RANKING ENTITIES BASED ON A COUNT OF SHIPMENTS DETERMINED IN AGGREGATED PUBLIC TRANSACTION RECORDS
A platform facilitates buyers, sellers, and third parties in obtaining information related to each other's transaction histories, such as a supplier's shipment history, the types of materials typically shipped, a supplier's customers, a supplier's expertise, what materials and how much a buyer purchases, buyer and shipper reliability, similarity between buyers, similarity between suppliers, and the like. The platform aggregates data from a variety of sources, including, without limitation, customs data associated with actual import/export transactions and facilitates the generation of reports as to the quality of buyers and suppliers, the reports relating to a variety of parameters that are associated with buyer and supplier quality.
1 . (canceled)
2 . A method comprising:
using a computer implemented facility to identify and aggregate public transaction records for entities based at least in part on similarity of entity identifying data in data fields of a plurality of public transaction records;
selecting a portion of the entities that have at least one transaction record that comprises data that relates to a search keyword received from a user;
calculating a count of shipments made by at least some entities from the aggregated public records; and
presenting the selected portion in an ordered list based on the calculated count of shipments.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein calculating the count of shipments comprises calculating a count of shipments for at least one entity of the portion of the entities.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein data that relates to the search keyword comprises data that matches a synonym of the search keyword.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein data that relates to the search keyword comprises data that at least one of matches the keyword, comprises a synonym for a keyword, comprises data that was determined to be useful in searches by other users, and comprises data that is similar to the keyword.
6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the search keyword is a keyword that represents a product or service of an entity.
7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the count of shipments is based on customs data related to transaction records by a supplier with a third party.
8 . The method of claim 2 , further including associating aggregated public transaction records for an entity with a supplier.
9 . A method comprising:
using a computer implemented facility to identify and aggregate public transaction records for entities based at least in part on similarity of entity identifying data in data fields of a plurality of public transaction records;
selecting a portion of the entities that have at least one transaction record that comprises data that relates to a search keyword received from a user;
calculating a count of shipments made by at least some entities from the aggregated public records; and
in an ordered presentation of search results, presenting the calculated count of shipments for at least one entity.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein calculating the count of shipments comprises calculating a count of shipments for at least one entity of the portion of the entities.
11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein data that relates to the search keyword comprises data that matches a synonym of the search keyword.
12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein data that relates to the search keyword comprises data that at least one of matches the keyword, comprises a synonym for a keyword, comprises data that was determined to be useful in searches by other users, and comprises data that is similar to the keyword.
13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the search keyword is a keyword that represents a product or service of an entity.
14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the count of shipments is based on customs data related to transaction records by a supplier with a third party.
15 . The method of claim 9 , further including associating aggregated public transaction records for a entity with a supplier.
16 . A system comprising:
a plurality of public transaction records containing entity identifying data;
an aggregation facility for aggregating data from the plurality of public transaction records for at least a portion of the plurality of public transaction records based at least in part on similarity of the entity identifying data in the plurality of public transaction records;
a search interface for receiving a keyword from a user and facilitating presentation of ordered search results based on a search for the keyword among the plurality of public transaction records; and
a computer implemented facility that calculates a count of shipments made by at least some entities from the aggregated public records and incorporates a calculated count of shipments for at least one entity presented in the ordered search results.
17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the search for the keyword comprises search for a synonym of the search keyword.
18 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the search for the keyword comprises searching the plurality of public transaction records for data that at least one of matches the keyword, comprises a synonym for a keyword, comprises data that was determined to be useful in searches by other users, and comprises data that is similar to the keyword.
19 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the search keyword is a keyword that represents a product or service of an entity.
20 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the count of shipments is based on customs data related to transaction records by a supplier with a third party.
21 . The system of claim 16 , further including a supplier association facility for associating aggregated public transaction records for an entity with a supplier.