# US 2013/0159828 A1 · Method and Apparatus for Building Sales Tools by Mining Data from Websites

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- Number: US 2013/0159828 A1
- Document ID: US20130159828A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 13/690,444
- Filed: 2012-11-30
- Published: 2013-06-20
- Earliest claimed: 2005-12-23
- Assignees: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.
- Inventors: Srinivas Bangalore; Junlan Feng; Mazin Gilbert; Jay Gordon Wilpon
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20130159828A1

## CPC

- G06F 40/134: Hyperlinking
- G06Q 30/02: Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
- G06Q 30/06: Buying, selling or leasing transactions
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

A website mining tool is disclosed that extracts information from, for example, a company's website and presents the extracted information in a graphical user interface (GUI). In one embodiment, web pages from a website are stored in, for example, computer memory and a structure of the web pages is identified. A plurality of blocks of information is then extracted as a function of this structure and a category is assigned to each block of information. The elements in the blocks of information are then displayed, for example to a salesperson, as a function of these categories. In another embodiment, Document Object Modeling parsing is used to identify the structure of the web pages. In yet another embodiment, a support vector machine is used to categorize each block of information.

## Claims

### Claim at position 1

1-30. (canceled)

### Claim 31

A method for characterizing a plurality of extensible markup language documents, the method comprising:
extracting a plurality of blocks of information from the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
assigning a block of information in the plurality of blocks of information to a task complexity category in a plurality of categories, the block of information comprising a value indicative of a number of extensible markup language documents in the plurality of extensible markup language documents and a value indicative of a number of links associated with the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
associating a task complexity with the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the block of information and a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents; and
characterizing the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the task complexity.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

The method of claim 31 wherein each of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises a link to another extensible markup language document of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 33 (depends on 32)

The method of claim 32 further comprising:
traversing the plurality of extensible markup language documents by following each link of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 34 (depends on 31)

The method of claim 31 further comprising:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine the structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 35 (depends on 34)

The method of claim 34 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents using document object model parsing.

### Claim 36 (depends on 34)

The method of claim 34 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
downloading the plurality of extensible markup language documents to a local disk.

### Claim 37 (depends on 34)

The method of claim 34 further comprising:
displaying the structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 38

An apparatus for characterizing a plurality of extensible markup language documents, the apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
extracting a plurality of blocks of information from the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
assigning a block of information in the plurality of blocks of information to a task complexity category in a plurality of categories, the block of information comprising a value indicative of a number of extensible markup language documents in the plurality of extensible markup language documents and a value indicative of a number of links associated with the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
associating a task complexity with the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the block of information and a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents; and
characterizing the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the task complexity.

### Claim 39 (depends on 38)

The apparatus of claim 38 wherein each of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises a link to another extensible markup language document of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 40 (depends on 39)

The apparatus of claim 39, the operations further comprising:
traversing the plurality of extensible markup language documents by following each link of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 41 (depends on 38)

The apparatus of claim 38, the operations further comprising:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine the structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 42 (depends on 41)

The apparatus of claim 41 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents using document object model parsing.

### Claim 43 (depends on 41)

The apparatus of claim 41 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
downloading the plurality of extensible markup language documents to a local disk.

### Claim 44 (depends on 41)

The apparatus of claim 41, the operations further comprising:
displaying the structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 45

A computer readable medium storing computer program instructions for characterizing a plurality of extensible markup language documents, the computer program instructions when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
extracting a plurality of blocks of information from the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
assigning a block of information in the plurality of blocks of information to a task complexity category in a plurality of categories, the block of information comprising a value indicative of a number of extensible markup language documents in the plurality of extensible markup language documents and a value indicative of a number of links associated with the plurality of extensible markup language documents;
associating a task complexity with the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the block of information and a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents; and
characterizing the plurality of extensible markup language documents based on the task complexity.

### Claim 46 (depends on 45)

The computer readable medium of claim 45 wherein each of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises a link to another extensible markup language document of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 47 (depends on 46)

The computer readable medium of claim 46, the operations further comprising:
traversing the plurality of extensible markup language documents by following each link of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 48 (depends on 45)

The computer readable medium of claim 45, the operations further comprising:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine the structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents.

### Claim 49 (depends on 48)

The computer readable medium of claim 48 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents using document object model parsing.

### Claim 50 (depends on 48)

The computer readable medium of claim 48 wherein parsing the plurality of extensible markup language documents to determine a structural hierarchy of the plurality of extensible markup language documents comprises:
downloading the plurality of extensible markup language documents to a local disk.