Re: Patent pending: Network-based classified information systems.

Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> wrote:
> 1) I found a dozen auto repair shops only blocks from my house
> in under 1 minute on Yahoo, with maps and directions--about as
> long as it would have taken me with the yellow pages.  Except
> with Yahoo, I have the yellow pages of every city in the US and
> many overseas immediately at hand.  Yes, a search engine would
> have been useless, so I didn't use one--I used a directory.
> What's new or interesting about that observation?
> 
> 2) Any patented technology on the net is useless.  No "fair"
> licensing fee can ever compete with zero.

Thanks kindly for your reply. Your comments go right to the heart of the
matter. My patent application:
   "http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dudmills/CCGpatent.html"
is about more than just yellow pages advertising but it is a good
example.

You did not use a search engine because you know that you could find
what you are looking for more quickly and easily in your local yellow
pages book or searching your favourite yellow pages database. Your local
yellow pages book is probably more useful because it has display
advertisements useful for picking a repairer with the right skills.

This clearly illustrates that search engines and, to a lesser degree,
online databases are currently not as useful as yellow pages and white
pages books for the vast majority of people.

In my patent application I am trying to remedy that by providing means
by which improved search engine databases can be automatically built
from web pages containing structured classification, contact and
geographic data. If adopted, this would, at the barest minimum,
integrate all the capabilities of your favourite yellow and white pages
databases and all the capabilities of your favourite search engine and
all the capabilities of the web and provide easier access to better
content than can be provided by yellow pages display advertisements at a
fraction of the cost to advertisers.

You would be able to use a search engine to search, for example, for the
web pages:
1. having the classification "motor vehicle repairers",
2. having a service location within a specific geographic area,
3. nominating a particular brand name (eg of motor vehicle),
4. having particular keywords etc.

Local yellow and white pages books have always been free to end users as
far as I am aware. Display advertising in the yellow pages books is a
serious cost for businesses. In even Australia (population 18M) yellow
pages is an $750M business. An army of people are required just to
gather the data for basic one line entries in the yellow pages. Another
army is employed selling, producing and publishing display
advertisements. A battalion is employed in delivering and recycling the
books.

You are right in as much as licensing end users would be useless or at
least foolhardy to attempt. While information on the web yellow pages
databases is free to the end user, it is expensive to provide and is
paid for by businesses advertising in yellow pages telephone books. I
am trying to provide improvements in web searching technology which
businesses will find valuable enough to license.
 
Dudley Mills,
30 Hutchison Crescent, Kambah, ACT 2902, Australia.
phone/fax: +61-2-6296-2639
email: dudmills@ozemail.com.au
web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dudmills/

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 1998 22:32:48 UTC