Automated system and method for creating a content-rich site based on an emerging subject of internet search

• US 8,271,474 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Hubert M., Morrison, Noel C., Lara, Ankarino S., Bedard, Scott, Caplis, Timothy, Egan, Conor John
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THU NGUYET T
• Application Number:
  US12/165,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,541 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707708-710
• US Class Current: 707/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide automatic systems and methods for creating a web site based on an emerging subject, which is also a search keyword, by analyzing search activities (or data) of Internet users of a popular Internet search engine. Analysis of search activity data of the Internet search engine can also provide search keywords that are most related to the emerging subject, and Internet sites with content relevant to the emerging subject. To create such a web site that is of interests to Internet users, the emerging subject and related search keywords mentioned above can be searched on Internet sites identified to have content relevant to the emerging subject. The search results are used to populate databases for this web site. After the web site is created and launched, users of the site can contribute to the content of the site. In addition, active users of the web site can engage in basic administration of the site, which reduces the need of intervention by paid administrators. Thus, by obtaining content from Internet sites, coupled with contributions made by users, it is possible to automatically create and maintain new custom created sites with minimal intervention by paid administrators.

Claims

1. A method for automatically creating a web site based on an emerging subject of Internet search, comprising:

analyzing search data of an Internet search engine to identify the emerging subject in Internet search to create the web site based on the emerging subject, the emerging subject identified when a number of searches having terms related to the emerging subject passes a threshold over a period of time;

analyzing the search data of the Internet search engine to identify search keywords that are most relevant to the emerging subject and to identify Internet sites that have content most relevant to the emerging subject;

initiating a search for content for the web site via a search engine based on the identified search keywords on the identified Internet sites; and

automatically creating the web site based on the emerging subject, wherein at least a portion of the content of the web site is obtained from search results of the search initiated, wherein the web site is made accessible to users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein passing the threshold over the period of time further includes detecting rate of increase in the number of searches having terms related to the emerging subject.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving additional content for the web site contributed by the users of the web site, wherein the additional content is entered or uploaded by the users of the web site, and wherein the additional content entered or uploaded by the users maintain the content of the web site current.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the web site includes one or more of photos, music, videos, user comments, discussion boards or blogs.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying updated search keywords that are most relevant to the emerging subject and updated Internet sites to search for content after the web site is automatically created.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified search keywords and the identified Internet sites are continuously updated.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the web site that is more popular with the users of the web site is displayed in a more prominent location of the web site.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one user of the web site administers a portion of the content of the web site.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the web site is automatically run with minimal assistance of external administrators due to content of the web site being from the search results, being entered or uploaded by the users of the web site, and being administered by the least one user of the web site.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein non-text-based content of the web site are tagged to enable searching within the web site.

11. The method of claim 10, where the tags of the non-text-based content of the web site from the search results are inherited from sources of the non-text-based content.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each piece of non-text-based content of the web site that is obtained from the search results has a unique identification made of an identification given by the source of the piece of the non-text-based content and an identification describing the source of the piece of the non-text-based content.

13. A method for automatically creating a web site based on an emerging subject of Internet search, comprising:

analyzing search data of an Internet search engine to identify the emerging subject in Internet search to create the web site based on the emerging subject, the emerging subject identified when a number of searches having terms related to the emerging subject passes a threshold over a period of time;

analyzing the search data of the Internet search engine to identify search keywords that are most relevant to the emerging subject and to identify Internet sites that have content most relevant to the emerging subject;

initiating a search for content for the web site via a search engine based on the identified search keywords on the identified Internet sites; and

automatically creating the web site based on the emerging subject, wherein at least a portion of the content of the web site is obtained from search results of the search initiated, wherein non-text-based content of the web site can be tagged by users of the web site to assist searching of the non-text-based content.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving additional content for the web site contributed by the users of the web site, wherein the additional content is entered or uploaded by the users of the web site, and wherein the additional content entered or uploaded by the users maintain the content of the web site current.

15. A system for automatically creating a web site based on an emerging subject of Internet search, comprising:

a multimedia storage for saving media files related to the subject of the web site;

a member storage for saving information related to members of the web site;

a search engine configured to search a plurality of web sites for content related to a plurality of search keywords related to the subject of the web site, and wherein search results of the search engine populate the photo storage, and the video storage to automatically create the web site; and

a content server configured to prepare web pages of the web site in responses to requests from users of the web site, wherein the photo storage, the video storage, and the member storage provide content for the web site, and wherein the system is connected to an Internet search engine that identifies the emerging subject of Internet search, the emerging subject is defined when a number of searches exceed a threshold for terms that relate to the emerging subject over a period of time.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is configured to allow the users of the web site to contribute additional content to the web site.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the engine of the web site indexes the content of the web site to allow the content of the web site to be searchable, and wherein the photo files and the video files of the web site are tagged to enable searching.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is coupled to a user profile server to identify users of the web site, and is coupled to an advertisement server to include advertisements of the advertisement server in the web pages of the web site.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

an event calendar storage for saving information of events related to the emerging subject.