Patent Document ID: 8548844
Application ID: 12587940

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented data mining system for use in rating endorsers, comprising: a server computer having a tangible computing processor, the processor in data communication with a non-transitory computer memory that stores instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the computer to implement: a search engine that searches a plurality of RSS feeds for mentions of an identified endorser in conjunction with keywords; a ratings engine that rates the mentions in at least a portion of the RSS feeds based on an identified subset of a categorical hierarchy of the keywords and a number of words in the RSS feeds between the endorser and the corresponding keywords, wherein positive mentions and negative mentions are separately tracked and combined into an overall rating; an information engine that obtains information regarding a number of viewings of the rated mentions in the RSS feeds; a repository that stores each of the plurality of RSS feeds; and a data miner communicatively connected to the search engine, the ratings engine, and the repository, the data miner operative to generate a consumer opinion index of the endorser based on a correlation of the rating of the mentions and the number of viewings, wherein the RSS feeds stored in the repository, the mentions of the subject in conjunction with the keywords, and the consumer opinion index are searchable, wherein the mentions are permanently available from the repository; and wherein the endorser is one of an affinity brand, a marketing partner, and a sponsor.

---

Claim 3:
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one search engine searches at least weekly.