Systems and methods for domain inventory index generation from disparate sets

Abstract

Systems and methods for ranking domain names across disparate sets thereof include receiving domain name search results from multiple sources, wherein a ranking function is unusable to rank sets from the disparate sources against each other, normalizing the sets to generate a plurality of normalized candidate domain names that can be ranked against each other using the ranking function, and applying the ranking function to the plurality of normalized candidate domain names to create a ranked list of domain names. The ranked list may be sent to the device of the searching entity so that the “best” domain name can be selected even when the results originate from disparate results.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising the steps of:
 receiving, by a server communicatively coupled to a network from a computing device in electronic communication with the server via the network, a domain name search query including a search token;   receiving, by the server, a first plurality of candidate domain names, wherein each candidate domain name in the first plurality of candidate domain names is relevant to the search token;   receiving, by the server, a second plurality of candidate domain names, wherein each candidate domain name in the second plurality of candidate domain names is relevant to the search token, the second plurality of candidate domain names being disparate from the first plurality of candidate domain names, wherein a ranking function is unusable to rank one or both of the first plurality of candidate domain names and the second plurality of candidate domain names;   normalizing, by the server, the first plurality of candidate domain names and the second plurality of candidate domain names to generate a plurality of normalized candidate domain names that can be ranked against each other using the ranking function;   applying, by the server, the ranking function to the plurality of normalized candidate domain names to create a ranked list of domain names; and   sending the ranked list of domain names to the computing device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the search token comprises identifying the search token in a character string comprising a second level domain of a domain name. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the first plurality of candidate domain names further comprises:
 comparing the search token to each of a plurality of previously registered domain names; and   determining that one of the previously registered domain names contains the search token.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 each candidate domain name of the first plurality of candidate domain names and the second plurality of candidate domain names comprises one or more tokens of a plurality of tokens;   each token of the plurality of tokens appears in at least one of the candidate domain names;   all of the candidate domain names are formed from one or more of the plurality of tokens; and   normalizing the first plurality of candidate domain names and the second plurality of candidate domain names comprises:
 generating a token index comprising the plurality of tokens; 
 calculating the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) of each token in the token index using each of the candidate domain names as a document; and 
 for each candidate domain name, using the TF-IDF of each of the tokens in the candidate domain name to calculate a normalized score for the candidate domain name. 
   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein normalizing the first plurality of candidate domain names and the second plurality of candidate domain names further comprises:
 determining a domain demand for each of the candidate domain names; and   modifying the normalized score of each of the candidate domain names with the domain demand for the candidate domain name.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the first plurality of candidate domain names comprises generating the first plurality of candidate domain names in real-time in response to the domain name search query. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein receiving the second plurality of candidate domain names comprises obtaining the second plurality of candidate domain names from an index of pre-existing domain names. 
     
     
         8 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, by a server communicatively coupled to a network, a plurality of domain name sets from a plurality of disparate domain name sources, each domain name set including a corresponding plurality of domain names;   identifying, by the server, one or more tokens in second level domains of each of the domain names in each of the plurality of domain name sets;   computing, by the server using the one or more tokens, a normalized score for each of the domain names in each of the plurality of domain name sets; and   generating, by the server from the normalized score for each of the domain names in each of the plurality of domain name sets, a ranked list of the plurality of domain names in order of relevance to at least a first token of the one or more tokens.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein a ranking function is unusable to rank one or both of a first domain name set and a second domain name set both selected from the plurality of domain name sets, and wherein generating the ranked list comprises applying the ranking function to the first domain name set and the second domain name set using the normalized scores. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the server from a computing device in electronic communication with the server via the network, a domain name search query comprising one or more search terms that form at least a portion of a second level domain of a target domain name, each domain name in each of the plurality of domain name sets including one or more of the one or more search terms; and   sending the ranked list of domain names to the computing device.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein receiving the plurality of domain name sets comprises:
 sending the one or more search terms to a first domain name source of the plurality of disparate domain name sources, the first domain name source generating a plurality of candidate domain names from the one or more search terms in real-time; and   receiving a first domain name set of the plurality of domain name sets from the first domain name source, the corresponding plurality of domain names in the first domain name set comprising the plurality of candidate domain names.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein receiving the plurality of domain name sets comprises obtaining a first domain name set of the plurality of domain name sets from a first domain name source of the plurality of disparate domain name sources, the first domain name source comprising an index of pre-existing domain names. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein computing the normalized score of each domain name comprises:
 calculating the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) of each token of the one or more tokens using each of the domain names in the plurality of domain name sets as a document; and   using the TF-IDF of each of the tokens in the domain name to calculate the normalized score for the domain name.   
     
     
         14 . A system, comprising:
 a server communicatively coupled to a network and configured to receive a first plurality of domain names and a second plurality of domain names disparate from the first plurality of candidate domain names, wherein a ranking function is unusable to rank together the first plurality of domain names and the second plurality of domain names; and   a disparate set ranking module installed on the server, one or more processors of the server executing the disparate set ranking module to:
 normalize the first plurality of domain names with the second plurality of domain names to generate a set of normalized domain names that can be ranked using the ranking function; and 
 apply the ranking function to the set to generate a ranked list of domain names. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein:
 to normalize the first plurality of domain names with the second plurality of domain names, the one or more processors execute the disparate set ranking module to:
 identify one or more tokens in a second level domain of a first domain name of the first plurality of domain names; and 
 compute, using the one or more tokens, a normalized score for the first domain name; and 
   the one or more processors apply the ranking function using the normalized score.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors execute the disparate set ranking module to calculate the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) of each token of the one or more tokens using each of the domain names in a plurality of domain name sets as a document, the plurality of domain name sets including the first plurality of domain names and the second plurality of domain names, the one or more processors using the TF-IDF of each token of the one or more tokens to compute the normalized score. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the server is further configured to:
 receive, from a computing device in electronic communication with the server via the network, a domain name search query comprising one or more search terms that form a second level domain of a target domain name, each domain name of each of the first plurality of domain names and the second plurality of domain names including one or more of the one or more search terms; and   send the ranked list of domain names to the computing device.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , further comprising a domain name suggestion module installed on the server, the one or more processors executing the domain name suggestion module to generate the first plurality of domain names from the one or more search terms in real-time. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein to receive the first plurality of domain names, the server is configured to obtain the first plurality of domain names from a first domain name source comprising an index of pre-existing domain names.