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the one or more resources includes consumer review forums.

16. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of counts includes at least 10 counts.

17. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of counts includes at least 100 counts.

18. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the qualitative value lies within a range corresponding to positive, negative, or neutral.

19. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the one or more search requests includes a text based query.

20. The computer system of claim 19 wherein the one or more search requests includes a user specified date range.

21. The computer system of claim 20 wherein each timeframe is a subset of the user specified date range.

22. The computer system of claim 1 wherein each timeframe is a subset of a predetermined default date range.

23. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the search query is a stock symbol.

24. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the time value is a publication date.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising:

determining one or more events which may be responsible for the significant change using the content of the resources.

40. The method of claim 38 further comprising:

forecasting one or more periods of time in the future during which a significant growth in the quantity of search results is likely to occur.

41. The method of claim 38 further comprising:

suggesting alternate topics which the user may be interested in based upon the content contained in the resources identified.

42. The method of claim 38 wherein the growing information source is the Internet.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the search tools include Internet search engines.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the Internet search engines are accessed using an API.

41-1. The method of claim 38 wherein the search request is a collection of text based terms.