Method and apparatus for collecting and disseminating information over a computer network

• US 9,781,212 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2016
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: mBlast, Inc.
• Original Assignee: mBlast, Inc.
• Inventors: Briere, Daniel D., Pritchard, Paul W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskandarnia, Arvin
• Application Number:
  US15/342,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20170078393A1
• Time in Patent Office: 334 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6236 between heterogeneous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 : for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 : Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 : Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

The apparatus comprises at least one database for storing digital information associated with at least a first user and a second user, at least one links module for the first user and for the second user, at least one manipulations module and at least one display device for respectively displaying at least said linked digital information wherein said linked digital information associated with said first user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said second user when that information is manipulated, and wherein said linked digital information associated with said second user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said first user when that information is manipulated.

Claims

1. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

access, via an Internet, content (1) published within the Internet by a first entity, and (2) hosted by a first server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a second entity and the content published by the first entity, the second content being hosted by a second server operably coupled within the Internet;

quantify a degree of presence within the Internet and assign the degree of presence to the first entity, based at least in part on the detected association; and

send via the Internet to a compute device associated with a third entity a signal representing the degree of presence assigned to the first entity such that an action is taken within the Internet based on the degree of presence.

2. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

detect an association between the content published by the second entity and content (1) published within the Internet by a fourth entity, and (2) hosted by a third server operably coupled within the Internet,

the code to cause the processor to quantify the degree of presence includes code to cause the processor to quantify the degree of presence based at least in part on the detected association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the fourth entity.

3. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the degree of presence is based on a quantity of detected associations, the degree of presence being proportional to the quantity of detected associations.

4. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code to cause the processor to detect the association includes code to cause the processor to detect the association based at least in part on a keyword identified both in the content published by the first entity and the content published by the second entity.

5. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify within the content published by the second entity a reference to the first entity,

the code to cause the processor to detect the association includes code to cause the processor to detect the association based at least in part on the reference to the first entity.

6. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify within the content published by the second entity a reference to the first entity, the code to cause the processor to detect the association includes code to cause the processor to detect the association based at least in part on the reference to the first entity;

detect an attitude of the second entity associated with (1) the first entity and (2) the content published by the first entity, based at least in part on the content published by the second entity; and

quantify an influence value associated with the first entity based on the degree of presence and the detected attitude.

7. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the degree of presence assigned to the first entity is a first degree of presence, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

access via the Internet content (1) published within the Internet by a fifth entity, and (2) hosted by a third server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a sixth entity and the content published by the fifth entity;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a seventh entity and the content published by the fifth entity;

quantify a second degree of presence within the computer network and assign the second degree of presence to the fifth entity based at least in part on the detected association between the content published by the sixth entity and the content published by the fifth entity and the detected association between the content published by the seventh entity and the content published by the fifth entity, the second degree of presence being greater than the first degree of presence; and

rank the fifth entity better than the first entity based on the second degree of presence being greater than the first degree of presence to produce a degree of presence ranking identifier,

the signal further representing the degree of presence ranking identifier.

8. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity based on at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first entity.

9. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

access, via an Internet, content (1) published within the Internet by a first entity, and (2) hosted by a first server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect a first association between content published within the Internet by a second entity and the content published by the first entity;

quantify a first degree of presence within the Internet and assign the first degree of presence to the first entity, based at least in part on the detected first association;

access via the Internet content published within the Internet by a third entity and hosted by a second server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect a second association between content published within the Internet by a fourth entity and the content published by the third entity;

detect a third association between content published within the Internet by a fifth entity and the content published by the third entity;

quantify a second degree of presence within the Internet and assign the second degree of presence to the third entity, based at least in part on the detected second association and the detected third association; and

rank the third entity better than the first entity to define a ranking based on the second degree of presence being greater than the first degree of presence such that an action is taken within the Internet based on the ranking.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

send to a display module a signal representing the ranking such that the ranking is displayed on the display module.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the second degree of presence is based on a quantity of detected associations, the degree of presence being proportional to the quantity of detected associations.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the code to cause the processor to detect the first association includes code to cause the processor to detect the first association based at least in part on a keyword identified both in the content published by the first entity and the content published by the second entity.

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify within the content published by the second entity a reference to the first entity,

the code to cause the processor to detect the first association includes code to cause the processor to detect the first association based at least in part on the reference to the first entity.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity based on at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first entity.

15. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

access via an Internet content (1) published within the Internet by a first entity, and (2) hosted by a first server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a second entity and the content published by the first entity, the second content being hosted by a second server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect an association between the content published by the second entity and content (1) published within the Internet by a fourth entity, and (2) hosted by a third server operably coupled within the Internet;

quantify a degree of presence within the Internet and assign the degree of presence to the first entity, based at least in part on a quantity of detected associations, the quantity of detected associations including (1) the detected association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity, and (2) the detected association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the fourth entity; and

send, via the Internet to a compute device associated with a third entity, a signal representing the degree of presence assigned to the first entity such that an action is taken within the Internet based on the degree of presence.

16. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the degree of presence is proportional to the quantity of detected associations.

17. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity based at least in part on a keyword identified both in the content published by the first entity and the content published by the second entity.

18. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify within the content published by the second entity a reference to the first entity,

the code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity based at least in part on the reference to the first entity.

19. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

identify within the content published by the second entity a reference to the first entity, the code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to detect the association between the content published by the second entity and the content published by the first entity based at least in part on the reference to the first entity;

detect an attitude of the second entity associated with (1) the first entity and (2) the content published by the first entity, based at least in part on the content published by the second entity; and

quantify an influence value associated with the first entity based on the degree of presence and the detected attitude.

20. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the degree of presence assigned to the first entity is a first degree of presence, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

access, via the Internet, content (1) published within the Internet by a fifth entity, and (2) hosted by a third server operably coupled within the Internet;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a sixth entity and the content published by the fifth entity;

detect an association between content published within the Internet by a seventh entity and the content published by the fifth entity;

quantify a second degree of presence within the computer network and assign the second degree of presence to the fifth entity based at least in part on the detected association between the content published by the sixth entity and the content published by the fifth entity and the detected association between the content published by the seventh entity and the content published by the fifth entity, the second degree of presence being greater than the first degree of presence; and

rank the fifth entity better than the first entity based on the second degree of presence being greater than the first degree of presence to produce a degree of presence ranking identifier,

the signal further representing the degree of presence ranking identifier.

21. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

provide access within the Internet to the degree of presence via an application programming interface (API).

22. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity includes code to cause the processor to access via the Internet the content published within the Internet by the first entity based on at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first entity.