AU2009212838B1 - Data Aggregation System - Google Patents

Description

P/00/009 Regulation 3.10 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Invention Title: DATA AGGREGATION SYSTEM The invention is described in the following statement, including the best method of performing it known to us: Our Ref: 092014 DATA AGGREGATION SYSTEM The present invention relates to a database system and, more particularly, to a database system incorporating 5 specialised data seeking engines. 1. BACKGROUND There are a number of internet job boards already in operation on the internet. These online job boards receive 10 job ads from Recruitment and Job Agencies ("Recruiters")and from direct employers, publish these job ads in the online job boards, allow job seekers to search the advertised job ads based on selected search categories and allow job seekers to apply for a job directly from the job board web 15 interface ("Traditional Job Board/s"). An example for a well known Traditional Job Board is www.monster.com, which was established around 1995 and is considered to be the largest job board in the world. In Australia, the online job classifieds market is dominated by www.seek.com.au, which 20 was established around 1997 (Seek is now part of the Consolidated Media Holdings Group). Other prominent Traditional Job Boards in Australia are www.mycareer.com.au (controlled by Faifax Group) and www.careerone.com.au (controlled by News Corporation Group). 25 During 2004 a second class of online job search engines has emerged, known as Aggregators or Vertical Job Search Engines ("Aggregators" or "Aggregation"). Aggregators search out other websites that advertise jobs online (i.e. Traditional Job Boards and, to a limited 30 extent, direct employers' websites and Recruiters' websites), aggregate the jobs listings from these websites onto the aggregator's websites and refer or redirect job seekers to the website where the job ad was advertised. Unlike Traditional Job Boards, Aggregators do not receive and advertise job ads from Recruiters and from direct employers, but aggregate existing job ads which were received and advertised elsewhere. A well known Aggregator is www.simplyhired.com and its Australian website, 5 www.simplyhired.com.au. These websites are commonly computer implemented. US7490086 to Joao discloses a computer implemented method for providing recruitment information. 10 1.1 The Problems with Traditional Job Boards Traditional Job Boards have gained popularity since they were first introduced more than a decade ago. Job boards allow direct employers and recruitment agencies to advertise online job ads which are inserted by the 15 advertiser and displayed using a web user interface. However, as the internet traffic and number of job ads increased the search results have become less efficient, as set out below: 20 1.1.1 High Advertising Costs Created a 'Hidden Job Market' for Employer's Job Ads According to Direct Employers Association Inc. (a non-profit human resources consortium of leading U.S Direct Employers) ("Direct Employers"), less 25 than 30% of direct employers jobs are posted on Traditional Job Boards. It has been estimated by Direct Employers that more than 70% of the positions indexed through direct employers cannot be found on Traditional Job Boards, despite the 30 fact that these jobs are listed in the career pages of direct employers' websites and are publically available. This has created a 'hidden job market' for jobs to which job seekers have had practically no access (due to the need to search individually the numerous websites of direct employers). The 'hidden job market' problem has lead to the establishment and to the launch of Direct Employers' own online not-for-profit job search 5 engine, www.jobcentral.com in 2005. As was noted by Direct Employers in the press release from 26 April 2005 (available on www.jobcentral.com/JClaunch4_05.asp), the cause of the 'hidden job market' is the high costs 10 associated with posting positions on Traditional Job Boards; these costs have caused large employers to reduce the number of jobs they list online and greatly limited access to online recruiting by small and medium-size companies. In addition, the 15 increasing incoming job ad traffic has caused the advertised job ads to be "pushed down" in a matter of hours, quickly turning new job ads to 'obsolete', shortly after being advertised. 20 1.1.2 No Collective Search for Job Ads Advertised by Direct Employers The Traditional Job Boards have caused a further escalation of the 'hidden job market' problem, because of their reluctance to introduce job 25 seekers with the ability to search jobs from direct employers only in a collective manner. This approach is driven from the traditional Job Boards commercial interest of protecting their main source of income from Recruiters. Namely, a job search 30 function which would have allowed jobseekers to search jobs from direct employers only, would reasonably result in a diversion or split of jobseeker traffic from 'recruiter ads' to 'direct employer ads'. Splitting job board traffic between 'recruiter ads' and 'direct employer ads' means shifting precious online traffic from 'recruiter ads' to 'direct employer ads'. This expected shift in online traffic will have a detrimental effect on 5 Traditional Job Boards, as Recruiters will then reasonably demand to reduce the job ad advertising rates, due to the reduction in traffic for Recruiters' job ads and the diversion of online traffic from Recruiter job ads to direct employer 10 job ads. Hence, to date, none of the leading Australian job boards offer job seekers the functionality of conducting a search and displaying the collective results of jobs advertised by direct employers 15 only, despite a clear interest of job seekers and of direct employers to use such a search. For example, it is roughly estimated that the