Content aggregation method and apparatus for on-line purchasing system

• US 6,714,933 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2002
• Issued: 03/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CBS Interactive Inc. (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Original Assignee: CNET Networks Incorporated (Paramount Global (f/k/a ViacomCBS Inc.))
• Inventors: Musgrove, Timothy Allen, Walsh, Robin Hiroko
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOULES, JACK M
• Application Number:
  US10/119,311
• Publication Number:
  US 20030065643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 707/1-6, 707/10
• US Class Current: 707/709
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/948 Product or catalog
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network

Abstract

A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category including the steps of providing a server interconnected to the network computer environment for providing a crawler to visit the plurality of sources and gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via the crawler, where the crawler utilizes computational linguistics to gather the product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of the phrase. The characteristic of the phrase may be frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of the phrase.

Claims

1. A method of aggregating product information for use in a product database including various products arranged in product categories, the product information being collected from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler; and

determining whether at least one phrase of said product phrase information is a product characteristic associated with a product category;

wherein said crawler utilizes computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one characteristic of said phrase includes at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of sources include at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said crawler includes a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source.

5. The method of claim 4, said determining step further including the step of cross-referencing said product phrase information to a category database to determine a product category of at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source.

6. The method of claim 4, further including the step of applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases.

7. The method of claim 6, further including the step of storing at least one of said product phrase information and said ranking of phrases in a product phrase database.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said crawler includes a product offerings crawler that gathers pricing information and at least one of product phrase information, product model information, manufacturer'"'"'s identity information, and merchant identity information from said merchant'"'"'s information source.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein information gathered by said product offerings crawler is stored in a product offerings database.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein said a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source is a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications Web page, said product literature source is a product literature Web page, and said merchant'"'"'s information source is a merchant'"'"'s Web page.

11. The method of claim 1, further including the step of storing each phrase determined to be a product property in a product property database.

12. The method of claim 11, further including the step of ranking phrases determined to be a product property.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said crawler includes a product offerings crawler that gathers pricing information and at least one of product phrase information, product model information, manufacturer'"'"'s identity information, and merchant identity information from said merchant'"'"'s information source.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein information gathered by said product offerings crawler is stored in a product offerings database.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said networked computer environment is the Internet and said crawler is a Web crawler.

16. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

determining whether each phrase of each of said product phrase information is a product property indicative of a characteristic of at least one of a product and a product category; and

determining whether each phrase determined to be a product property is evaluative.

17. The method of claim 16, further including the step of determining a direction of evaluation and determining a ranking of a phrase if said phrase is determined to be evaluative.

18. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

determining whether each phrase of each of said product phrase information is a product property indicative of a characteristic of at least one of a product and a product category; and

determining whether each phrase determined to be a product property is numeric.

19. The method of claim 18, further including the step of entering a range and interval of a phrase if said phrase is determined to be numeric.

20. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

determining whether each phrase of each of said product phrase information is a product property indicative of a characteristic of at least one of a product and a product category; and

determining whether each phrase determined to be a product property is discrete.

21. The method of claim 20, further including the step of entering enumerated value names of a phrase if said phrase is determined to be discrete.

22. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category:

comprising the steps of;

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

determining whether each phrase of each of said product phrase information is a product property indicative of a characteristic of at least one of a product and a product category;

storing each phrase determined to be a product property in a product property database;

ranking phrases determined to be a product property; and

determining if said phrase is numeric;

if said phrase is numeric, entering range and interval for said numeric phrase, and determining if said numeric;

phrase is evaluative;

if said numeric phrase is evaluative, determining a direction of evaluation and determining ranking of said phrase;

if said numeric phrase is not evaluative, determining a ranking for said numeric phrase;

if said phrase is not numeric, determining if said phrase is discrete;

if said phrase is discrete, entering enumerated value names for said discrete phrase and determining if said discrete phrase is evaluative;

if said discrete phrase is evaluative, entering direction of evaluation and entering a ranking for said discrete phrase;

if said discrete phrase is not evaluative, entering a ranking for said discrete phrase; and

if said phrase is not discrete, designating said phrases as free-form text and entering a ranking for said free-form text.

23. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from at least one of said manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source and said product literature source, and also including a product offerings crawler that gathers pricing information and at least one of product phrase information, product model information, manufacturer'"'"'s identity information, and merchant identity information from said merchant'"'"'s information source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to gather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

determining whether each phrase of each of said product phrase information is a product property indicative of a characteristic of at least one of a product and a product category;

storing each phrase determined to be a product property in a product property database, and storing information gathered by said product offerings crawler in a product offerings database; and

further including a validation step wherein information stored in said product offerings database is cross-referenced with a products database to determine whether any products identified in said product offerings database is absent from said products database.

