Content aggregation method and apparatus for an on-line product catalog
DCFirst Claim
1. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
- processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product;
correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product;
electronically comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and
electronically parsing the product information records corresponding to each group to electronically determine attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records;
electronically generating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and
storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy.
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Abstract
The method comprises processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product, correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product, comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy, and determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group, creating product specifications based on the determined attributes and storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy.
397 Citations
100 Claims
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1. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; electronically comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and electronically parsing the product information records corresponding to each group to electronically determine attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records; electronically generating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a uniciue product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and
storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy;wherein said determining step comprises; scraping attribute values from plural product information records in a group and assigning a confidence rating to each scraped attribute value; and merging the attribute values into a set of product specification attributes based on the confidence ratings. - View Dependent Claims (33)
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34. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; creating product specifications based on the determined attributes;
storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; anddetermining a product name for each identified product; wherein said step of determining a name comprises; selecting the best name of multiple variant product names from product information records in a group; cleansing the best name of superfluous and concatenated text; and formatting the cleansed name into a product name that is of a predetermined style.
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35. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; and further comprising the steps of determining when an outcome of one or more of said processing, correlating, comparing and determining steps falls below a predetermined confidence level and flagging said outcome for further processing. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a unique product ID corresponding to an identified product for each of said groups; electronically comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; repeating the processing and correlating steps after performing the comparing step to revise which groups said plural product information records fall into; electronically parsing the product information records corresponding to each group to determine attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records; electronically generating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and storing the product specifications in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. A method of creating a product catalog stored on computer readable media by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information, said method comprising:
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processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; correlating a unique product ID corresponding to an identified product for each of said groups; comparing each identified product to categories of in a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; repeating the processing and correlating steps after performing the comparing step to revise which groups said plural product information records fall into; determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and storing the product specifications in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; further including the steps of assigning a clustering confidence score to the grouping of information produced by the processing step, and a categorizing confidence score to the categories produced by the comparing step, and repeating said repetition step until said confidence scores stabilize. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51)
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52. A method of aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources in a networked computer environment comprising the steps of:
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generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources; gathering product phrase information and characteristics of said product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler; grouping said product phrase information based on which product phrase information are likely to correspond to the same product and based on the characteristics of said product phrase information; electronically parsing said grouped product phrase information to determine attributes for each product based on at least one of the product phrase information and the characteristics of said product phrase information; and creating a catalog of products based on the determined attributes. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. A system for creating a product catalog by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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means for processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; means for correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; means for electronically comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and means for electronically parsing the product information records corresponding to each group to electronically determine attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records; means for electronically generating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and means for storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87)
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88. A system for creating a product catalog by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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means for processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; means for correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; means for comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and means for determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; means for creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; and means for storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; wherein said means for determining comprises; means for scraping attribute values from plural product information records in a group and assigning a confidence rating to each scraped attribute value; and means for merging the attribute values into a set of product specification attributes based on the confidence ratings. - View Dependent Claims (89)
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90. A system for creating a product catalog by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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means for processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; means for correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; means for comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and means for determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; means for creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; means for storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; and means for determining a product name for each identified product; wherein said means for determining a name comprises; means for selecting the best name of multiple variant product names from product information records in a group; and means for cleansing the best name of superfluous and concatenated text; and formatting the cleansed name into a product name that is of a predetermined style.
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91. A system for creating a product catalog by aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources having disparate formats for product information and storing the information in a taxonomy, said method comprising:
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means for processing plural product information records from the product information sources into one or more groups based on which product information records are likely to correspond to the same product; means for correlating a unique product ID corresponding to the product associated with each of said groups to identify the product; means for comparing each identified product to categories of a taxonomy to determine a category for the identified products in the taxonomy; and means for determining attributes for each categorized product based on the product information records corresponding to each group; means for creating product specifications based on the determined attributes; means for storing the product specification in the corresponding determined categories of the taxonomy; and means for determining when an outcome of one or more of said processing, correlating, comparing and determining steps falls below a predetermined confidence level and flagging said outcome for further processing. - View Dependent Claims (92, 93, 94)
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95. A system for aggregating product information from a plurality of product information sources in a networked computer environment of a comprising:
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means for generating a crawler from a server interconnected to the network computer environment to visit the plurality of sources; means for gathering product phrase information and characteristics of said product phrase information from each of the plurality of sources via said crawler; and means for grouping said product phrase information based on which product phrase information are likely to correspond to the same product and the characteristics of said product phrase information; means for electronically parsing said grouped product phrase information to determine attributes for each product based on at least one of the product phrase information and the characteristics of said product phrase information; and means for creating a catalog of products based on the determined attributes. - View Dependent Claims (96, 97, 98, 99, 100)
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Specification