System and method for identifying an owner of a web page on the World-Wide Web

• US 8,949,256 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Virdy, Ajaipal Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil, Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Levitian, Karina
• Application Number:
  US13/612,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• US Class Current: 707/755
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/355 Class or cluster creation or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the disclosure include systems and methods for obtaining information from electronic documents (e.g., web pages). Example embodiments include retrieving an electronic document, parsing the electronic document to identify multiple portions of the electronic document, and comparing the portions to identify information about the electronic document, such as the owner of the electronic document. Further, the identified information can be associated with the electronic document within a database.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a database associated with one or more web pages;

retrieving, using at least one processor, a web page;

parsing the web page to identify a first portion of the web page and a second portion of the web page;

analyzing the first portion of the web page to identify a first potential name within the first portion of the web page;

analyzing the second portion of the web page to identify a second potential name within the second portion of the web page;

comparing the first potential name and the second potential name to identify, without user intervention, a name of an owner associated with the web page; and

associating, within the database, the name of the owner with the web cage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the web page comprises a copyright notice.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the web page comprises a title block.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the first potential name to the second potential name comprises determining if the first potential name matches the second potential name.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, if the first potential name does not match the second name, parsing the web page to identify a third portion of the web page.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the third portion of the web page comprises address information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising analyzing the third portion of the web page to identify a third potential name within the third portion of the web page.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising comparing the third potential name to the first potential name to determine whether the third potential name and the first potential name represent the name of the owner of the web page.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising comparing the third potential name to the second potential name to determine whether the third potential name and the second potential name represent the name of the owner of the web page.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein associating, within the database, the name of the owner with the web page comprises associating the name of the owner with a URL associated with the web page within a URL index.

10. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

maintain a database associated with one or more web pages;

parse a web page to identify a first portion of the web page and a second portion of the web page;

analyze the first portion of the web page to identify a first potential name within the first portion of the web page;

analyze the second portion of the web page to identify a second potential name within the second portion of the web page;

utilize the first potential name and the second potential name to identify, without user intervention, a name of an owner associated with the web page; and

associate within the database, the name of the owner with the web page.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein utilizing the first potential name and the second potential name to identify the name associated with the web page comprises comparing the first potential name and the second potential name to determine if the first potential name matches the second potential name.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein if the first potential name and the second potential name match, the name associated with the web page is determined to be the first potential name.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to, analyze a third portion of the web page to identify a third potential owner name.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to query a database using the name of the owner to identify additional information associated with the owner.

22. The system of claim 10, wherein associating, within the database, the name of the owner with the web page comprises associating the name of the owner with the web page with a URL associated with the web page within a URL index.

15. A method comprising:

maintaining a URL index comprising a plurality of URLs, wherein one or more URLs in the plurality of URLs are associated with an owner name;

retrieving, using at least one processor, a web page associated with a URL from the URL index;

parsing the web page to identify a first portion of the web page and a second portion of the web page;

analyzing the first portion to identify a first potential name within the first portion of the web page;

analyzing the second portion to identify a second potential name within the second portion of the web page;

determining, without user intervention, if the first potential name matches the second potential name;

if the first potential name matches the second potential name, determining that the first potential name represents an owner name associated with the web page; and

if the first potential name matches the second potential name, associating the owner name with the URL within the URL index.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first portion of the web page comprises a copyright notice.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second portion of the web page comprises a title block.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising querying a third-party database using the owner name to obtain additional information associated with the owner name.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the retrieved URL associated with the URL index is not associated with an owner name at the time the URL is retrieved.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein associating the owner name with the URL within the URL index comprises updating the URL index by associating the owner name with the URL within the URL index.