Collaborative internet data mining system

• US 6,081,788 A
• Filed: 11/04/1998
• Issued: 06/27/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: About Incorporated (IAC, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: About.com, Inc. (IAC, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maier, Elizabeth A., Anderson, Jim, Day, William, Appleman, Kenneth H., Kurnit, Scott Philip, Germaise, Scott C., Taller, Olga
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Retta, Yehdega
• Application Number:
  US09/185,552
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 705/30, 705/26, 705/40, 705/39, 705/104, 705/501, 705/1, 705/14, 705/27, 395/200.58, 709/228, 709/218, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/14.46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A collaborative Internet data mining system for facilitating a group effort from a plurality of guides to the Internet, by automatically processing the information provided by the guides and thereby create a branded or uniform look and feel to the web sites supported by the plurality of guides.

Claims

1. An electronic method of remunerating internet guides in a collaborative internet guide system comprising:

measuring the number of times a particular web page is viewed by an internet network participant on a collaborative internet guide system;

attributing a particular web page viewing by said internet network participant to a particular web guide; and

distributing advertising revenue generated by advertisements on said collaborative internet guide system on a predetermined basis to said particular web guide wherein a factor in said predetermined basis for distribution is the number of times a web page is viewed determined in said step of measuring.

2. The method of remunerating internet guides in claim 1 further comprising:

qualitatively evaluating web pages constructed by a plurality of internet guides on said collaborative internet guide system; and

distributing advertising revenue generated by advertisements on said collaborative internet guide system on a predetermined basis to said plurality of web guides wherein a factor in said predetermined basis for distribution is said qualitative evaluation performed in said step of qualitatively evaluating web pages.

3. The method of remunerating internet guides of claim 1 further comprising:

qualitatively evaluating web pages constructed by a plurality of internet guides on said collaborative guide system in which one qualitative evaluation criteria is the date said web page was updated with new information; and

allocating advertising revenue generated by advertisements on said collaborative internet guide system on a predetermined basis to said plurality of web guides wherein a factor in said predetermined basis is said qualitative evaluation performed in said step of qualitatively evaluating web pages.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating a report of said predetermined qualitative criteria for each of said web guides on said collaborative internet guide system; and

distributing said report to said web guides on said collaborative internet guide system.

5. The method of claim 4 in which said report further comprises:

action items for said web guide on said collaborative internet guide system to improve the web pages authored by said web guide.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

re-evaluating said web pages authored by said web guide on said collaborative internet guide system; and

adjusting guide remuneration based on said reevaluation.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

granting access to said report of qualitative evaluation of web pages authored by said web guide to a predetermined and selected peer group; and

receiving input from said predetermined and selected peer group in evaluation of said web pages authored by said web guide.

8. An apparatus for the allocation of advertising revenue in a collaborative internet guide system comprising:

a database of web pages, said database of web pages containing web pages at least partially authored by a plurality of internet guides;

a web page monitoring system operationally connected to said database of web pages, said web page monitoring system tracking and counting the number of times over a predetermined time period that each particular web page is generated from said database of web pages; and

a computer operationally connected to said web page monitoring system, said computer executing a program to calculate the allocation of advertising revenue generated by advertisements on said collaborative internet guide system, said allocation of advertising revenue being based at least in part on said number of times over a predetermined period that each particular web page is generated from said web page monitoring system.

9. The apparatus for the allocation of advertising revenue of claim 8 further comprising:

a qualitative web page evaluation component, said qualitative web page evaluation component automatically checking for dead hyper-text links on said database of web pages and attributing a dead hyper text link to a particular web page in said database of web pages.

10. The apparatus for the allocation of advertising revenue of claim 8 further comprising:

a qualitative web page evaluation component, said qualitative web page evaluation component provides subjective evaluation criteria to subjectively evaluate the quality of said plurality of web pages.

11. The apparatus for the allocation of advertising revenue of claim 8 further comprising:

a qualitative web page evaluation component, wherein one factor in said qualitative evaluation is the last date at which said plurality of web pages were updated.

12. The apparatus for the allocation of advertising revenue of claim 8 further comprising:

a qualitative web page evaluation component, said qualitative web page evaluation component generating a report of said qualitative evaluation and providing said report to each associated plurality of internet guides.

13. A system for allocating financial compensation to a plurality of internet guides or a collaborative internet guide system comprising:

a storage device;

a computer program located on said storage device; and

a computer connected to said storage device and executing said computer program providing means for determining the number of times a web page is generated over a predetermined period of time, means for attributing the generation of said web page to a particular internet guide, and means for allocating financial compensation to said internet guides based at least in part on said determined number of times said web page is generated over a predetermined period.

14. The system of claim 13 in which said computer further provides:

means for attributing a qualitative evaluation of web pages generated at said collaborative internet guide system; and

means for attributing said qualitative evaluation to each said internet guide.

15. The system of claim 13 in which said computer further provides:

means for generating a report to each said internet guides wherein said report contains qualitative items suggesting corrective action to said internet guide.

16. The system of claim 14 in which said computer further provides:

means for allocating financial compensation to said internet guides based at least in part on said qualitative evaluation.