leading job board in Australia www.seek.com.au (which holds about 60% of the online classified job ad market in 20 Australia), derives at least 75% to 85% of its direct job advertising revenues from Recruiters only; whereas, the job advertising revenues derived from direct employers only, are roughly estimated at a maximum of 15% to 25% out of the total direct 25 job advertising revenues. The two other leading Australian job boards, www.mycareer.com.au (controlled by Fairfax Group) and www.careerone.com.au (controlled by News Corporation), have the same policy of not offering 30 job seekers the functionality of conducting a job search which will result in collectively displaying job search results from direct employers only. It is important not to confuse the collective display of jobs sourced from direct employers with offering selective display of jobs from a specific or particular direct employer - only the latter is being offered by above Traditional Job Boards. It is also important to note that some jobseekers do 5 not wish to apply through Recruiters and prefer to approach employers directly for different reasons; one of the reasons for this is to 'cut the middleman' and increase the employee potential remuneration, by saving the Recruiters' fees of up 10 to 25%. Direct employers will also normally prefer to reduce their overall recruitment costs by contacting applicants directly and saving the Recruiters' fees; however direct employers will find it hard to do so because of the Traditional 15 Job Boards policy of not offering job seekers the ability to conduct a job search which will result in a collective display of job search results sourced from direct employers only. As was noted by the Direct Employers in the U.S, 20 the result is that Traditional Job Boards have become inefficient both for the needs of job seekers and direct employers advertisers. 1.2 The Emergence of Vertical Job Search Engines 25 (Aggregators) The large number of Traditional Job Boards together with technology improvements has accelerated the emergence of vertical job search engines from 2004-2005, known as Aggregators. 30 Aggregators provide a Google-like experience for jobseekers searching for a job; they aggregate job listings from many online sources (in particular from Traditional Job Boards), and give the jobseeker a single place to search across all these job sources; so instead of following several job boards, the jobseeker can use a vertical search engine and review the job ads from several job boards from the Aggregator's website. Currently, Aggregators and Traditional Job Boards 5 complement each other: Aggregators serve as a starting point for the job search or as referral point to the Traditional Job Boards (from which the actual job application will be made by the jobseeker). A limited number of Aggregators direct jobseekers to other web 10 sources than just Traditional Job Boards, such as direct employers' websites; however, unlike Aggregation from Traditional Job Boards, in order to create a 'critical mass' of job supply sourced from direct employers websites, the Aggregator must integrate a large number of direct 15 employers' websites (and each direct employer website will have different integration issues). Therefore, effectively, Aggregation from direct employer's websites would require some sort of automation process which is very difficult to implement with current technologies on a large scale of 20 websites. This is why aggregators prefer to aggregate from Traditional Job Boards. 1.3 The Problems with Vertical Job Search Engines (Aggregators) 25 1.3.1 Google or Google-like Job-Ads Prevent Customisation or Branding Aggregators derive income from placing Google or Google-like ads on top of, and on the right side, 30 of the job search results. Since Google ads are not customised or branded (for example, Google ads do not include the advertiser logo or other graphic symbols), Aggregators are effectively not able to customise the aggregated job ads in the search page results; in fact, had Aggregators done so, the unpaid job ads (which are displayed below the top page Google - like job ads) would have had a better graphic user interface than the Google-like paid 5 job ads (which are displayed on the top of the search results in order to attract more traffic). Obviously, providing unpaid ads with better features compared with paid ads, would be unacceptable and non-commercial to Aggregators. 10 Therefore, the current inability of Aggregators to present customised and branded ads is a key advantage of the Traditional Job Boards over Aggregators. 15 1.3.2 Inaccurate or Irrelevant Job Search Results Aggregators base the job search on keyword/s only, usually entered by the job seeker. Traditional Job Boards base the job search on predefined classifications and sub-classifications of job 20 categories and job-subcategories; when the advertiser posts the job ad to the web user interface, the advertiser must select the job category and job-subcategory which is relevant for a specific job ad; when the job search is 25 conducted, the jobseeker must select the same job category and job-subcategory (as was initially chosen by the advertiser) in order to view the said job ad. In addition, like Aggregators, Traditional Job Boards also offer a secondary job search 30 technique, which is based on entered keywords by the job seekers. The result is that the particular job search results are usually more relevant to the jobseeker when using Traditional Job Boards rather than when using Aggregators. With Traditional Job Boards the job seeker do not need to think about all the textual keyword/s combinations that would deliver the relevant search results for a particular job 5 category and job-subcategory (because this selection was made by the advertiser when posting the job ad and is presented by the Traditional Job Board as one of the search options). 