Alert driven interactive interface to a website mining system

• US 9,734,259 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2015
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Douglas, Shona, Gilbert, Mazin E., Feng, Junlan
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mina, Fatima
• Application Number:
  US14/875,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20160026734A1
• Time in Patent Office: 679 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24568 Data stream processing; Continuous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/03 Data mining
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Disclosed is a web server that includes a headlines module for automatically generating headlines based on data retrieved from a network (e.g., World Wide Web). The web server also includes an interactive agent for generating responses to inquiries relating to the headlines based on the data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting data from a web page via a network;

assigning attributes to the data;

identifying a standard associated with the data, the standard changing over a time period;

calculating a measure of significance of the attributes as a time series with respect to the standard over the time period;

determining if data from the web page is newsworthy based on the measure of significance;

receiving a first inquiry from a user;

automatically generating headlines for display to the user, a first one of the headlines based on the first inquiry, a previous inquiry from the user related to one of the headlines, and an answer to the previous inquiry, and second one of the headlines based on newsworthy data and data from the web page that has changed from a first point in time to a second point in time, wherein the second one of the headlines is related to a price reduction of a product;

identifying a telephone number of an agent knowledgeable in subject matter of the first inquiry; and

initiating a telephone call to the telephone number in response to a request from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the price reduction of the product is determined based on the data from the web page that has changed from the first point in time to the second point in time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first inquiry is related to the answer to the previous inquiry.

4. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

extracting data from a web page via a network;

assigning attributes to the data;

identifying a standard associated with the data, the standard changing over a time period;

calculating a measure of significance of the attributes as a time series with respect to the standard over the time period;

determining if data from the web page is newsworthy based on the measure of significance;

receiving a first inquiry from a user;

automatically generating headlines for display to the user, a first one of the headlines based on the first inquiry, a previous inquiry from the user related to one of the headlines, and an answer to the previous inquiry, and a second one of the headlines based on newsworthy data and data from the web page that has changed from a first point in time to a second point in time, wherein the second one of the headlines is related to a price reduction of a product;

identifying a telephone number of an agent knowledgeable in subject matter of the first inquiry; and

initiating a telephone call to the telephone number in response to a request from the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the price reduction of the product is determined based on the data from the web page that has changed from the first point in time to the second point in time.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first inquiry is related to the answer to the previous inquiry.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

extracting data from a web page via a network;

assigning attributes to the data;

identifying a standard associated with the data, the standard changing over a time period;

calculating a measure of significance of the attributes as a time series with respect to the standard over the time period;

determining if data from the web page is newsworthy based on the measure of significance;

receiving a first inquiry from a user;

automatically generating headlines for display to the user, a first one of the headlines based on the first inquiry, a previous inquiry from the user related to one of the headlines, and an answer to the previous inquiry, and second one of the headlines based on newsworthy data and data from the web page that has changed from a first point in time to a second point in time, wherein the second one of the headlines is related to a price reduction of a product;

identifying a telephone number of an agent knowledgeable in subject matter of the first inquiry; and

initiating a telephone call to the telephone number in response to a request from the user.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the price reduction of the product is determined based on the data from the web page that has changed from the first point in time to the second point in time.