Patent ID: 6236980
Filing Date: 2001-05-22
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A semi-automated data processing system to report multiple summary recommendations about an item from multiple media sources as an aid in decision-making, comprising:a) a general purpose computer with a computer memory encoded with executable instructions representing a computer program,b) at least one data storing means accessible by said computer program,c) a recommendation data set stored in said data storage means, said recommendation data set comprised of a plurality of recommendation capsules from a plurality of sources, each said recommendation capsule comprised of:i) an item identification,corresponding to an item;ii) a summary of an original recommendation about the item;(1) wherein the original recommendation includes advice, suggestion, endorsement, approval, caution, or implied recommendation, about the item;(2) where the original recommendation, before being summarized, was originally present in an issue of a media source that is selected from the group consisting of(a) magazines and newsletters,(b) online sources, and(c) broadcast programs,(3) wherein a summary of the original recommendation is a conclusion in the form of a phrase, grade, code or symbol that suggests a sentiment or a degree of positive, negative, or neutral action toward the item, andiii) a hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item, where said hierarchy of sources of the original recommendation about the item is comprised of:(1) a name of a publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,(2) a date identification associated with the issue of the publication, online source, or broadcast program in whose issue the recommendation was originally present,(3) a title of an article in said issue, in which the recommendation about an item was present, and(4) a name of a recommender associated with the recommendation about the item in said article,d) item selecting means controllable by a user, ande) a report generating means controlled by said computer program to generate a report of summary recommendations for an item selected by the item selecting means, where the report of summary recommendations for said item selected by the selecting means is comprised of:i) an identification of the selected item,ii) a section for recommendation capsules about the selected item, where associated with a recommendation capsule about the selected item, there is at least a(1) summary recommendation,(2) date identification associated with the original recommendation's hierarchy of sources, and(3) an identification of at least one other source from the original recommendation's hierarchy of sources,whereby, without any further user action, a selection by a user of an item in which the user wants to make an investment or purchase decision, results in a summary report or display that lets the user instantly both see and compare the collected recommendations about the selected item from multiple magazines, web sites or broadcast program sources with all the information in one report.