Video and digital multimedia aggregator remote content crawler
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a remote content crawler processor that controls the apparatus;
a network resource processor that acquires data related to resources coupled to one or more communications networks;
a crawling criteria processor that acquires crawling criteria, said crawling criteria comprising a plurality of conditions, said plurality of conditions comprising content subject matter, content type, and a delivery method, said acquiring of crawling criteria comprising analyzing hypertext associated with desired hyperlinks and analyzing text proximate to the desired hyperlinks;
a crawler content provider processor that receives, processes and stores content provider listings; and
a network crawler comprising at least one server, wherein the network crawler crawls content providers to acquire data related to available content in accordance with the crawling criteria,wherein said remote content crawler processor determines that the acquired data related to the resources coupled to one or more communications networks meets said plurality of conditions of said crawling criteria.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A remote content crawler continually crawls a digital communication network looking for content to provide to a content aggregator. The content provided to the aggregator may be stored in a form of an entire content file. The content may include an entire movie, television program or electronic book. Alternatively, the content provided to the aggregator may be a reference to a content file that is stored at, or that will be available at one of the remote locations. The content may be a reference to a future, scheduled live sports event that will be made available to system users. The sports event may be provided for a one time fee, as part of a sports package, for which a fee is collected, or as a free event.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising:
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a remote content crawler processor that controls the apparatus; a network resource processor that acquires data related to resources coupled to one or more communications networks; a crawling criteria processor that acquires crawling criteria, said crawling criteria comprising a plurality of conditions, said plurality of conditions comprising content subject matter, content type, and a delivery method, said acquiring of crawling criteria comprising analyzing hypertext associated with desired hyperlinks and analyzing text proximate to the desired hyperlinks; a crawler content provider processor that receives, processes and stores content provider listings; and a network crawler comprising at least one server, wherein the network crawler crawls content providers to acquire data related to available content in accordance with the crawling criteria, wherein said remote content crawler processor determines that the acquired data related to the resources coupled to one or more communications networks meets said plurality of conditions of said crawling criteria. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method comprising:
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acquiring network resource data, wherein the network resource data comprises address data for content servers; acquiring crawling criteria, wherein the crawling criteria comprises a plurality of conditions and are used during a crawling operation to search for content, said plurality of conditions comprising content subject matter, content type, and a delivery method; crawling network resources via at least one processor in accordance with the crawling criteria; determining if a content provider data meets said plurality of conditions of said crawling criteria; providing said content provider data to a user terminal; and receiving content provider rankings from users of a network, wherein acquiring the crawling criteria comprises automatically acquiring the crawling criteria, and wherein automatically acquiring the crawling criteria, comprises; analyzing and importing metadata schemes for standardized and proprietary content formats; parsing metadata field names and descriptive terms; analyzing hypertext associated with desired hyperlinks; and analyzing text proximate to the desired hyperlinks, wherein analyzing hypertext identifies terms that relate to a data type or content category. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method comprising:
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acquiring network resource data, wherein the network resource data comprises address data for content servers; acquiring crawling criteria, wherein the crawling criteria comprises a plurality of conditions and are used during a crawling operation to search for content, said plurality of conditions comprising content subject matter, content type, and a delivery method; crawling network resources via at least one processor in accordance with the crawling criteria; determining if a content provider data meets said plurality of conditions of said crawling criteria; providing said content provider data to a user terminal; receiving content provider rankings from users of a network; and updating the address data, wherein updating the address data, comprises; receiving hyperlinked domain names for the network resources; downloading domain name records from public and private domain name registration sources; synchronizing local Domain Name Service (DNS) databases with one or more DNS databases over one or more communications networks; performing reverse domain name resolution, comprising locating URLs associated with allowable IP address numbers; verifying DNS aliases and duplicate URLs against IP addresses; and eliminating any duplicate URLs identified by the verifying step.
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Specification