System and method for identifying the owner of a document on the world-wide web

• US 9,075,881 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• 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): Morrison, Jay
• Assistant Examiner(s): ELLIS, MATTHEW J
• Application Number:
  US13/612,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• Field of Search: 707/740, 707/711, 707/706
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

A method and search engine for classifying a source publishing a document on a portion of a network, includes steps of electronically receiving a document, based on the document, determining a source which published the document, and assigning a code to the document based on whether data associated with the document published by the source matches with data contained in a database. An intelligent geographic- and business topic-specific resource discovery system facilitates local commerce on the World-Wide Web and also reduces search time by accurately isolating information for end-users. Distinguishing and classifying business pages on the Web by business categories using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes is achieved through an automatic iterative process.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a database of root URLs;

utilizing, using at least one processor, a root URL from the database of root URLs to retrieve a web page;

parsing the text of the web page to identify a company name within the text of the web page;

in response to identifying the company name, querying, using the identified company name, a third-party database to obtain information associated with the web page;

utilizing the obtained information to identify a geographic location associated with the web page; and

updating, within the database of root URLs, information associated with the web page to include the geographic location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the text of the web page to identify the company name comprises analyzing a first portion of the web page to identify the company name.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first portion of the web page comprises a title portion of the web page.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein parsing the text of the web page to identify the company name comprises analyzing a second portion of the web page to identify the company name.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second portion of the web page includes a copyright notice.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the geographic location with the web page in a database.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving a search request comprising a geographic location component.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising querying the database using the geographic location component.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending a search result referencing the web page associated with the geographic location if the geographic location relates to the geographic location component of the search request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party database is a business listing database.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtained information associated with the web page comprises address information.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including a set of instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform steps comprising:

maintaining a database of root URLs;

utilizing a root URL from the database of root URLs to retrieve a web page;

parsing the text of the web page to identify a company name within the text of the web page;

in response to identifying the company name, utilizing the company name associated with the web page to obtain additional information about the web page;

associating the additional information with the web page; and

updating, within the database of root URLs, to include the information associated with the web page.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein parsing the text of the web page comprises analyzing a first portion of the web page to identify the company name.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein parsing the text of the web page further comprises analyzing a second portion of the web page to identify the company name.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising comparing the analysis of the first portion of the web page with the analysis of the second portion of the web page.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein utilizing the company name associated with the web page to determine additional information about the web page comprises querying a database using the company name.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the database comprises a third-party database.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the database comprises a business listing database.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein utilizing the company name associated with the web page to obtain additional information about the web page further comprises extracting from the database address information associated with the web page.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein utilizing the company name associated with the web page to obtain additional information about the web page further comprises extracting from the database telephone number information associated with the web page.

21. 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 of root URLs;

utilize a root URL from the database of root URLs to retrieve a web page;

parse the text of the web page to identify a company name within the text of the web page;

in response to identifying the company name, utilize the company name to obtain additional information;

use the additional information to identify geographic location information associated with the company name;

update, within the database of root URLs, information associated with the web page to include the geographic location.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein utilizing the company name to obtain additional information comprises querying, using the identified company name, a database to obtain the additional information.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the additional information comprises address information.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein using the additional information to identify the geographic location comprises extracting a city and a state from the address information.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein using the additional information to identify the geographic location comprises extracting a zip code from the address information.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the additional information comprises telephone number information.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein using the additional information to identify the geographic location comprises extracting an area code from the telephone number.

28. The system of claim 21, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to associate the geographic location information with the root URL in a root URL index.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to associate the company name with the root URL in a root URL index.