Systems and Methods to Facilitate Search of Business Entities

• US 20100036806A1
• Filed: 08/05/2008
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: LAM, Man Tat, LIESKE, Jay H. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 9,177,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0283 for data storage and retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate search of listings of businesses according to opening date or age of the businesses at their current business locations. For example, a user may submit a search request for listings of new businesses (e.g., the businesses having the “Grand Opening” status) at a location specified by the user.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a data processing system, the method comprising:

storing listings of a plurality of businesses, including data indicative of ages of the businesses;

providing an interface to a search engine to receive a search request over a communication network;

responsive to the search request, the search engine identifying a subset of the listings based at least in part on the data indicative of the ages of the businesses; and

providing listings of the identified subset through the interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises an application programming interface (API) to allow a third party application to submit the search request and to retrieve the listings of the identified subset.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a web interface to receive the search request from a web browser and to present the listings of the identified subset via the web browser.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the web interface includes an input field to receive a search term and a user interface element selectable to submit the search request with the search term;

and wherein the user interface element is pre-associated with a criterion based on the data indicative of the ages of the businesses.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the criterion requires listings of the identified subset be established within a predetermined time period from the search request.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the search term further includes a location of interest specified in the web interface;

and the listings of the identified subset are selected from an geographic area identified based on the location of interest.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the listings include locations;

and the data indicative of the ages of the businesses comprises data indicating opening dates of the businesses at the locations respectively.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the listings include locations;

and the data indicative of the ages of the businesses indicates whether the businesses had grand openings at the locations respectively within a predetermined time period from the search request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the listings of the businesses comprise listings of products or services.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the listings of the businesses comprise telephonic contacts of the businesses.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the listings of the businesses further comprise addresses of the businesses.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the identified subset is a listing of an advertiser;

and the listing of the advertiser includes a banner or video advertisement.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the identified subset based at least in part on the data indicative of the ages of the businesses.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request includes an indication of an age threshold;

and businesses of the identified subset are younger than the age threshold.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the search request includes an indication of an age threshold specified by an end user;

and businesses of the identified subset are older than the age threshold.

16. A machine readable media storing instructions, the instructions causing a data processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing listings of a plurality of businesses, including data indicative of ages of the businesses;

providing an interface to a search engine to receive a search request over a communication network;

responsive to the search request, the search engine identifying a subset of the listings; and

providing listings of the identified subset through the interface in an order sorted based at least in part on the data indicative of the ages of the businesses.

17. The machine readable media of claim 16, wherein the identified subset is within a geographic area identified based on the search request;

and the method further comprises;

increasing a priority of a first listing in the identified subset in response to a determination that a business of the first listing opened at a location within the geographic area within a predetermined period of time from the search request.

18. The machine readable media of claim 16, wherein the first listing is not a listing of an advertiser of the search engine.

19. The machine readable media of claim 16, wherein the identified subset is selected according to a location identified in the search request and based on a determination that businesses of the identified subset have grand openings near the location within a predetermined number of months or days.

20. A data processing system, comprising:

means for storing listings of a plurality of businesses, including data indicative of ages of the businesses;

means for providing an interface to receive a search request over a communication network;

a search engine to identify a subset of the listings based at least in part on the data indicative of ages of the businesses according to the search request; and

means for providing listings of the identified subset through the interface.