SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AGGREGATING WEB FEEDS RELEVANT TO A GEOGRAPHICAL LOCALE FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES

• US 20100083124A1
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Kabbage Incorporated (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: Radius Intelligence Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Druzgalski, Adrian, Shirazi, Darian
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,274 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

Systems and methods for aggregating web feeds relevant to a geographical locale from multiple sources are disclosed. One embodiment includes, aggregating a web feed using identifier information included in source metadata, parsing the web feed according to mapping information in the source metadata to generate a normalized web feed from the web feed having a data structure specified by the mapping information, determining the geographical locale that is relevant to the web feed, performing filtering on the normalized web feed to determine whether the normalized web feed includes qualified content for publication, and/or publishing the qualified content to be accessible to the user on the user device through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being relevant to the geographical locale.

Claims

1. A method of collecting feeds relevant to a geographical locale from multiple sources to be electronically published to a user through a user device, comprising:

aggregating a web feed using identifier information included in source metadata;

parsing the web feed according to mapping information in the source metadata to generate a normalized web feed from the web feed having a data structure specified by the mapping information;

determining the geographical locale that is relevant to the web feed;

performing filtering on the normalized web feed to determine whether the normalized web feed includes qualified content for publication;

publishing the qualified content to be accessible to the user on the user device through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being relevant to the geographical locale.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

identifying an image from the normalized web feed;

wherein, the image is published on the user interface as being associated with the qualified content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, the identifying the image comprises:

identifying an image link from the normalized web feed;

applying an image filter on the image

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, data mining trending data of the qualified content and prioritizing placement of the qualified content in the user interface according to the trending data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, the trending data includes local trending data and global trending data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein, the global trending data includes trends collected by third party sites or social networking sites.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein, the trending data includes user trends.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, logging user action to determine user trends.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein, the applying the image filter comprises:

using dimensions of the images to determine presence of advertisements or icons in the images.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein, the applying the image filter comprises:

performing character recognition to detect text in the images to determine presence of advertisements in the images.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein, the performing the filtering comprises:

identifying content in the normalized web feed with obscenities or profanities;

disqualifying the content from publication.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, the performing the filtering comprises:

identifying an advertisement link in the normalized web feed;

disqualifying the advertisement link from publication.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein, the performing the filtering comprises:

identifying content in the normalized web feed having corrupt HTML code or broken links;

disqualifying the advertisement link from publication.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein, the performing the filtering comprises:

extracting timing data from the normalized web feed;

using the timing data to determine whether the web feed includes content that is temporally relevant.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein, the determining the geographical locale comprises:

parsing through the normalized web feed to detect location keywords;

identifying an address referenced in the normalized web feed using the location keywords.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein, the determining the geographical locale further comprises:

converting the address to a latitude and longitude dataset;

using the latitude and longitude dataset to determine the geographical locale.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising, using the normalized web feed to ensure that the web feed is aggregated only once.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein, the web feeds include news feeds.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein, the web feeds are temporally relevant.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein, the web feeds include one or more of, RSS feeds, Atom, JSON, and raw XML.

21. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed, causes a processor to perform a method of publishing web feeds relevant to a geographical locale collected from multiple sources, the method, comprising:

parsing a web feed according to mapping information comprised in source metadata of a feed source listing;

creating a normalized web feed from the web feed having a data structure specified by the mapping information;

publishing valid content in the normalized web feed such that the valid content accessible to the user through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being associated with the geographical locale;

determining trending data of the valid content; and

prioritizing placement of the valid content in the user interface according to the trending data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein, the valid content is identified by performing filtering on the normalized web feed.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein, the web feed is aggregated from a third party host using identifier information included in the source metadata of the feed source listing.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein, the mapping information includes a title field, a summary field, and an author field.

