Patent ID: 8271429

Claim:
A system for collecting and processing data over a communications network, comprising: a processor based web server comprising: a plurality of plugins stored in the server, each configured to retrieve unstructured data from a data source on behalf of a plurality of users over said communications network and to convert said unstructured data by parsing said unstructured data into structured data comprising historical data, updated data and analytical graphical representation of said data; an activation module for receiving each user's selection of one or more data items relating to a subject matter to be monitored from a client device associated with said each user over said communications network; and a data mining marshaller (DMM) module for associating a plugin to each data item selected by said plurality of users, associating said plugin to an associated data source, associating said plugin to each user who have selected same associated data item to be monitored, and managing each plugin to periodically retrieve said unstructured data from said associated data source based on said associated data item to be monitored on behalf of the users who have selected said associated data item to be monitored to enable multiple users to share said structured data based on shared interest in same subject matter; and a database to store said structured data received from said plurality of plugins.