Method, apparatus and system for improved content management and delivery

• US 6,605,121 B1
• Filed: 02/03/1999
• Issued: 08/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adtracker Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Gohome Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Roderick, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Application Number:
  US09/243,881
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• Field of Search: 707/513, 707/501.1, 707/3-5, 707/104.1, 705/10, 705/14, 705/20, 705/26, 705/27, 709/217-219, 715/513, 715/501.1
• US Class Current: 715/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An apparatus comprising a storage medium and a communicatively coupled processor are presented. The storage medium has stored therein a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed, implement an information server which, upon receiving a request including a resource identifier for an information page that may or may not exist, constructs and issues commands to retrieve the requested information and dynamically generates instructions to create the requested information page for provision to a requesting client if the information page does not exist.

Claims

1. An apparatus for provisioning real estate information pages, comprising:

a storage device having stored therein a plurality of executable instructions that implements an information server for receiving a uniform resource locator (URL) consisting of a server name immediately followed by an identifier interpreted by the information server as a real estate identifier identifying a real estate, and in response, constructing and issuing one or more queries including the real estate identifier to retrieve information corresponding to the identified real estate and dynamically generating instructions to create the associated information page for the identified real estate for provisioning to a client; and

a processor coupled to the storage device to execute the stored instructions.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the real estate identifier is a multiple listing service (MLS) identifier.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the real estate identifier has a marketing code appended thereto, identifying a marketing source.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the information server further includes a statistics function to compile and maintain statistics using the marketing code appended to the real estate identifier of the received URL.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the information server further includes a report function, which periodically compiles and generates a marketing report based, at least in part, on the compiled marketing statistics.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the information server further includes a report function, which compiles and generates, on demand, a marketing report based, at least in part, on the compiled marketing statistics.

7. A method for provisioning real estate information pages by an information server, the method comprising:

receiving from a client a uniform resource locator (URL) consisting of a server name immediately followed by an identifier interpreted by the information server as a real estate identifier identifying a real estate; and

constructing and issuing one or more queries including the real estate identifier to retrieve information corresponding to the identified real estate, and dynamically generating instructions to create the associated information page if the associated information page for the identified real estate is determined to not exist.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the real estate identifier is a multiple listing service (MLS) identifier.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising provisioning the associated information page for the identified real estate to the client.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the real estate identifier has a marketing code appended thereto, identifying a marketing source.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

compiling and maintaining a history of received marketing codes; and

calculating statistics for the received marketing codes.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising periodically compiling and generating a statistical report depicting marketing effectiveness, based at least in part, on the calculated statistics of the received marketing codes.

13. An article of manufacture comprising:

a recordable medium having recorded thereon a plurality of machine executable instructions implementing an information server having a plurality of functions for provisioning real estate information pages, the functions including a function to receive a uniform resource locator consisting of a server name immediately followed by an identifier interpreted by the information server as a real estate identifier identifying a real estate, constructing and issuing queries to retrieve information associated with the identified real estate and to dynamically generate instructions to create the associated information page for the identified real estate for provisioning to a client.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein the function further provisions the associated information page for the identified real estate to the client.

15. The article of claim 13, wherein the real estate identifier has a market code appended thereto identifying a marketing source.

16. The article of claim 13, wherein the information server includes a function to identify, compile and maintain a statistical history of marketing codes received in information page requests.

17. The article of claim 16, wherein the information server includes a report generation function which generates a report including the compiled statistical history.