10 1.3.3 No Clear Distinction Between Direct Employers Job Ads and Recruiters Job Ads Aggregation from multiple Traditional Job Boards is constrained by the basic presentation rules of the Traditional Job Boards themselves, as described in 15 Section 1.1.2 above. One of the implications of that is that, just like Traditional Job Boards, Aggregators are also not able to clearly differentiate between job ads sourced from direct employers and jobs from Recruiters, when those job 20 ads are aggregated from Traditional Job Boards (as they usually are). Alternatively, when Aggregators do make an attempt to separate between job ads from direct employers and from Recruiters, they must rely on their own 25 job-ad analysis, which is based on little or no knowledge at all as to the source of the job ad advertiser, resulting in making poor classification mistakes or lack of classification, or both. An example can be found at www.indeed.com, which is 30 considered to be the largest Aggregator in the world. Indeed allows the job seeker to conduct the job search separately for 'employer web sites' and for 'job boards' however, the job ads from 'job boards' contain jobs from both Recruiters and from - J.U direct employers, without the ability to separate between the two job sources. It is an object of the present invention to address 5 or at least ameliorate some of the above disadvantages. 1.4 Notes 10 1.4.1 The term 'comprising' (and grammatical variations thereof) is used in this specification in the inclusive sense of 'having' or 'including', and not in the exclusive sense of 'consisting only of'. 1.4.2 The above discussion of the prior art in the 15 Background of the invention, is not an admission that any information discussed therein is citable prior art or part of the common general knowledge of persons skilled in the art in any country. 1.4.3 In this specification, the term 'structured data' 20 or 'structured electronic data' means data, in natural human language and/or in computer machine language, which repeats a certain logic pattern and can be entered into predefined fields, where these fields can been defined and those definitions are 25 available or can be made available to the database of embodiments of the present system. For example, address data in natural human language entered into an address field of a web interface ,wherein the database of the present system 30 understands that the data has been placed in an address field designated as 'address', would be classified as structured data format.

- iLi For example, Extensible Markup Language (XML) data feed received from a third party would be classified as structured data format. 1.4.4 In this specification, the term 'unstructured data' 5 or 'unstructured electronic data' means any data which is not 'structured data', including - but not limited to - data derived from websites held or controlled by third parties and in respect of which it is not necessarily immediately clear how the 10 data is to be structured or how the data is to be categorized, e.g. is the data a name, an address, a career designator or something else. For example, Static HTML and Email are unstructured data formats. 15 2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION In one preferred form the aggregation system comprises unified integrated Traditional Job Board combined with a vertical job search engine Aggregation system which 20 addresses the problems, as discussed above ("Vertical Job Board" or "VJB") . The VJB displays job ads sourced from multiple web job sources using a vertical job search (aggregation) platform; and also job ads which are inserted into its web user 25 interface directly by job advertisers using its job board web interface platform. The VJB may contain a Display Priority Engine, which provides certain functional and visual priorities only to job ads sourced from the job board component of the VJB, 30 but not to job ads sourced from the vertical job search (aggregation) engine component of The VJB. The Display Priority Engine may provide prioritised job ad header location, larger job ad header size, enhanced job ad header graphical features and additional - ±2 functionality features, to job ads sourced from the job board component of the VJB, compared with job ads sourced from the vertical job search engine (aggregation)component of the VJB. 5 2.1 The Advantages of VJB over Aggregators Unlike Aggregators, the VJB does not display Google or Google-like job ads, so it is fully capable to customise 10 any job ad header and display rich graphics in job ads headers, with no commercial or technical constraints. Unlike Aggregators, the VJB uses predefined keywords to classify job ads (which are sourced from the vertical job search engine component of the VJB) into predefined job 15 categories and job-subcategories (being the same job categories and job-subcategories which are in use for the purpose of classifying all the job ads, as were inserted by the advertiser into the job board component of the VJB). When the job seeker selects a certain job-category and job 20 subcategory the search is automatically performed on those predefined keywords (but only with respect to jobs that were aggregated using the vertical job search engine component of the VJB) . This method narrows the inaccuracy or irrelevancy of the job search results problem, as 25 described in Section 1.3.2. For example, if a jobseeker searches jobs for "accounting" job-category using an Aggregator, such as, say, www.simplyhired.com.au, the results will only include the jobs which contain the word 'accounting'; whereas if the 30 jobseeker is using the VJB for the same search, the selection of the job-category 'accounting' will automatically trigger a search of multiple keywords which are relevant for the 'accounting' job-category (e.g. the words 'tax', 'GST', 'accountant' and many more).

