Duplicate Listing Suppression via Representative Entity Consolidation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Duplicate business listings across multiple search provider systems lead to confusion for consumers and loss of business for merchants, as existing systems lack accurate matching and data cleanup processes, resulting in incorrect and redundant listings.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that identifies a representative listing on a provider system, designates matching listings as duplicates, and requests the provider system to suppress these duplicates, using identification data and external identifiers to ensure accurate representation and minimize duplicate listings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a business location is represented multiple times on a provider site to maximize content presence, then the merchant can ensure broader visibility and content availability, but duplicate listings are created that confuse consumers and reduce information accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple duplicate listings into a single representative listing by identifying matches based on identification data (business name, address, phone number) and consolidating their content. The system combines photos, videos, reviews, and other content from duplicate listings into one unified listing, eliminating redundancy while preserving all valuable information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a single authorized representative listing that copies and consolidates content from multiple duplicate sources. Instead of maintaining multiple separate listings, the system creates one master listing that replicates the essential information from all duplicates while adding unique content from each source, thereby reducing duplicates while maintaining content presence.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple listings are maintained for the same business location, then content availability increases, but consumer confusion and frustration increase leading to lost business
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges all content from multiple listings (photos, videos, reviews, descriptions) into a single representative listing. This consolidation maintains comprehensive content availability while presenting a unified view to consumers, thereby eliminating confusion caused by multiple duplicate listings showing different or conflicting information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where consumer interactions (reviews, ratings, clicks) on the representative listing are aggregated from all source listings. This ensures that the consolidated listing maintains high engagement metrics and content quality while presenting a single accurate view to consumers, reducing confusion while preserving versatility.
3Ease of manufacture
If duplicate listings are allowed across multiple data sources, then data aggregation is simplified, but matching accuracy and data quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual or simple automated matching processes with an AI-powered machine learning system that analyzes identification data (business name, address, phone number, tax ID) to accurately distinguish duplicates from legitimate separate businesses. This substitution maintains ease of data aggregation while dramatically improving matching accuracy through intelligent pattern recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the matching parameters from simple keyword matching to multi-parameter verification including business name variations, address formatting normalization, phone number validation, and tax ID verification. This approach allows efficient data aggregation from multiple sources while maintaining high matching accuracy by considering multiple identifying characteristics simultaneously.
4Measurement precision
If merchants manually manage listings across multiple provider sites, then listing accuracy can be maintained, but time and resources are wasted on repetitive updates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal listing management system where a single representative listing serves multiple provider sites simultaneously. Updates made to the representative listing are automatically propagated to all connected provider platforms, maintaining listing accuracy across all channels while eliminating the need for merchants to manually update each site separately, thereby saving significant time and resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service automation where the platform automatically monitors, identifies, and manages duplicate listings across provider sites without requiring merchant intervention. The system autonomously consolidates duplicates, updates content, and maintains synchronization across platforms, freeing merchants from repetitive manual management tasks while preserving listing accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A source system searches a provider system for one or more listings. The source system receives a plurality of potential matching listings. The source system designates a representative listing of the entity located on a provider system from among the plurality of potential matching listings. The source system designates one or more remaining potential matching listings of the plurality of potential matching listings as one or more duplicate listings. The source system transmits, to the provider system, a request to synchronize the representative listing as the only representative listing of the entity on the provider system, the request comprising a first provider-supplied external identifier of the representative listing. The source system transmits, to the provider system, a request to suppress the one or more remaining potential matching listings as one or more duplicate listings, the request to suppress comprising one or more provider-supplied external identifiers of the one or more remaining potential matching listings.