System and method for listing data acquisition

• US 8,135,704 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2006
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hyder, Adam, Ting, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Kuen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rayyan, Susan F
• Application Number:
  US11/372,497
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,194 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 3, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707101-102, 707/999.001, 707/999.003, 707/999.107, 707/999.101, 707/999.102, 707/705, 707/758, 707/706, 707/709, 707/710, 707/769, 707/944, 707/946, 707/947, 707/722, 707/736, 707/755, 707/756, 707/811, 705/11
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/947 Human resources

Abstract

A method and system of data acquisition by a listing service provider is disclosed. A network address is received from a client computer that is operated by a lister. The network address can be indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network. The listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister. The network address received from the lister is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data. The lister makes available the listing data for retrieval so that the listing data can be posted in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider. The listing data is retrieved from the network address using the computer network connection by copying the listing data onto a listing data database.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device operated by a listing service provider, a network address input by a lister into a web form field displayed by a client computer, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in a standardized information resource definition language unique to the listing service provider, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of extensible markup language, and wherein the listing service provider publishes listing data received from a plurality of listers;

accessing, by the computing device operated by the listing service provider, the network address received from the client computer, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data;

storing, by the computing device operated by the listing service provider, the listing data in a listing data database; and

posting, by the computing device operated by the listing service provider, the listing data in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising categorizing the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and storing the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising posting the listing data on an Internet website.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator in an Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.

15. A system, comprising:

a server computer operated by a listing service provider;

an address receiving module implemented by said server, that receives a network address input by a lister into a web form field provided by the address receiving module, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in a standardized information resource definition language unique to the listing service provider, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of extensible markup language, and wherein the listing service provider publishes listing data received from a plurality of listers;

a web crawling module implemented by said server, that accesses the network address received from the lister, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data, the web crawling module configured to store the listing data in a listing data database; and

a search bank hosted by the listing service provider for posting the listing data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a listing manager that analyzes the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising a listing manager that categorizes the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and stores the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising a listing manager that transfers selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising an Internet website wherein the listing data is posted.

22. The system of claim 15, further comprising an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator at Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.

29. A computer readable storage medium tangibly encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for data acquisition, the computer process comprising:

receiving a network address input by a lister into a web form field displayed by a client computer, wherein the network address is indicative of a location of listing data on a computer network, wherein the listing data comprises at least one information item provided by the lister, wherein the listing data is in a standardized information resource definition language unique to a listing service provider, wherein the information resource definition language is an extension of extensible markup language, and wherein the listing service provider publishes listing data received from a plurality of listers;

accessing the network address received from the client computer, wherein the network address is accessed by opening a computer network connection to retrieve the listing data;

storing the listing data in a listing data database; and

posting the listing data in a search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the listing data comprises job listings.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the listing data comprises real estate listings.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, further comprising analyzing the listing data at the listing data database for conformance to predetermined quality criteria.

33. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, further comprising categorizing the listing data stored in the listing data database into one or more predetermined categories and storing the categorized listing data in the search bank hosted by the listing service provider.

34. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, further comprising transferring selected categorized job information data from the search bank through a job search client server to a job searcher in response to a query by the job searcher.

35. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, further comprising posting the listing data on an Internet website.

36. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, further comprising providing an Internet website wherein a lister can administrate the listing data provided to the listing service provider.

37. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a job element.

38. The computer readable storage medium of claim 37, wherein the job element comprises an employer company attribute and a job title attribute.

39. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the information resource definition language comprises a real estate element.

40. The computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the real estate element comprises a location attribute and a price attribute.

41. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator.

42. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the network address is provided by any one of entering a uniform resource locator at Internet web form hosted by the listing service provider, or transmitting the uniform resource locator as part of a hypertext source code tag.