Furthermore, with the VJB, the job seeker will be able to refine the results of the job-category, say, 'accounting' by selecting a job sub-category, say, 'financial accountant'; this refined selection will automatically 5 trigger a second set of predefined keywords, which will conduct a second refining subcategory search - but only in the results which were received in first job-category search, resulting in more accurate search results. This keyword-based type of job search is only relevant for the 10 jobs which are aggregated from other websites using the vertical search engine component of the VJB. However, this type of keyword-based search is not conducted for advertised jobs which are inserted to the web user interface directly by the advertiser; for these ads (later 15 defined in the specification as JOBUI Ads), the advertiser must define the job-category and job sub-category (or job subcategories) when the job ad is inserted into the user interface of the VJB. Unlike Aggregators, one preferred version of VJB will aggregate jobs from multiple websites 20 of Recruiters and direct employers, but not from websites of Traditional Job Boards. This will solve the problem described in Section 1.3.3 (no clear distinction between direct employers and Recruiters) because the source of aggregation can be integrated directly into the database of 25 the VJB. 2.2 The Advantages of VJB over Traditional Job Boards Unlike Traditional Job Boards the VJB preferred 30 business model is to aggregate the jobs which are listed in multiple direct employers and Recruiters websites - free at no charge or cost to direct employers and to Recruiters. This will provide a solution to the problem described in Section 1.1.1 (the high advertising costs problem, which created a 'hidden job market' for job ads Unlike Traditional Job Boards, the VJB may also provide separate job search capabilities for ads sourced 5 from direct employers only and, separately, for ads sourced from Recruiters only, so that the jobseeker can choose to display results, in a collective manner, from direct employers only or from Recruiters only, or from both (all job sources). Furthermore, when the job seeker selects to 10 search and display results sourced from direct employers only, the jobseeker is given the ability to further refine the job search to receive job search results collectively from specific groups of direct employers only. For example: search and display jobs sourced from direct employers which 15 are listed in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in a collective manner; or search for jobs sourced from direct employers based on their classification of annual revenues in a collective manner; or search for jobs sourced from direct employers which are listed in well known business 20 directories, such as BRW 500/1000 in a collective manner. This specific feature is claimed not only as an integral part of the VJB, but also as a separate, stand-alone, feature in any type of existing Aggregators or Traditional Job Boards systems. 25 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION The following is a detailed description of one broad form, at least, of a preferred embodiment of the invention. 30 Accordingly in one broad form of the invention there is provided a system for aggregating, reorganising and restructuring, classifying, storing, searching, and displaying in a web interface electronic data, comprised of - I J an Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ("ADSEE") and a Job Board Web User Interface software platform ("JOBUI"), wherein: the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software 5 platform ADSEE extracts ('pulls') and aggregates unstructured electronic data which is publicly available to internet users from multiple web sources, being online job advertising information and job ads published in career web pages of direct employers and in web pages of recruitment 10 and job agencies ("ADSEE Ads"); wherein the JOBUI receives structured electronic data which is inserted by the users (advertisers) via a web browser into the JOBUI (using a human natural language) or is inserted electronically (using a computer programming language or a 15 computer markup language), being job advertising information and job ads inserted into the JOBUI by direct employers and recruitment agencies ("JOBUI Ads"); wherein the ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads are aggregated separately during different time frames or separately during the same 20 time frames. Preferably said system comprises of a Customised Feeder Software Platform ("Feeder") which interacts with the ADSEE; wherein the Feeder reorganises and restructures the ADSEE Ads information into a recognisable and readable 25 database format; wherein the Feeder classifies the ADSEE Ads into, inter alia, a predefined set of job-categories (being predefined generic occupations), and further into job-subcategories (being predefined specific occupations),based on a list of predefined keywords for 30 each job-category and job-subcategory.

Preferably said system is further comprised of a Job Search Engine Software Platform ("JSE"), wherein the JSE reorganises and restructures the data which was aggregated by the JOBUI into a recognisable and readable database 5 format and classifies the said data into a predefined set of certain job-categories and certain job-subcategories that were selected by the advertiser. Preferably said system is further comprised of a database which contains, inter alia, fields and tables for 10 predefined job-categories and job-subcategories ("DB") and interacts with the Feeder and/or the ADSEE and/or the JSE; wherein the ADSEE Ads data is pushed by the Feeder or by the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE into the DB; wherein the DB receives the 15 information contained in the JOBUI Ads from the JSE and the DB receives the information contained in the ADSEE Ads from the Feeder or from the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE; and the DB stores all the said information, inter alia, based on the job-categories 20 and job sub-categories which were used by the Feeder and/or by the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE and/or by the JSE, wherein the same job categories and job-subcategories are used for ADSEE Ads and for JOBUI Ads; wherein when the user initiates the job 25 search, based on a selection of predefined job categories and/or job sub-categories without entering any search keyword/s, the JSE sends the job search request to the DB and the DB sends back the results to the JSE; wherein the said results include only the job ads which were stored in 30 the DB for the user-selected predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories. Preferably said system is further comprised of a Text Search