Systems and methods for efficiently distributing alert messages

Abstract

In response to receiving a text describing a news event, a centralized information provider applies semantic rules to the text to determine to which client attributes the text corresponds. The centralized information provider retrieves, from an electronic database, (i) identifiers for multiple clients, (ii) a set of client attributes for each of the clients, and (iii) for each of the clients, an identifier of a respective service provider. The centralized information provider then generates a metric of relevance of the news event for each of the clients, based on the client attributes of the client and the client attributes to which the text was determined to correspond. The centralized information provider transmits, to at least one service provider, an electronic alert message descriptive of the news event and an indication of a set of clients of the service provider for distribution to some or all of the set of clients.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for efficiently distributing electronic alerts, the method comprising:
 providing, from a computing system associated with a service provider to a centralized information provider via a communication network, anonymized data including respective client attributes for each of a plurality of clients, each of the attributes selected from a predefined set;   receiving, from the centralized information provider, an alert message for a news event, the alert message including (i) a textual component describing the news event and (ii) an indication of clients, selected from among the plurality of clients, for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold using the respective client attributes;   determining, at the computing system, identities of the clients indicated in the received alert;   providing a listing of the identified clients via a user interface, including providing a control for selecting or unselecting individual clients for distribution of the alert; and   distributing the alert via the communication network to one or more clients selected via the user interface.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the alert message further includes receiving a set of event attributes which the centralized information provider determined for the news event. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein providing the listing of the identified clients via the user interface includes providing, for each of the clients, those of the client attributes that match the client attributes. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a plurality of alert messages for a plurality of respective news events, including receiving, for each of the plurality of alert messages an indication of clients for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold; and   listing the plurality of alert messages via the user interface in accordance with numbers of clients for the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a text template for distributing as part of the alert to the one or more clients, and   providing an interactive control for editing the text template.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a profile of a potential client for distribution of the news event, the profile including a set of attributes. 
     
     
         7 . A system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and   a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:   provide, to a centralized information provider via a communication network, anonymized data including respective client attributes for each of a plurality of clients, each of the attributes selected from a predefined set;   receive, from the centralized information provider, an alert message for a news event, the alert message including (i) a textual component describing the news event and (ii) an indication of clients, selected from among the plurality of clients, for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold using the respective client attributes;   determine identities of the clients indicated in the received alert;   provide a listing of the identified clients via a user interface, including providing a control for selecting or unselecting individual clients for distribution of the alert; and   distribute the alert via the communication network to one or more clients selected via the user interface.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein receiving the alert message further includes receiving a set of event attributes which the centralized information provider determined for the news event. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein providing the listing of the identified clients via the user interface includes providing, for each of the clients, those of the client attributes that match the client attributes. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the system to:
 receive a plurality of alert messages for a plurality of respective news events, including receiving, for each of the plurality of alert messages an indication of clients for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold; and   list the plurality of alert messages via the user interface in accordance with numbers of clients for the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the system to:
 receive a text template for distributing as part of the alert to the one or more clients, and   provide an interactive control for editing the text template.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the system to:
 receive a profile of a potential client for distribution of the news event, the profile including a set of attributes.   
     
     
         13 . A non-transitory computer-readable memory storing thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
 provide, to a centralized information provider via a communication network, anonymized data including respective client attributes for each of a plurality of clients, each of the attributes selected from a predefined set;   receive, from the centralized information provider, an alert message for a news event, the alert message including (i) a textual component describing the news event and (ii) an indication of clients, selected from among the plurality of clients, for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold using the respective client attributes;   determine identities of the clients indicated in the received alert;   provide a listing of the identified clients via a user interface, including providing a control for selecting or unselecting individual clients for distribution of the alert; and   distribute the alert via the communication network to one or more clients selected via the user interface.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable memory of  claim 13 , wherein receiving the alert message further includes receiving a set of event attributes which the centralized information provider determined for the news event. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable memory of  claim 14 , wherein providing the listing of the identified clients via the user interface includes providing, for each of the clients, those of the client attributes that match the client attributes. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable memory of  claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the one or more processors to:
 receive a plurality of alert messages for a plurality of respective news events, including receiving, for each of the plurality of alert messages an indication of clients for which the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold; and   list the plurality of alert messages via the user interface in accordance with numbers of clients for the news event was determined to have a metric of relevance in excess of a certain threshold.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable memory of  claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the one or more processors to:
 receive a text template for distributing as part of the alert to the one or more clients, and   provide an interactive control for editing the text template.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable memory of  claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing hardware, further cause the one or more processors to:
 receive a profile of a potential client for distribution of the news event, the profile including a set of attributes.