25. A system for publishing web feeds relevant to a geographical locale collected from multiple sources, the system, comprising:

a listing repository to store source metadata for multiple feed source listings;

multiple aggregator engines coupled to the listing repository;

wherein, the multiple aggregator engines to aggregate web feeds using identifier information included in source metadata;

wherein, each of the multiple aggregator engines aggregate web feeds from a portion of the multiple feed source listings;

a normalization module in each of the multiple aggregator engines;

wherein, the normalization module parses the aggregated web feeds to generate normalized web feeds from the web feeds, the normalized web feeds having a specified data structure;

a filter module in each of the multiple aggregator engines that filter the normalized web feeds to determine whether the normalized web feeds include qualified stories for publication;

multiple content repositories each coupled to the multiple aggregator engines;

wherein, the multiple content repositories stores the qualified stories;

a publish server coupled to the multiple content repositories;

wherein, the publish server publishes the qualified stories accessible to a user through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being relevant to the geographical locale.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein, the qualified stores include news feeds that are published in real time or near real time.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein, the source metadata includes mapping information that defines the specified data structure of the normalized web feeds.

28. The system of claim 25,

further comprising, a trending engine coupled to the publish server;

wherein, the trending engine determines trending data of the valid stories.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein, the trending engine data mines local trends and collects global trends from third party sources or social networking sites.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein, the trending engine collects user action data to determine user trends.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein, the publish server prioritizes placement of the valid content in the user interface according to the trending data.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein, each of the multiple content repositories stores the valid stories in redundancy.

33. The system of claim 29,

wherein, each of the multiple content repositories is coupled to all of the multiple aggregator engines;

wherein, each one of the multiple aggregator engines stores the valid stories in redundancy on each of the multiple content repositories.

34. A system for collecting feeds relevant to a geographical locale from multiple sources to be electronically published to a user through a user device, comprising:

means for, aggregating a web feed using identifier information included in source metadata;

means for, parsing the web feed according to mapping information in the source metadata to generate a normalized web feed from the web feed having a data structure specified by the mapping information;

means for, determining the geographical locale that is relevant to the web feed;

means for, performing filtering on the normalized web feed to determine whether the normalized web feed includes qualified content for publication;

means for, publishing the qualified content accessible to the user on the user device through a user interface on which the qualified content is depicted as being relevant to the geographical locale.

35. A method of using a device to access feeds that are relevant to a geographical locale aggregated from multiple sources through a host site, comprising:

retrieving a first set of feeds relevant to the geographical locale and displaying the first set of feeds on a user interface when a user visits the host site;

in response to the user selecting a particular feed in the first set of feeds, opening a link to the particular feed in a second user interface such that the user views content of the particular feed on a provider site of the content;

wherein, the second user interface includes a widget having a sharing feature allowing the user to share the content with other users;

retrieving trended feeds related to a detected trend in response to the user selecting the detected trend and displaying the trended feeds in the user interface;

wherein, the trended feeds are also relevant to the geographical locale;

in response to the user selecting another geographical locale through the user interface, retrieving a second set of feeds relevant to the selected geographical locale and displaying the second set of feeds in the user interface.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein, the sharing feature allows the user to share the content with other users on a third-party social networking site.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein, the user interface further includes a commenting feature allowing the user to share comments regarding the content with other users.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein, the geographical locale is associated with the user by default based on profile data of the user.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein, the first and second set of feeds are temporally relevant.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein, the trended feeds are temporally relevant.

41. A method of providing access to web feeds aggregated by a host via a third party site, comprising:

generating a widget based on a selection of characteristics with which the web feeds are to be displayed on the third party site;

the selection of the characteristics including a specification of geographical locales to which the web feeds are relevant, a specification of a format of the web feeds that are displayed;

wherein, the widget is integrated into the third party site and a user is able to browse through a third party user interface on the third party site to access the web feeds which are relevant to the specified geographical locales;

in response to the user selecting a particular feed in web feeds, opening a link to the particular feed in another user interface such that the user views content of the particular feed on a provider site of the content.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein, the widget further specifies a theme and a color for the theme with which the web feeds are displayed on the third party site.