Engine Software Component ("TSE") which interacts - J. / with the DB when the user initiates a job search request which involves entering keyword/s by the user; wherein when the user initiates the job search, based on entering textual keyword/s only, without selecting any predefined 5 job categories and/or job-subcategories, the TSE conducts the job search in all the job ads in the DB and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the keyword/s from all the job ads in the DB; wherein when the user initiates the job search based on a selection of predefined job 10 categories and/or job-subcategories and entering any search keyword/s, the TSE conducts the keyword/s search only in job ads in the DB which are included in the selected predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories, and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the entered 15 keyword/s only from the job ads which are included in the selected predefined job-categories and job-subcategories; wherein the DB sends back to the JSE the results which were matched by the TSE to the keyword/s search. Preferably said system is further comprised of a Display 20 Priority Engine software component ("DPE") that interacts with the JSE and applies priority rules which cause all the job ad headers of any of the JOBUI Ads to be displayed in priority to any of the job ad headers of the ADSEE Ads; wherein the job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads must 25 have superior location in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and/or the job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads must have larger size (of additional approximate 50%) in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and/or the 30 job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads must have enhanced graphic user interface features and elements, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and/or the job ad header of any one of JOBUI Ads must have additional - 18 functional user features, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; wherein after receiving the job search results from the DB, the JSE interacts with the DPE; wherein the JSE apply the priority rules that were set by the DPE for each 5 of the ADSEE Ads headers and the JOBUI Ads headers in the job search results; wherein the JSE sends the job search results back to the JOBUI to be displayed to the user. Preferably said system is further comprised of a Secured Online-Payment software system ("SOP") which interacts with 10 the JSE, wherein the SOP is capable to process online payment from credit cards and debit cards and other forms of electronic payments. Preferably said system is further comprised of a software custom component which receives the unstructured electronic 15 data from the Feeder and/or from the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE and converts this data into Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, before storing the information in the DB. Preferably said system is further comprised of a software 20 custom component, wherein this component is used to pull structured electronic data from external sources, which was exposed by those external sources using an industry standard computer language, including - but not limited to - Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Really Simple 25 Syndication (RSS) data feeds. Preferably said system is further comprised of a software custom component, wherein this component receives structured electronic data from external sources through Web Services Architecture (being a software system designed 30 to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network) including - but not limited to - by using Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Representational State Transfer (RESTful) Web Services. Preferably said system is further comprised of a software custom component which converts Portable Document Format 5 (PDF) and/or Microsoft Word files into text files or into Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). In a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method of charging advertising fees from online job advertisers, using the above described system; said method 10 comprising charging advertisers on a fixed per job-ad/s basis, or on subscription per time-period basis (e.g. per month subscription), or on a 'pay per click' or 'cost per click' basis, wherein the advertising charge apply in respect of JOBUI ADS only, or ADSEE ADS only or both. 15 In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method for classifying and sub-classifying job ads data and information, using the above described system into job-categories and job-subcategories; wherein the data which was aggregated by the Automated Data Seeking & 20 Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE is classified, inter alia, into a predefined set of job-categories, based on search logic rules which include predefined keywords for each job category, then, after the data is classified into a specific job-category, only the data which is classified 25 into the specific job-category is sub-classified into predefined set of job-subcategories, based on additional predefined keywords for each job-subcategory; wherein the advertiser who posts the online job ad into JOBUI classifies the job ad into a single job-category and, in 30 addition, sub-classifies the job ad into a single job subcategory or multiple job-subcategories; and wherein the job-categories and job-subcategories which are used are the - zu same, for ADSEE Ads and for JOBUI Ads or any other source of information. Preferably said method further comprises: selecting a predefined single job-category without 5 selecting any job-subcategory, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were classified and stored in the DB under the selected job-category; and selecting a predefined single job-category and predefined single selected job-subcategory within the said job-category, 10 wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the DB under the selected job-subcategory; and selecting a predefined single job category and predefined multi-selected job-subcategories within the said job-category, wherein the job search will 15 result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under all selected job subcategories; and typing any keyword/s into the search box, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which contain all the entered keyword/s; and typing any 20 keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category without selecting job subcategory, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were classified and stored in the database under the selected job-category and also contain all the 25 entered keyword/s; and typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category and