Online marketplace for automatically extracted data

Abstract

A system for automatically locating and data-typing information originating from many Web pages, and then collecting that information in a database. The database is then made available via an online data marketplace which allows users from different organizations to buy and sell related data, associated advertisements, and access to the communities of end-users who may also view advertisements and make purchases.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for extracting information from a collection of source pages, comprising:
 identify a schema for a domain that defines data relationships and data types expected for source pages in a given domain;   for a specific source page,
 creating a template associated with the source page; 
 allowing a user to identify a region using the source page; and 
   for the identified region, using user input to determine a data type and inter-relationship to other data.   
     
     
         2 . A method as in  claim 1  further comprising:
 accepting user input identifying the highlighted region; 
 examining the schema; and 
 displaying a list of likely data types. 
 
     
     
         3 . A method as in  claim 1  additionally comprising:
 for a plurality of origin pages in the domain; 
 matching the template to the source page to identify data elements in the source page that match the annotated data in the template; and 
 storing data elements in a database associated with the domain, based on the schema.