Centralized publisher management

• US 9,697,543 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2014
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YP Holdings LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Jain, Mehul, Nakano, Matthew, Dhillon, Maninder Singh, Kumar, Vishwanath, Kuhn, Brian G., Thakral, Deepak Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US14/457,847
• Publication Number:
  US 20150287100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,057 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-207, 709223-229, 709250
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]

Abstract

A management system can recommend and manage publishing content with publishers of business information. A representative can provide unique identifying information for a business that can be used to determine a category of similar businesses. Based on the identified category, a list of publishers can be identified to the representative as related to the business category. The representative can select one or more of the publishers to publish content about the business. Based on the representative selection, the system can request a set of content from the representative. After receiving the content from the representative, the system can translate the content to formats acceptable to each of the publishers. The content can then be provided to the publishers to publish. The published content can then be monitored for problems, and corrected if problems are discovered.

Claims

1. A system for centrally managing online interactions amongst a plurality of publishers, the system comprising:

a network interface to communicate with a client and a first set of publishers over a network providing connectivity to the system, the client and the first set of publishers;

a setup interface to receive first content that includes information for unique identification of a business;

storage to hold an association between a first category in a directory and the first set of publishers, the first category representing a classification of a set of businesses sharing common attributes;

a matching engine to match the business to the first category from storage based at least in part on the first content received through the setup interface;

a management interface to compile a superset of content based at least in part on the first set of publishers associated with the first category, the superset of content including types of content for publication by the first set of publishers associated with the first category;

an input interface to request and receive second content, wherein the second content is requested for the business based at least in part on the superset of content;

a content repository to store the second content received for the business;

a publication interface to communicate with the first set of publishers over the network; and

a publication engine, using the publication interface, to retrieve at least a portion of the second content from the content repository, transmit the second content to at least a subset of publishers from the first set of publishers, and request publication of listings of the business by each of the subset of publishers.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a translation system to translate the second content stored by the content repository into a third content to meet submission requirements of a publisher.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a recommendation engine to combine the first set of publishers associated with the first category and a second set of publishers selected based at least in part on online influence to form a set of recommended publishers.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the recommendation engine further comprises a ranking subsystem to rank the set of recommended publishers based at least in part on an importance rating; and

the publication engine further comprises a customer selection interface to receive customer input to select a subset of recommended publishers from the set of recommended publishers at which the second content should be published.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a billing system to determine a payment amount based at least in part on a number of recommended publishers selected by the customer.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a questionnaire engine to prepare a content questionnaire to present through the management interface based at least in part on the category or the subset of publishers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first category is a telephone directory category.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a preview renderer to retrieve at least some of the second content from the content repository and prepare a rendering of how the portion of the second content would appear if published by a publisher.

9. A method for centrally managing online interactions amongst a plurality of publishers, the method comprising:

storing an association between a first category in a directory and a first set of publishers, the first category representing a classification of a set of businesses sharing common attributes;

receiving, via a setup interface, first content that includes information for unique identification of a business;

matching, via a matching engine, the business to the first category from storage based at least in part on the first content received through the setup interface;

compiling, via a management interface, a superset of content based at least in part on the first set of publishers associated with the first category, the superset of content including types of content for publication by the first set of publishers associated with the first category;

requesting second content, wherein the second content is requested for the business based at least in part on the superset of content;

receiving the second content;

storing the second content received for the business in a content repository;

retrieving at least a portion of the second content from the content repository;

transmitting, via a publication interface, the second content to at least a subset of publishers from the first set of publishers; and

requesting, via the publication interface, publication of listings of the business by each of the subset of publishers.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

translating the second content stored by the content repository into a third content to meet submission requirements of a publisher.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

ranking a set of recommended publishers based at least in part on an importance rating; and

receiving customer input to select a subset of recommended publishers from the set of recommended publishers at which the second content should be published.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a payment amount based at least in part on a number of recommended publishers selected by the customer.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

preparing a content questionnaire to present through the management interface based at least in part on the category or the subset of publishers.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first category is a telephone directory category.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

retrieving at least some of the second content from the content repository; and

preparing a rendering of how the portion of the second content would appear if published by a publisher.

16. A non-transitory, machine-readable medium having machine-readable instructions thereon centrally managing online interactions amongst a plurality of publishers, which instructions, when executed by one or more computers or other processing devices, cause the one or more computers or other processing devices to:

store an association between a first category in a directory and a first set of publishers, the first category representing a classification of a set of businesses sharing common attributes;

receive first content that includes information for unique identification of a business;

match the business to the first category from storage based at least in part on the first content received through the setup interface;

compile a superset of content based at least in part on the first set of publishers associated with the first category, the superset of content including types of content for publication by the first set of publishers associated with the first category;

request second content, wherein the second content is requested for the business based at least in part on the superset of content;

receive the second content;

store the second content received for the business in a content repository;

retrieve at least a portion of the second content from the content repository;

transmit the second content to at least a subset of publishers from the first set of publishers; and

request publication of listings of the business by each of the subset of publishers.

17. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers or other processing devices, cause the one or more computers or other processing devices to further:

translate the second content stored by the content repository into a third content to meet submission requirements of a publisher.

18. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers or other processing devices, cause the one or more computers or other processing devices to further:

rank a set of recommended publishers based at least in part on an importance rating; and

receive customer input to select a subset of recommended publishers from the set of recommended publishers at which the second content should be published.

19. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers or other processing devices, cause the one or more computers or other processing devices to further:

determine a payment amount based at least in part on a number of recommended publishers selected by the customer.

20. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more computers or other processing devices, cause the one or more computers or other processing devices to further:

prepare a content questionnaire to present through the management interface based at least in part on the category or the subset of publishers.