Method for dynamically building documents based on observed internet activity

• US 20070282693A1
• Filed: 05/23/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STB Enterprises
• Original Assignee: STB Enterprises
• Inventors: Staib, William E., Blodgett, Dean Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A method of collecting data from pages viewed by a user of at least one web site, comprises receiving from at least one activity message reporter a plurality of access reports wherein an access report includes content from at least one web page of the at least one web site. Thereafter the method accumulates the received access reports, and formats content from the received access reports in accordance with a document template.

Claims

1. A method of collecting data from pages viewed by a user of at least one web site, comprising:

receiving from at least one activity message reporter a plurality of access reports wherein an access report includes content from at least one web page of the at least one web site; and

accumulating the received access reports; and

formatting content from the received access reports in accordance with a document template.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the document template is a merchant catalog template.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the document template is a customized catalog template.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the document template is a user summary template.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating metadata from the received access reports.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising adjusting the accumulated received access reports as a function of the metadata.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing an editing tool to edit the formatted received access reports.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one activity message reporter is embedded on the at least one web page.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the activity message reporter is JavaScript code.

10. A method of generating documents from at least one merchant web site, the method comprising:

receiving content data from scraping the at least one merchant web site;

accumulating the received content data;

formatting the received content data in accordance with a document template; and

making available a document from the formatted received content data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the document template is a merchant catalog template.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the document template is a customized catalog template.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the document template is a user summary template.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating metadata from the received content data.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising adjusting the accumulated received content data as a function of the metadata.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing an editing tool to edit the formatted received content data.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising sending the generated final document to a merchant associated with the at least one web site.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one web site is a target for soliciting sales of a service for providing a catalog developed from a plurality of access reports, wherein an access report includes content resulting from an actual user access of least one web page of the at least one web site.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the document is a sample catalog and further comprising including with the final document an offer to provide a catalog developed from a plurality of such access reports.

20. A method of generating marketing materials based on at least one user'"'"'s activity on a merchant web site, the method comprising:

collecting real-time product information for one or more products viewed by the at least one user on the merchant web site to infer a merchant'"'"'s product offerings;

storing the real-time product information for products viewed;

formatting the stored product information containing real-time product information for the various products of the merchant'"'"'s product offerings; and

generating marketing materials from the formatted stored product information.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

initiating an asynchronous procedure to crawl the merchant web site, wherein the crawling of the merchant web site collects additional product information for products viewed by the at least one user and wherein the additional product information is used to supplement the stored real-time product information.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising providing the merchant an editing tool to add additional products to the merchant'"'"'s product offerings inferred from the real-time product information.

23. A method of generating a customized marketing material, the method comprising:

receiving a user identifier for a user;

monitoring the user'"'"'s activity on a merchant web site;

collecting real-time product information for products viewed by the user to infer a merchant'"'"'s product offerings;

storing the real-time product information for products viewed;

formatting the stored product information for the various inferred products of the merchant'"'"'s product offerings; and

generating marketing materials from the formatted stored product information customized to the user.

24. A method of generating a user summary, the method comprising:

receiving a user identifier for a user;

monitoring the user'"'"'s activity on at least one web site;

collecting real-time content information for web pages viewed by the user;

formatting the content information; and

making the content information available for user display.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the act of collecting real-time content information for web pages viewed by the user can be turned on or off by the user.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising crawling the at least one web page for additional content information for formatting.

27. A system for dynamically building documents based on observed access to web site content by at least one user, the system comprising:

an activity message reporter embedded in the at least one web page of at least one web site, wherein the activity message reporter is adapted to report data describing the at least one user'"'"'s activity on the at least one web page; and

a central data collector adapted to collect information contained on the at least one web page viewed by the at least one user from the activity message reporter embedded on the at least one web page without accessing the web site'"'"'s database wherein said activity message reporter comprises a trigger for generating a message for transmittal.

28. A method of collecting data from pages viewed by a user of at least one Internet site, comprising:

receiving from at least one activity message reporter an activity report with one or more content pointers that includes information about how to obtain to content from at least one web page or hosted server of the at least one Internet site;

accumulating the received content pointers; and

asynchronously connecting to the Internet site to retrieve the content pointed to by the content pointer.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising controlling use of a plurality of content pointers to a specific piece of content with logic that initiates only one request to the web site or internet service containing the content to retrieve the content, even if similar or identical content pointers have been received in a given period of time.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the step of receiving content pointers comprises receiving in an activity report at least one content pointer message encrypted to deter the user from decrypting the content pointer to access the corresponding content.

31. The method of claim 28 further comprising receiving from the web site or Internet service parameters to specify when a central data collector service is permitted to or not permitted to query for content identified by one or more content pointers.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the step of receiving from the web site or Internet service parameters to specify when a central data collector service is permitted to or not permitted to query for content comprises receiving the parameters in an activity report.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the step of receiving from the web site or internet service parameters to specify when the central data collector service is permitted to or not permitted to query for content comprises receiving the parameters for at crawler controller for controlling the asynchronous connection to the Internet service to retrieve the content.

34. The method of claim 31 further comprising receiving from the web site or Internet service parameters to specify one or more time intervals when the central data collector is or is not permitted to access one or more pieces of content identified by the one or more content pointers.

35. The method of claim 28 further comprising controlling a crawler to reduce the processing or bandwidth required to retrieve content by inhibiting programmed accessing of content for which no content pointer has been received in a given time interval.

36. The method of claim 28 further comprising receiving from the web site or internet service parameters to specify at least one threshold to define the number of requests for given content required in a given period before the content retrieval is initiated.

37. The method of claim 28 further comprising determining the time distribution of receipt of activity reports from a web site or internet service, and responsive to the time distribution, scheduling asynchronous access to retrieve content referenced by content pointers to that web site or Internet service during low usage periods of the web site or Internet service.

38. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium, have computer readable program code for collecting data from pages viewed by a user of at least one Internet site, comprising:

code for receiving from at least one activity message reporter an activity report with one or more content pointers that includes information about how to obtain to content from at least one web page or hosted server of the at least one Internet site;

code for accumulating the received content pointers; and

code for asynchronously connecting to the Internet service to retrieve the content pointed to by the content pointer.

39. The computer program product of claim 38 further comprising code for controlling use of a plurality of content pointers to a specific piece of content with logic that initiates only one request to the web site or internet service containing the content to retrieve the content, even if similar or identical content pointers have been received in a given period of time.

40. The computer program product of claim 38 wherein the code for receiving content pointers comprises code for receiving in an activity report at least one content pointer message encrypted to deter the user from decrypting the content pointer to access the corresponding content.

41. The computer program product of claim 38 further comprising code for receiving from the web site or Internet service parameters to specify when a central data collector service is permitted to or not permitted to query for content identified by one or more content pointers.

42. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the code for receiving from the web site or Internet service parameters to specify when a central data collector service is permitted to or not permitted to query for content comprises code for receiving the parameters in an activity report.

43. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium, have computer readable program code, comprising:

code for collecting data from pages viewed by a user of at least one web site

code for receiving from at least one activity message reporter a plurality of access reports wherein an access report includes content from at least one web page of the at least one web site; and

code for accumulating the received access reports; and

code for formatting content from the received access reports in accordance with a document template.

44. The computer program product of claim 43 wherein the document template is a merchant catalog template.

45. The computer program product of claim 43 wherein the document template is a customized catalog template.

46. The computer program product of claim 43 wherein the document template is a user summary template.

47. The computer program product of claim 43 further comprising code for generating metadata from the received access reports.