System and method for collecting, associating, normalizing and presenting product and vendor information on a distributed network

• US 8,402,068 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2000
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Halfcom Incorporated (eBay Inc.)
• Inventors: Clendinning, Kerry, McCartney, Michael D., Mengerink, Matthew W., Robinette, Fred G., Wilson, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US09/730,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20020107861A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,485 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/8, 707/9, 707/104.1, 707/796, 707/748, 707/752, 707/791, 707/795, 707/802, 707/810, 705/26
• US Class Current: 707/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for collecting and displaying information on a product at a website, and related method for storing a product'"'"'s various identifiers, where the system comprises a database that stores a plurality of identifiers for each product and the relationships between the identifiers. The system recognizes the different identifiers that refer to the same product. The system accepts product information from a variety of sources, regardless of the product identifier used by the sources. The system then sends out the product information to users and to other servers. The information displayed at the website includes: (1) a general description of the product; (2) a numerical user rating of the product; (3) one or more user reviews of the product; (4) one or more industry reviews of the product; (5) one or more comparisons between the product and other similar items; (6) a list of one or more vendors that sell the product; (7) a list price of the product; (8) a price for the product at each of the vendors; (9) an indication of the availability of the product at each of the one or more vendors; (10) a profile on each of the one or more vendors, and (11) a rating and/or review for each of the one or more vendors. The website may further provide access to discussions regarding the product and related products. The website may further suggest complementary products that may be purchased along with the product of interest.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving, normalizing and storing product information and, said system comprising:

for a data collector to retrieve product information, over a distributed network, from at least one external source and automatically to associate said retrieved product information for an identified product with prestored product information for the identified product, said data collector creating markup language for the identified product, said markup language including a first attribute-value pair that includes a first attribute and a first value;

a normalization engine to normalize said markup language for the identified product, the normalization engine to translate the first attribute to a second attribute responsive to an identification of the first attribute in a list that includes a plurality of attributes that are associated with the identified product and the second attribute, the second attribute being a canonical representation of the plurality of attributes respectively; and

a database to store the normalized second attribute for the identified product with the prestored product information for the identified product,

the data collector to store the second attribute for the identified product with the prestored product information for the identified product in the database.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is to store identifiers for products selected from a group of identifiers for products consisting of a model number, a part number, and a tock Keeping number.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is to store information about features of the product.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is utilized to assign a universal stock keeping number to each product.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said database is contained in a sever connected to the distributed network and wherein the at least one external source is a server.

19. The system of claim 5, wherein the database is a relational database and the relationships between the identifiers for the products are stored as a tuple.

20. The system of claim 8, wherein the distributed network is the Internet and wherein the markup language is the Extensible Markup Language.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the database is controlled by Structured Query Language.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the at least one external source includes a third party server connected to the system through the Internet.

2. A method of gathering, normalizing and storing product information in a database, the method comprising:

gathering product information from diverse external sources that are accessed over a distributed network;

storing the gathered product information into the database;

creating markup language for a first product from said gathered product information for a first product, said markup language including a first attribute value pair that includes a first attribute and a first value;

identifying the first product is already present in said database; and

normalizing the markup language for the first product by translating the first attribute to a second attribute responsive to identify the first attribute on a list that includes a plurality of attributes that are associated with the first product and the second attribute, the second attribute being a canonical representation of the plurality of attributes respectively.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting the product information to a third-party server, wherein the transmitted product information contains a product identifier used by the third-party server.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

assigning unique integer identifiers to each character string contained in said product information;

associating each unique integer identifier with a corresponding string in a look-up table; and

creating a file containing product identification information and product attribute information in the form of a listing of said unique integer identifiers,

the assigning, the associating, and the creating to enable a traversal across said file with client queries to said database, a retrieval of relevant integer identifiers, and the acquisition of corresponding character strings from said look-up table for presentation to a client.

11. The method of claim 2, further including storing the second attribute for the first product in the database.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein said database is coupled to a server connected to the distributed network, wherein the distributed network is the Internet.

13. The method of claim 2, further comprising translating the first value to a second value responsive to identifying the first value in a list that includes a plurality of values that are associated with the first attribute and the second value, the second value being a canonical representation of the plurality of values respectively.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the markup, language for the identified product includes a first domain associated with the attribute-value pair, and further comprising normalizing the markup language for the product by translating the first domain m a second domain responsive to identifying the first domain in a list that includes a plurality of domains that are associated with the first product and the second domain, the second domain being a canonical representation of the plurality of domains respectively.

3. A method for providing to a user interactive location information the method comprising:

gathering information for a product and the a service, including at least two of the following types of information from a plurality of servers that are accessed over a distributed network;

creating markup language for the product from said gathered information, said markup language including, a first attribute-value pair that includes a first attribute and a first value;

normalizing the markup language first the product by translating the first attribute to a second attribute responsive to identifying the first attribute in a list that includes a plurality of attributes that are associated with the product and the second attribute the second attribute being a canonical representation of the plurality of attributes respectively;

storing the gathered information and the normalized markup language according to a product identification for the product; and

outputting to said user in a format that enables access by said user to the gathered and the stored information related the product.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

displaying a list identifying first plurality of products;

receiving a product input selecting a second plurality of products from the first plurality of products; and

displaying the second plurality of products responsive to the receiving the product input.

16. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

allowing the user to add a user review the product and storing the user review according to the product identification.

17. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

allowing the user to add a rating of the product and wherein the rating is combined with an existing numerical user rating to form a new numerical user rating.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein the information includes a description of the product that includes product features, a numerical user rating of the product, a user review of the product, an industry review of the product, a comparison between the product and other items, a vendor that sells the product, a list price of the product, a vendor price for the product, information provided by the vendor on the availability of the product, a profile of the vendor, a rating of the vendor, and a review of the vendor.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

displaying a class list identifying a plurality of classes

receiving a class input selecting a class from the class list, the class corresponding to a second product, and

displaying the second product responsive to the receiving the class input.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

displaying a feature list identifying a plurality of product features

receiving a feature input selecting a first product features; and

displaying the product feature responsive receiving the feature input.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein displaying farther comprises displaying a picture.

4. A system for retrieving, normalizing and storing product information, said system comprising:

a first means for retrieving product information from at least one external source and automatically for associating said retrieved product information for an identified product with prestored product information for the identified product, said first means creating markup language from the retrieved product information for the identified product said markup language for the identified product including a first attribute-value pair that includes a first attribute and a first value;

a second means for normalizing said markup language for the identified product, by translating the first attribute to a second attribute responsive to an identification of the first attribute in a list that includes a plurality of attributes that are associated with the identified product and the second attribute, the second attribute being a canonical representation of the plurality of attributes respectively; and

a third means for storage of the normalized second attribute for the identified product with prestored product information for the identified product,

the first means for storing the second attribute for the identification product with prestored product information for the identified product on the third means.