AUTOMATED RATINGS OF NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
First Claim
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1. A system for automating comparisons and ratings of new product models and services that is timely, efficient, objective and consistent the system comprising:
- a) a web crawler;
b) a database communicatively coupled to the web crawler,where the database comprises rules, stored in the database, that are operable to locate web pages from the web site of a product manufacturer or a service provider that comprises information on models offered;
c) an expert system communicatively coupled to the web crawler and the database,where the expert system extracts model information from a plurality of web page content provided by the web crawler that is compared and rated against comparable competing models gathered from one or more web sites and stores the extracted model information, comparisons, and ratings in the database;
d) a web server-based application communicatively coupled to the database,where the web server-based application transforms the comparisons and ratings stored in the database into reports; and
e) an internet-connected device communicatively coupled to the web server-based application for displaying the extracted information, comparisons, and ratings reports.
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Abstract
A system for automating comparisons and ratings of new product models and services that is timely, efficient, objective and consistent where an expert system extracts model information from a plurality of web page and compares and rates each model against comparable competing models gathered from one or more web sites and stored in a database to be displayed when requested by a user.
31 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A system for automating comparisons and ratings of new product models and services that is timely, efficient, objective and consistent the system comprising:
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a) a web crawler; b) a database communicatively coupled to the web crawler, where the database comprises rules, stored in the database, that are operable to locate web pages from the web site of a product manufacturer or a service provider that comprises information on models offered; c) an expert system communicatively coupled to the web crawler and the database, where the expert system extracts model information from a plurality of web page content provided by the web crawler that is compared and rated against comparable competing models gathered from one or more web sites and stores the extracted model information, comparisons, and ratings in the database; d) a web server-based application communicatively coupled to the database, where the web server-based application transforms the comparisons and ratings stored in the database into reports; and e) an internet-connected device communicatively coupled to the web server-based application for displaying the extracted information, comparisons, and ratings reports. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 42)
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23. A method for automating comparisons and ratings of new product models and services that is timely, efficient, objective and consistent, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) transmitting instructions from a rater component of the expert system to a price band generator component; b) separating each model price into a price band for each category of a product or service, where the price band comprises one or more high price bands and one or more low price bands; c) storing the price bands in a database; and d) estimating the relative importance of product and service features by multiplying an identified primary benefit of a feature times an assigned satisfaction level of a benefit based on a measurable satisfaction level criteria to yield a feature'"'"'s importance. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41)
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37. A method of estimating the relative importance of product and service features by multiplying an identified primary benefit of a feature times an assigned satisfaction level of a benefit based on a measurable satisfaction level criteria to yield a feature'"'"'s importance weight.
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38. A method for automating comparisons and ratings of new product models and services that is timely, efficient, objective and consistent, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) use of regular expression rules to extract brand name, model numbers, model price feature values of models from web pages and product databases and store the extracted information in a database; b) dividing a range of model prices arranged from highest to lowest into price bands for each model category; c) assigning a model into at least one price band; d) grading each model feature in the at least one price band on a curve, e) storing the grade in a database; f) multiplying the weight for each model feature with a corresponding assigned benefit multiplied by a weight corresponding to an assigned satisfaction level producing a model feature'"'"'s importance weight; g) storing the importance weight in the database; h) multiplying each model feature of each model in a price band by a numeric weight corresponding to provide a feature grade and multiplying by a calculated importance weight of the feature providing a weighted feature score; i) storing the weighted model feature score in the database; j) summing the weighted model feature scores for each model in a price band providing a raw cumulative model score; k) storing the raw cumulative model score in the database; l) calculating an overall grade for each model in a price band by grading the raw cumulative model score on a curve, where the curve is based on the amount and direction of deviation from the mean that compares the model to one or more models in the same price band; m) storing the overall grade in the database; n) estimating the relative importance of product and service features by multiplying an identified primary benefit of a feature times an assigned satisfaction level of a benefit based on a measurable satisfaction level criteria to yield a feature'"'"'s importance weight; o) requesting a model comparison report; p) transforming the model comparisons and ratings stored in the database into a model comparison and rating report using a program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a web server-based application; q) transmitting the model comparison and ratings report to a user; and r) displaying the transmitted report to the user.
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Specification