predefined single-selected job-subcategory within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the 30 database under the selected job-subcategory and also contain all the entered keyword/s; and typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single selected job category and predefined multi-selected job- - 2I subcategories within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub classified and stored in the database under all selected job-subcategories and also contain all the entered 5 keyword/s. In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method for classifying, sub-classifying, searching and displaying in a web interface job ads data and information, using the above described system, wherein 10 job ads which are sourced from and advertised by direct employers and employment agencies (which act on behalf of direct employers) can be separately displayed, in a manner which allows the user to refine or filter the job search results to display job ads which sourced from and 15 advertised by any of the web sources or the groups: direct employers only; and recruitment and job agencies only; and direct employers and recruiters. In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method for classifying, sub-classifying, 20 searching and displaying in a web interface job ads data and information, using the above described system, wherein said method providing selectable search criteria for specific groups or sub-groups of direct employers only; selection of selected ones of said selectable search 25 criteria; conducting a search of database records on said selected ones of said selectable search criteria for and only for advertisements derived from direct employers; wherein said direct employers groups are comprised of at least one of the following direct employers groups: 30 direct employers which are listed in a local stock exchange (bourse) (e.g. Australian Stock Exchange, ASX, is a local stock exchange for Australia); and/or direct employers - ZZ_ listed in a local stock exchange and are sub-classified into one or more equity market indices with fixed number of constituents (e.g. ASX 200, ASX 300 and ASX All Ordinaries indices), wherein this information is obtained from 5 publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves; and/or direct employers which are listed or ranked in publicly recognised business listings, rankings, or indices (e.g. by FORTUNE, BRW and FORBES business magazines), business directories and business 10 reports, wherein this information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves; and/or direct employers categorised by any financial criteria which is based on the quantity or quality of their revenues (turnover), earnings, expenses, 15 profits, book value of equity, market value of equity, assets and liabilities, presented in local or foreign currency, wherein this information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves; 20 wherein the classification, sub-classification, search and display of said search results are not dependant on or caused by textual search or by text keyword/s which are entered by the user who conducts the relevant search(the feature described above will be hereby referred to as the 25 "Direct Employers Groups Feature"). In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers in priority to ADSEE Ads headers, using the above described system, wherein logic rules define at least one of the 30 following: separate location for JOBUI Ads headers, compared with ADSEE Ads headers, in a manner which causes the web user interface to display the location of any JOBUI Ads header before and above any of the ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results the user must view the job ad headers of JOBUI Ads in priority to the job ad headers of 5 the ADSEE Ads ("Location Priority Rules"); wherein when the job-search results in displaying sufficient number of JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then only JOBUI ads headers will be displayed in the first web page of these search results, and ADSEE Ads 10 headers will not be displayed in the first web page of search results at all; wherein when the job-search results in displaying insufficient number of JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then all JOBUI Ads headers will be displayed in the first web page 15 of search results, before and above all ADSEE Ads headers; or larger size for any JOBUI Ads header, compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes any JOBUI Ads header to have larger surface / area then any ADSEE Ads header, so that 20 under any search results displayed to the user, any JOBUI Ads header is visually more noticeable, compared with any ADSEE Ads header ("Size Priority Rules"); or enhanced Graphic User Interface ("GUI") features or elements for any JOBUI Ads header, compared with any ADSEE 25 Ads header, which causes the JOBUI Ads headers to display additional graphic features or elements (e.g. company logo) which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are not available to ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results displayed to the user, JOBUI Ads headers are more 30 graphically noticeable, compared with ADSEE Ads headers ("GUI Priority Rules"); or - 24 enhanced functional features for any JOBUI Ads header compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes the JOBUI Ads headers to include and display additional functionality features which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are 5 not available to ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results displayed to the user, job ad headers of JOBUI Ads have more functionality features displayed, compared with job ad headers of ADSEE Ads ("Functionality Priority Rules"). 10 In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a data aggregation system for aggregation and display of job advertisements, said system including a web interface driver which communicates with a database; said database obtaining information from a data seeking engine; 15 said data seeking engine seeking and obtaining unstructured information from at least a first data source type; said database also obtaining information from a data receiving engine; said data receiving engine receiving structured information input into it. 20 Preferably said data seeking engine seeks and obtains information from a second data source type. Preferably said data seeking engine seeks and obtains information from a third data source type. Preferably data is input to said data receiving engine 25 manually via a web interface. Preferably said first data source type comprises source data from a career webpage of a direct employer. Preferably said second data source type comprises recruitment or job agency data derived from web pages of 30 recruitment or job agencies.