24. The method of claim 23, further including the step of creating a new product record in said products database based on information stored in said product offerings database.

25. The method of claim 24, further including the step of utilizing said product properties from said product property database to create said new product record.

26. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of sources in a networked computer environment regarding products of a product category comprising the steps of:

generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources including at least one of a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source, a product literature source, and a merchant'"'"'s information source, said crawler including a product offerings crawler that gathers pricing information and at least one of product phrase information, product model information, manufacturer'"'"'s identity information, and merchant identity information from said merchant'"'"'s information source;

gathering product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler, said crawler utilizing computational linguistics to Rather said product phrase information which includes a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase, said at least one characteristic of said phrase including at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

applying statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase thereby providing a ranking of phrases;

storing information gathered by said product offerings crawler in a product offerings database; and

validation step wherein information stored in said product offerings database is cross-referenced with a products database to determine whether any products identified in said product offerings database is absent from said products database.

27. The method of claim 26, further including the step creating a new product record in said products database based on information stored in said product offerings database.

28. A computer architecture for effecting commerce in a networked environment comprising:

a client computer;

a shopping server executing an agent server application, said shopping server including a memory device having a product database stored therein;

a merchant server executing a commerce server application and being remote from said shopping server;

a manufacturer server executing a commerce server application and being remote from said shopping server; and

a communication channel coupling said shopping server to said merchant server and said manufacturer'"'"'s server, and coupling said shopping server with said client computer;

wherein said shopping server is operative to provide a crawler for visiting a plurality of sources hosted on at least one of said merchant server and said manufacture'"'"'s server to aggregate product information from said plurality of sources regarding products of a product category, to gather product phrase information from said plurality of sources, and to determine whether at least one of said product phrase information is a product characteristic associated with a product category.

29. The computer architecture of claim 28, wherein said crawler is operative to gather product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources utilizing computational linguistics.

30. The computer architecture of claim 29, wherein said at least one characteristic of said phrase includes at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources.

31. The computer architecture of claim 30, further including a product phrase database for storing said product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources.

32. The computer architecture of claim 31, wherein said computer architecture is operative to execute statistical analysis to said product phrase information to rank each of said phrase based on said at least one characteristic of said phrase and provide a ranking of phrases.

33. The computer architecture of claim 30, wherein said merchant server hosts a plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources, and said manufacturer server hosts a plurality of manufacturer'"'"'s product specification sources.

34. The computer architecture of claim 33, wherein said crawler includes a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from said plurality of manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications sources, and also includes a product offerings crawler that gathers product phrase information and pricing information of each of said products in said product category from said plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources.

35. The computer architecture of claim 34, further including an offerings database for storing said pricing information of each of said products from said plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources.

36. The computer architecture of claim 28, further comprising a product property database for storing said product phrase information determined to be a product characteristic.

37. The computer architecture of claim 36, wherein said computer architecture is operative to rank each said product phrase information in said product property database.

38. The computer architecture of claim 28, wherein said communication channel includes the Internet and said crawler is a Web crawler.

39. The computer architecture of claim 38, wherein said a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications source is a manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications Web page, said product literature source is a product literature Web page, and said merchant'"'"'s information source is a merchant'"'"'s Web page.

40. A computer architecture for effecting commerce in a networked environment comprising:

a client computer;

a shopping server executing an agent server application, said shopping server including a memory device having a product database stored therein;

a merchant server executing a commerce server application and being remote from said shopping server;

a manufacturer server executing a commerce server application and being remote from said shopping server;

a communication channel coupling said shopping server to said merchant server and said manufacturer'"'"'s server, and coupling said shopping server with said client computer;

wherein said shopping server is operative to provide a crawler for visiting a plurality of sources hosted on at least one of said merchant server and said manufacture'"'"'s server to aggregate product information from said plurality of sources regarding products of a product category;

wherein said crawler is operative to gather product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources utilizing computational linguistics, said product phrase information including a phrase and at least one characteristic of said phrase;

wherein said at least one characteristic of said phrase includes at least one of frequency, location, font size, font style, font case, font effects, font color, collocation and co-occurrence of said phrase in each of said plurality of sources;

wherein said merchant server hosts a plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources, and said manufacturer server hosts a plurality of manufacturer'"'"'s product specification sources;

wherein said crawler includes a product literature crawler that gathers product phrase information from said plurality of manufacturer'"'"'s product specifications sources, and also includes a product;

offerings crawler that gathers product phrase information and pricing information of each of said products in said product category from said plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources;

further including an offerings database for storing said pricing information of each of said products from said plurality of merchant'"'"'s information sources; and

further including a products database wherein said computer architecture is operative to cross-reference said product offerings database to said products database to add new products to said products database which are available on said product offerings database.