Patent Application

App. No. 11/948,884

Abstract

Claims (67)

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a plurality of product data, wherein the product data describes a plurality of products offered for sale by a plurality of businesses;

storing the product data as a plurality of individual product data records, wherein each record describes an individual product;

associating a portion of the product data records with a defined physical area, wherein said businesses each have a point-of-sale store located in said defined physical area;

receiving a search request;

searching product data records for a plurality of products in a plurality of point-of-sale stores located in the defined physical area; and

outputting product data for said businesses with point-of-sale stores located in said defined physical area matching said search request.

2 . The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising receiving product inventory data from a point-of-sale store in said defined physical area, the portion of product data records associated with the defined physical area comprising product data for a first business matching the inventory data from said point-of-sale store for the first business.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein associating a portion of the product data records with a defined physical area comprises associating a point-of-sale store of each business with the defined physical area and associating product data records from each business with the point-of-sale store in the defined physical area.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of product data is received from a plurality of websites for said businesses.

5 . The method of claim 4 , the method further comprising:

configuring an automated web content extraction program with one or more mapping rules for specifying the location of product data in a website; and

extracting the product data from said website of said business.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the mapping rules mapping product data from a product web page on said website to fields of a product data record in a database.

7 . The method of claim 5 wherein the defined physical area is represented by a unique identifier, and wherein associating a portion of the product data with the defined physical area comprises associating a portion of the product data with the unique identifier.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the hours of operation for the first store;

specifying a response time window;

receiving a reservation pickup request;

calculating the pickup time based on the current time, the response time window, and the hours of operation of said store.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising associating a portion of the product data records with a map image of said defined physical area, and outputting said map image and the location of each point-of-sale store having product data responsive to said search request.

10 . The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

storing an electronic map of the defined physical area;

associating a plurality of stores with location information for specifying the location of the store on said electronic map; and

specifying the location of each point-of-sale store on the electronic map having product data matching said search request.

11 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing an identifier in a first record, the identifier representing a defined area;

associating the identifier in the first record with a plurality of store records in a store table, wherein each store record corresponds to a point-of-sale-store in the defined area;

associating a first store record from the plurality of store records with a first retailer record in a retailer table, the first store record corresponding to a first store in the defined area;

programming a crawler with configuration information for retrieving information from a website of said retail business, the website comprising a plurality of products and corresponding product data, the configuration information comprising one or more rules for mapping product data from a product web page to fields of a product data record in a database;

associating a plurality of product data records populated with data from said website with the first retail record;

receiving inventory data corresponding to said first store record, the inventory data specifying products offered in said first store;

filtering the product data records using the inventory data, wherein the filtered product data records describe products from said website that are offered in said first store; and

associating the filtered product data records with said first store record, and in accordance therewith, associating the filtered product data records with the defined area.

12 . The method of claim 11 further comprising:

generating an index of the data in the database;

receiving a search request for information within said defined area;

accessing the product data associated with said defined area in response to the request; and

generating a plurality of web pages, the web pages comprising product data in said defined area responsive to the search request.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the search request comprises a search query and a specification of the defined area.

14 . The method of claim 12 wherein the search request is a text message comprising a search query and a geocode, the method further comprising mapping the geocode to said identifier.

15 . The method of claim 12 further comprising:

storing the hours of operation for the first store;

specifying a response time window;

receiving a reservation pickup request;

calculating the pickup time based on the current time, the response time window, and the hours of operation of said store.

16 . The method of claim 11 , the configuration information further comprising one or more rules for identifying product categories.

17 . The method of claim 11 , the configuration information further comprising one or more rules for identifying product web pages.

18 . The method of claim 11 further comprising storing map of the defined area in the first record and storing a location of said first store in said defined area in said first data record.

19 . The method of claim 11 further comprising storing map of the defined area in the first record and storing a location of said first store in said defined area in said first data record.

20 . A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of product data, wherein the product data describes a plurality of products offered for sale by a plurality of businesses;

associating a portion of the product data with a defined physical area, wherein said businesses each have a point-of-sale store located in said defined physical area;

receiving a search request;

searching product data for a plurality of products in a plurality of point-of-sale stores associated with the defined physical area; and

outputting product data for said businesses with point-of-sale stores located in said defined physical area matching said search request.

21 . The computer-readable medium of claim 20 , the method further comprising receiving product inventory data from a point-of-sale store in said defined physical area, the portion of product data associated with the defined physical area comprising product data for a first business matching the inventory data from said point-of-sale store for the first business.

22 . The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein associating a portion of the product data with a defined physical area comprises associating a point-of-sale store of each business with the defined physical area and associating product data from each business with the point-of-sale store in the defined physical area.

23 . The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the plurality of product data is received from a plurality of websites for said businesses.

24 . The computer-readable medium of claim 23 , the method further comprising:

configuring an automated web content extraction program with one or more mapping rules for specifying the location of product data in a website; and

extracting the product data from said website of said business.

25 . The computer-readable medium of claim 24 wherein the defined physical area is represented by a unique identifier, and wherein associating a portion of the product data with the defined physical area comprises associating a portion of the product data with the unique identifier.

26 . The computer-readable medium of claim 25 , the method further comprising:

storing an electronic map of the defined physical area;

associating a plurality of stores with location information for specifying the location of the store on said electronic map; and

specifying the location of each point-of-sale store on the electronic map having product data matching said search request.

Assignments (8)