Content enhancement in an electronic marketplace
First Claim
1. An electronic commerce system, comprising a content enhancement module operable to:
- analyze product data stored in one or more seller databases using a set of rules, the one or more seller databases associated with one or more sellers, the set of rules comprising generic rules applying to substantially all of the one or more seller databases that store product data, the generic rules comprising;
a first rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data;
a second rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data; and
a third rule indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; and
identify one or more potential errors in the product data according to the set of rules.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic commerce system (10) includes a content enhancement module (47) that analyzes the product data stored in a seller database (32) using one or more rules and that identifies one or more potential errors in the product data according to the rules. The rules include one or more generic rules that apply to substantially all seller databases (32) including product data. These generic rules include one or more of the following rules: a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the seller database (32) have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data, a rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the seller database (32) have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data, and rules indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An electronic commerce system, comprising a content enhancement module operable to:
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analyze product data stored in one or more seller databases using a set of rules, the one or more seller databases associated with one or more sellers, the set of rules comprising generic rules applying to substantially all of the one or more seller databases that store product data, the generic rules comprising; a first rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data; a second rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data; and a third rule indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; and identify one or more potential errors in the product data according to the set of rules. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for content enhancement, comprising:
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means for providing a plurality of users access to an electronic commerce system, the electronic commerce system comprising; a global content directory including a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more seller databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class; and a search interface operable to communicate a search query for product data to the one or more seller databases identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user of the global content directory; means for analyzing the product data stored in the one or more seller databases using a set of rules, the set of rules comprising generic rules applying to substantially all of the one or more seller databases that store product data, the generic rules comprising; a first rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data; a second rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data; and a third rule indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; and means for identifying one or more potential errors in the product data according to the set of rules.
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13. An electronic commerce system, comprising:
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a global content directory including a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products and associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more seller databases that include product data for one or more products in the class, the product data including values for one or more attributes of the products in the class; a search interface operable to communicate a search query for product data to the one or more seller databases identified by a pointer associated with a product class selected by a user of the global content directory; and a content enhancement module operable to; in response to the one or more sellers requesting that product data in a particular seller database be associated with one or more classes of the global content directory, communicate one or more search queries to the one or more seller databases, the search queries formulated according to rules associated with the particular classes with which the product data in the one or more seller databases is to be associated, the rules comprising; a first rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have identical product identifiers but have otherwise different product data; a second rule indicating that a potential error exists if two products in the one or more seller databases have different product identifiers but have otherwise identical product data; and a third rule indicating that a potential error exists if the values associated with particular generic product attributes have a non-numerical format; identify one or more potential errors in the product data by determining the product data that is included in the results of one or more of the search queries; and communicate the potential errors to the one or more sellers associated with the one or more seller databases.
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Specification