System and method for geographically organizing and classifying businesses on the world-wide web

Claim 3

The method according to claim 1, wherein said database comprises a Yellow Pages database.

Claim 4

The method according to claim 1, wherein said graphical multimedia portion of said network comprises the World-Wide Web (WWW) and said document comprises a Web document, and wherein said step of assigning a code comprises assigning a code that classifies the Web document as a first Web document type when there is a match of data associated with the Web document published by the Web site with said data contained in said database, and that classifies the Web document as a second Web document type when there is no match of data associated with the Web document published by the Web site with said data contained in the database.

Claim 5

The method according to claim 3, wherein said database comprises a Yellow Pages database.

Claim 6

The method according to claim 3, wherein the first Web document type is a business document and the second Web document type is a personal document.

Claim 9

The method according to claim 6, wherein said predetermined data comprises Yellow Pages data.

Claim 10

The method according to claim 6, wherein said step of determining further comprises: parsing URLs from the predetermined URL database into domain name and directory path portions; and determining, based on the domain name, whether the URLs from the predetermined URL database are hosted on a true server or on a shared server.

Claim 11

The method according to claim 8, wherein the step of determining further comprises: attempting to determine a root path for each URL hosted on a shared server.

Claim 12

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said criteria include at least one of an address, a telephone number, a facsimile number, a contact and a key-word contained in said HTML, and wherein the characteristics of said web page include a geographical location and a web page host computer.

Claim 13

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said criteria include at least one of an address, a telephone number, a facsimile number, a contact and a key-word contained in said HTML, and wherein the characteristics of said web page include a geographical location and a web page host computer.

Claim 14

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said second database includes a Business Semantic Terminology database having information related to business categories in a Yellow Pages directory.

Claim 15

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said second database includes a Business Semantic Terminology database having information related to business categories in a Yellow Pages directory.

Claim 16

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said second database includes a Yellow Pages database.

Claim 17

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said second database includes a Yellow Pages database.

Claim 18

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web pare at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said web page comprises hyperlinks, and said means for parsing comprises an indexer robot for traversing said hyperlinks in said web page and a web page index database, said indexer robot for indexing a content of said web page into said web index database.

Claim 19

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web pare at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said web page comprises hyperlinks, and said means for parsing comprises an indexer robot for traversing said hyperlinks in said web page and a web page index database, said indexer robot for indexing a content of said web page into said web index database.

Claim 20

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said means for analyzing comprises: means for determining whether said URL comprises one of a root URL and a leaf URL.

Claim 21

A search engine for use on a network for distinguishing between business web pages and personal web pages, comprising: means for parsing the content of a hyper-text markup language (HTML) at a web address and searching for criteria contained therein; means for analyzing a uniform resources locator (URL) of the web address to determine characteristics of a web page at the web address; means for determining whether said criteria match with data contained in a database; and means for cross-referencing a match, determined by said determining means, to a second database to classify a source which published the web page, wherein said means for analyzing comprises: means for determining whether said URL comprises one of a root URL and a leaf URL.

Claim 22

A search engine according to claim 14, wherein said root URL comprises an entry point for the web page on the World-Wide Web, and a leaf URL comprises a link below a root URL, said search engine further comprising: means for parsing said URL into a domain name component and a directory path component; means for analyzing the domain name in said domain name component to determine whether it is associated with a service provider (SP); means for checking the directory path component to judge whether a directory path is missing, when the domain name is not associated with an SP, a missing directory path indicating a root URL, and for checking whether a directory path does not exist to thereby determine that said domain name comprises a root URL, when the domain name is associated with an SP; means for comparing the path to known SP Client Directory paths, when a directory path exists; means for analyzing a home page associated with said root URL, when said URL is determined to be a root URL, thereby automatically to extract home page data contained therein; and means for assigning the home page data to the Root URL being analyzed.

Claim 25

The method according to claim 16, further comprising: assigning business category codes to the uniform resource locators associated with businesses.

Claim 26

The method according to claim 17, wherein the business category codes are the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.