Methods and apparatus for freshness and completeness of information
A system that facilitates publishing and consuming information that is of time sensitivity, for example, price information. Methods are employed to achieve completeness and freshness in information for a given domain. A preferred embodiment is a shopping site that is capable of comparing prices, purchasing bundled products and dealing with coupons.
1. A system for publishing time-sensitive data, comprising:
a publication site server comprising a first computer readable memory encoded with a first program that configures the publication site server configured to store and to publish a first time-sensitive data from a first data provider and a second time-sensitive data from a second data provider;
a purchasing server communicatively coupled to the publication site server, and comprising a second computer readable memory encoded with a second program that configures the purchasing server configured to accept a fee from the first provider in exchange for publishing the first time-sensitive data ahead of publishing the second time-sensitive data, and to instruct the publication site server to publish the first time-sensitive data; and
a user interface communicatively with the publication site server, and comprising a third computer readable memory encoded with a third program that configures the user interface configured to present the first time-sensitive data ahead of the second time-sensitive data in response to the purchasing server receiving the fee and to the publication site server publishing the first time-sensitive data to the user interface.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to update the first time-sensitive data at least daily in exchange for the fee.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to update the first time-sensitive data at least hourly in exchange for the fee.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the fee comprises an update fee from an update fee schedule indicating when updating should occur in exchange for the update fee, and the update fee schedule associates a first and a second update delay for the first and the second time-sensitive data, respectively.
5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the update fee schedule associates the first and the second time-sensitive data with first and second update queues, respectively.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the fee corresponds to a gathering fee from a gathering fee schedule indicating when first and second websites of the first and the second data providers should be crawled in exchange for the gathering fee.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the gathering fee schedule provides for differential delays in crawling first and second portions of a website.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication site service is further configured to receive additional data representing updates of the first time-sensitive data for publication by the publication site server through action of a human digger not associated with either of the data providers.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the additional data comprises a correction to the first time-sensitive.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to allow searching of goods or services, and comparing prices of the goads or services via the publication site server.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first time-sensitive and second time-sensitive comprise a price of at least one of goods and services.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first time-sensitive and second time-sensitive comprise prices of items within a bundled combination.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to store price information for at least 10,000 items on a storage device.
14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first time-sensitive data comprises a coupon.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface comprises an interface selected from the group consisting of a website, a bulletin board, a forum, and a blog.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the purchasing server is configured to conduct an auction that results in the fee.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to associate the first time-sensitive data and second time-sensitive data with first and second update delays, respectively, as a result of the auction.
18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the publication site server is further configured to associate differential delays in crawling first and second websites related to the first time-sensitive data and second time-sensitive data, respectively, as a result of the auction.
19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the purchasing site server is further configured to operate the auction in a partially blind manner.