- 2b Preferably said third data source type comprises receiver data derived from online job advertising information. Preferably data received from said data receiving engine is ranked more highly or otherwise given more prominence than 5 data derived from said data seeking engine. Preferably data is aggregated data from said data seeking engine and said data is displayed via a web interface. Preferably aggregated data is arranged to be searchable based on pre-selected criteria. 10 Preferably said predetermined criteria includes searching based on grouping of direct employers. Preferably said grouping is based on selected financial criteria. Preferably said web interface driver is implemented as a 15 data processing device. Preferably said data seeking engine is implemented as a data processing device. Preferably said data receiving engine is implemented as a data processing device. 20 In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a data aggregation system comprising first data processing means in communication via the internet with at least a first website wherein unstructured data comprising at least a first data source type is transmitted in the 25 form of data packets to said first data processing means thereby to construct said data aggregation system in accordance with the above described system; said first data processing means further communicating via the internet with at least one data processing device by which user- - 2b entered structured advertisement data is transmitted as data packets via the internet to said first data processing means; said first data processing means in communication with at least one other data processing means by which a 5 job seeker accesses data concerning said data aggregation system from said first data processing means via the internet in the form of data packets. In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a data aggregation system comprising first data 10 processing means in communication via the internet with at least a first website wherein unstructured data comprising at least a first data source type is transmitted in the form of data packets to said first data processing means thereby to construct a data aggregation system in 15 accordance with the above described system; said data processing means further communicating via the internet with at least one data processing device by which user entered structured advertisement data is transmitted as data packets via the internet to said first data processing 20 means; said first data processing means in communication with at least one other data processing means by which a job seeker accesses data concerning said vertical job board system from said first data processing means via the internet in the form of data packets. 25 In yet a further broad form of the invention there is provided a method of aggregating structured and unstructured data, said method comprising seeking unstructured data of at least a first data type from one or more websites accessible via the Internet; accepting 30 structured data input via a web interface; collating both the unstructured data and structured data so as to define a vertical jobs board; said vertical jobs board accessible via a web interface.

Preferably said method further includes seeking unstructured data of at least a second data type. Preferably said method further includes seeking unstructured data of at least a third data type. 5 4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: 10 Figure 1 is a data flow diagram of a generic aggregation process which is used by an Aggregator of the prior art. Figure 2 is a data flow diagram of an aggregation process which reflects a first preferred embodiment of the 15 present invention. Figure 3 is a data flow diagram of the aggregation process of figure 2 incorporating a display priority or prominence feature/s, in accordance with Sections 3.27 to 3.32. 20 Figure 4 is a block diagram of a data aggregation system in accordance with primary elements of Example 1 (as described in Section 6) and Section 3 of the present invention, illustrating data flow from aggregating, reorganising, restructuring, classifying and storing. 25 Figure 5 is a block diagram of a data aggregation system in accordance with the description in Example 1 (Section 6) and Section 3 of the present invention, illistrating data flow from search and display. Figure 6 to Figure 11 are provided for illustration 30 purposes only of the user interface, and reflect an early stage graphic design which is expected to change in the future: Figure 6 is a screen shot of an implementation of certain elements described in Example 1 (Section 6) and Section 3, showing the main entry screen in its default position (Home Page). 5 Figure 7 is the entry screen of figure 6 in one expanded state. Figure 8 is the entry screen of figure 6 in the expanded state of Figure 7 and one additional expanded state. 10 Figure 9 is the entry screen of figure 6 illustrating the Direct Employers Groups Feature (Sections 3.24 to 3.25) described in Example 1 (Section 6). Figure 10 is a screen shot of the job search-results page, incorporating the JOBUI Ads headers and ADSEE Ads 15 headers (Section 3.1) described in Example 1 (Section 6), wherein one of the ADSEE Ads is highlighted (using mouse over functionality). Figure 11 is a screen shot of the job search-results page, incorporating the JOBUI Ads headers and ADSEE Ads 20 headers (Section 3.1) described in Example 1 (Section 6), wherein one of the JOBUI Ads is highlighted (using mouse over functionality). Figure 12 is a block diagram of certain computer and network devices which can be associated with preferred 25 embodiments of the present invention. 5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to Figure 1 there is illustrated a 30 prior art aggregation process 10 which is adapted to display job advertisements 11, 12, 13 derived from other job sites on the Internet in this case, respectively, a Job Board Web site 14, a Recruiter website 15 and a Direct Employer web site 16.

