Information access

Details Information access Information access

1998-03-31

2001-06-26

Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2172)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C705S014270, C705S020000, C705S026640, C709S203000, C709S217000, C709S219000, C380S029000, C380S029000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06253208

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to electronic commerce and in particular to an information access system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Internet is a multimedia computer communications network built on worldwide telephone and data networks. Over 100,000 servers of various types are connected to the Internet providing a publicly accessible distributed data store. A server holding files of information as data accessible using an Internet communication protocol called the “HyperText Transfer Protocol” (HTTP) is known as an “HTTP server”. Data files stored on HTTP servers and accessible by means of HTTP are known as “web pages” which together form the “World Wide Web”, or simply the “WEB”. Web pages are written using a special WEB language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML) creating links to other pages on the WEB, as appropriate, and providing a means to navigate through information on the WEB. Information held on the WEB is accessible to anyone having a computer connected to the Internet and with an interest in accessing it. An HTTP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) has been adopted as a WEB standard to provide a consistent international naming convention to uniquely identify the location of any WEB resource, including for instance documents, programs, sound and video clips. The HTTP enables URL-identified files (web pages) to be located and transferred for reproduction at user equipment connected to the Internet. Underlying transport protocols, primarily TCP/IP, enable connections to be established, between an Internet user and a WEB server for example, for the intercommunication of data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Internet users may access information on the WEB using proprietary WEB browser products running on personal computers (PCs) or workstations linked to the Internet. WEB browsers communicate with WEB resources using standard Internet protocols to download selected web pages, interpret embedded HTML commands inserted at the time of markup by web page authors and, if appropriate, display those pages graphically. Browsers are available to reproduce multi-media files transferred over the Internet.
It is known to provide a public Internet query interface to a database of information relating to goods and services for sale. For example, an electronic price list of a retail outlet or mail-order business may be accessible over the Internet via a simple query form enabling prospective customers to extract information and prices on particular products. It is also known to provide a proxy search engine whereby a user may submit a single on-line query to the proxy engine which in turn submits the query to a number of predetermined third party information sources on behalf of the user and collates the results. For example, on-line shopping services have been provided for example, by Yahoo! Inc via the Internet at HTTP Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.yahoo.com/ providing proxy search facilities in a number of different retail product categories.
In the commercial property sector, it is known for estate agents and other brokers of property to make their property listings or databases available on the Internet. A property listing may be presented to Internet users as a simple web page. Alternatively, a simple query interface may be provided to a property advertiser's database with facilities to search for a particular property specification and to view the results on-line. A query result may typically comprise a summarised list of matching properties with embedded HTML hyperlinks to other pages of details from the database. A user interested in purchasing or renting a commercial property advertised on the Internet would need to access each of the individual sites via their public interfaces, submit an appropriate query in a required format, or read information provided using the facilities available at the site, in order to obtain a shortlist of suitable properties. However, any one property agent is likely to advertise only a relatively small number of properties at any one time. A prospective buyer may therefore need to visit almost all the known advertisers to gather a reasonable sample of suitable property. This process can be very time-consuming. A similar problem arises in respect of other products or services of a relatively specialised nature or of high monetary value; at any one time an advertiser may have only a relatively small selection available.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an information access system comprising:
a communications interface;
query submission means;
a query result analyser;
information storage means; and
triggering means;
wherein the information access system is arranged, in operation, to respond to an output of the triggering means to do the following:
using said communications interface, to establish a network connection to a predetermined network address;
using said query submission means, to select a query from a set of one or more predetermined queries and to transmit the selected query, via the communications interface, over said network connection, according to a predetermined communications protocol;
using said query result analyser, on receipt of data over said network connection in response to said transmitted query, to extract information of a predetermined type from the received data and to format the extracted information according to a common format; and
using said information storage means to store the formatted information in an index.
An information access system according to the invention may be arranged to create and maintain a rapidly accessible index to particular types of product or service or other information held at a number of predetermined information sources accessible over a communications network. In particular, the information access system may include means to submit a predetermined query request to each predetermined information source, each source having an interface to the communications network and each query being tailored to extract relevant information from the communications interface to the source. The information access system may also be arranged to analyse information returned in response to submitted query requests and to create an index to a predetermined selection of that information. Advantageously, the information access system index may provide a single, rapidly searchable source to a critical mass of information of a particular type, without need for a user to access each of a number of potential information sources directly in the first instance.
Information returned in response to query requests may be analysed by one or more query result analysis modules, each module being tailored to convert information supplied by a particular information source into a common format for indexing.
Preferably, each predetermined query may be associated with a particular predetermined information source to ensure that all the required information may be retrieved from that source, and to maintain flexibility to amend the query as required. Similarly, each query result analysis module may be individually tailored to analyse query results returned from a particular information source.
Preferably, the information storage means of the information access system may be arranged, on receipt and prior to storage of information extracted by the query result analyser, to compare the extracted information with information already stored in the index and to identify, within the extracted information, new information not previously stored in the index. The information access system may also include requirements matching means to compare new information with a user's predetermined requirements for a particular type of information and to output the results of that comparison, for example as a report to be Emailed to the user.
Preferably, the information access system may include a search engine to enable users to submit information search requests and to retrieve matching information from the index.
Preferably, the information access system is a

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Information access does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Information access, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Information access will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2445995