Indices for Credibility Trending, Monitoring, and Lead Generation

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a credibility system that computes credibility scores to quantify the credibility of different businesses and to coalesce the generated credibility scores into various indices. The indices comparatively present the credibility of a particular business relative to other businesses along one or more dimensions. Based on the indices, the system identifies trends in the credibility of a particular business. The system derives preliminary credibility for a new business for which credibility data has not yet been obtained based on credibility that has been previously established for other businesses in an index associated with the new business. The system provides automated services for monitoring credibility of a business and for generating alerts to notify the business that its credibility has reached various thresholds. The system identifies business practices that improve upon or adversely affect the credibility of a particular business.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for automated credibility management, the method comprising:
 providing an application to a particular entity for installation on a network enabled device of the particular entity;   continually receiving over the Internet from a plurality of online sites at a credibility management system machine, reviews and ratings about experiences and accounts of others with the particular entity, the machine comprising a microprocessor and memory storing at least one threshold, wherein the microprocessor
 updates a score quantifying credibility of the particular entity based on sentiment expressed in said reviews and ratings; 
 monitors the score in relation to a threshold as said score changes because of said updates; 
 generates an alert in response to a change in the score causing said score to pass the threshold; 
 transmits the alert over the Internet to the network enabled device, wherein the alert activates the application to display on the network enabled device a notification that credibility of the particular entity has passed the threshold. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising continually receiving over the Internet from a plurality of online sites at the credibility management system machine, reviews and ratings about experiences and accounts of others with a subset of entities that are related to the particular entity according to a specified filter. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the microprocessor further identifies a positively reviewed or rated business practice in the reviews and ratings directed to the subset of entities. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the alert further presents the positively reviewed or rated business practice as a suggested business practice for improving the particular entity credibility score. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising receiving a set of filters provided by the particular entity using the application to the credibility management system machine, wherein the set of filters specify at least one of an operational industry and geographic region. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the microprocessor further filters a subset of entities from a plurality of entities using the set of filters, wherein the subset of entities includes entities from the plurality of entities that operate within the operational industry or geographic region specified in the set of filters. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the microprocessor further generates an index presenting the particular entity credibility score relative to credibility scores of the subset of entities. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said alert further activates the display to present the index with a set of interactive tools enabling the particular entity to adjust the set of filters, wherein adjusting the set of filters modifies the index to present the particular entity credibility score relative to the credibility scores of a different second subset of entities from the plurality of entities that satisfy the adjusted set of filters. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising receiving a value for the threshold from the application over the Internet at the machine, wherein the value is entered by the particular entity to the application. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein transmitting the alert comprises sending at least one of an email and text message over the Internet to the application. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor performs natural language processing of the reviews, and wherein generating the alert comprises providing a notification of a review containing negative sentiment directed to the particular entity or a practice of the particular entity. 
     
     
         12 . A method comprising:
 providing an application to a particular entity for installation on a network enabled device of the particular entity, the application displaying a graphical user interface (GUI) with an interactive tool controlling a value for a filter;   continually receiving over the Internet from a plurality of online sites at a credibility management system machine, reviews and ratings about experiences and accounts of others with the particular entity, the machine comprising a microprocessor and memory storing at least one threshold, wherein the microprocessor,
 obtains a credit score of the particular entity and a credit score for each entity of a set of entities that satisfy the filter value; 
 generates an alert comprising an index presenting the particular entity credit score in relation to credit scores of the set of entities; 
 transmits the alert over the Internet to the network enabled device, wherein the alert updates the application GUI to display said index. 
   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the microprocessor further generates a credit rating for the particular entity as a supplement to the credit score, wherein said generating comprises adjusting the particular entity credit score according to the credit scores of the set of entities, wherein the microprocessor incrementally increases the particular entity credit rating based on a number of entities from the set of entities having a lower credit score than the particular entity credit score, and wherein the credit rating presents creditworthiness of the particular entity relative to creditworthiness of each entity of the set of entities. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the alert further presents the particular entity credit rating in place of or in addition to the credit score in the application GUI. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the filter specifies a geographic region surrounding the particular entity, wherein the interactive tool defines the geographic region surrounding the particular entity, and wherein the set of entities comprises entities operating within the geographic region of the filter. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the filter specifies an industry, and wherein the set of entities comprises entities operating within the industry specified by the filter. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the index is a graph plotting (i) a plurality of data points representing the credit score of each entity of the set of entities and (ii) an indicator identifying in the graph, the credit score of the particular entity. 
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 providing a credibility or credit monitoring application to a particular entity for installation on a network enabled device of the particular entity;   continually receiving references to events over the Internet from a plurality of online sites at a system machine, the machine comprising a microprocessor and memory, wherein the microprocessor,
 identifies a threshold number of the references directed to a particular event; 
 processes the references directed to the particular event to identify at least one of a geographic region or industry in which the particular entity operates influenced by the particular event; 
 determines a magnitude of the event based on sentiment expressed within the references directed to the particular event; 
 adjusts one of a credibility score or credit score of the particular entity based on the magnitude of the particular event; 
 transmits an alert over the Internet to the network enabled device, wherein the alert activates the application to display a change to one of the particular entity credibility score or credit score as a result of said adjusting according to the magnitude of the particular event. 
   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said identifying comprises identifying a threshold number of negative references to the geographic region or industry in which the particular entity operates, and wherein said adjusting comprises decreasing the credibility score or the credit score of the particular entity based on the magnitude of the negative references to the particular event.