In the case of this prior art aggregation system 10 data is 'pulled' from websites 14, 15, 16 and arranged for display on the aggregation system website 17. 5 This is to be contrasted with the 'push' of data from the Direct Employer Web site 16 to either one or both of Recruiter website 15 and Job Board Web site 14. In the commercial world the 'push' of data is accompanied by a 10 payment in return for display of job information on the Job Board Website 14 and/or the Recruiter website 15. As shown in Figure 1 there can be a cascading 'push' where the Direct Employer website pushes data to a Recruiter website 15 which, in turn, pushes job advertisement information 15 pertaining to that source on to a Job Board Website 14. The Direct Employer website 16 is a site maintained by a prospective employer that is the source of an employment advertisement. Accordingly, the source may represent an 20 individual or a company which has the need for an employee the subject of the advertisement. In some instances direct employers will place advertisements directly on their own website 16 and leave 25 it for prospective employees to apply directly Direct Employer website 16. In other instances, instead of or in addition to placing an advertisement for a prospective employee on Direct Employer website 16 the direct employer may also pay to have an advertisement for the job 30 opportunity placed on a Job Board Web site 14. Typical Job Board Websites available in Australia include those run by large newspaper publishing enterprises, such as Fairfax Group (www.mycareer.com.au) and News Corporation Group (www.careerone.com.au). There are other prominent Job Board websites, such as www.seek.com.au. Again, either in addition to or instead of placing a 5 job advertisement on the Direct Employer website 16 the direct employer may commission a Recruiter to search for prospective employees to fill the job vacancy reflected by the job advertisement. The Recruiter may have a Recruiter website 15 on which to display jobs under its commission. 10 The Recruiter may, in turn, pay to have job advertisements for jobs under its commission appear on a Job Board website 14. In all of the instances described thus far there is, 15 in effect, a 'push' of information or data relating to a request for a job vacancy to be filled to another entity which, inter alia, maintains a website on which it places a job advertisement reflecting the 'push' of information to it. In the commercial world the push of data is 20 accompanied by a requirement for a payment in return for the job advertisement appearing on the website of the entity to which the information has been 'pushed'. In contrast, aggregators operating a prior art 25 aggregation system 10 'pull' unstructured data (such as static HTML) to the aggregation system website 17 by crawling the web, locating websites which have job advertisements and then 'pulling' some or all of the data relevant to those job advertisements from the websites thus 30 located and placing the data on the aggregation system website 17. Prior art Aggregators can also 'pull' structured data from external sources, which was exposed by those external sources using an industry standard computer language, such as XML. There is usually a 'Loop Back' being a referred link functionality, whereby if a prospective employee finds data pertinent to a particular job located on the aggregation system website 17 of interest then the prospective employee can click on a referral link 5 associated with data related to the job of interest and be referred to the site from which the relevant job data was pulled in the first place. With reference to Figure 2 there is illustrated a data 10 aggregation system 110 reflected in a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; wherein like components are numbered as for the prior art arrangement of Figure 1 except in the 100 series. 15 The function of the Direct Employer, Recruiter and Job Board is the same as described with reference to Figure 1. In this instance the data aggregation system 110 can 'pull' data (being unstructured data, such as static HTML; or structured data, such as XML feeds) from any one or more of 20 the Direct Employer website 116, the Recruiter website 115 or the Job Board website 114. In this instance the data aggregation system 110 has 'pulled' data from Job Board website 114 and presents it in 25 search results page 120. The data aggregation system 110 has also pulled data from Recruiter website 115 and presents it in search results page 121. 30 The data aggregation system 110 has also pulled data from Direct Employer website 116 and presents it in search results page 122. In this instance the Direct Employers website 116 has also caused job data 123 being a job ad - '5Z header to be 'pushed' to the aggregation system 110. In this instance, the aggregation system 110 causes the 'pushed' data to be displayed in search results page 122. 5 With reference to figure 3, a display priority or 'prominence' feature is shown wherein job ad header 123 on page 122 is displayed first or in higher priority to job ad headers on pages 120 and 121. In preferred forms the job data 123 has been paid for and prominence is given in 10 return for the payment (it should be noted, that prominence feature is not implemented with respect to data on pages 120 and 121, despite the 'higher' position of page 120 compared with page 121 in the data flow diagram in Figure 3 and in Figure 2). In that context, 'prominence' is to be 15 understood as: priority in the location in the search results page, larger size of job ad header 123, enhanced functionality features in job ad header 123 and enhanced graphic user interface features in job ad header 123. 20 Job ad header 123 is an example of JOBUI Ads header, described in Section 3.1 and in Example 1 (Section 6), to be contrasted with data which has been 'pulled' from publicly available websites, termed ADSEE Ads in Section 3.1 and in Example 1 (Section 6). 25 6. EXAMPLE 1: DATA AGGREGATION SYSTEM An example of an implementation of data aggregation system 110 as described generally above is shown in block diagram 30 in Figs 4 and 5. With reference to Figs 4 and 5, data aggregation system 210 comprises: 6.1 A system for aggregating, reorganising and restructuring, classifying, storing, searching, and displaying in a web interface electronic data, comprised of an Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ("ADSEE") 211 and a Job Board Web User Interface software platform ("JOBUI"), 212 wherein: 5 6.1.1 The ADSEE 211 extracts ('pulls') and aggregates unstructured electronic data which is publicly available to internet users from multiple web sources, being online job advertising information and job ads published in career web pages of direct 10 employers and in web pages of recruitment and job agencies ("ADSEE Ads") 213; and 6.1.2 The JOBUI 212 receives structured electronic data 215 which is inserted by the users (advertisers) via a web browser into the JOBUI (using a human 15 natural language) or is inserted electronically (using a computer programming language or a computer markup language), comprises job advertising information and job ads 215 inserted into the JOBUI 212 by direct employers and 20 recruitment agencies ("JOBUI Ads") ; and 6.1.3 The ADSEE Ads 213 and JOBUI Ads 215 are aggregated separately during different time frames or separately during the same time frames. 6.2 A Customised Feeder Software Platform ("Feeder") 216 25 interacts with the ADSEE 211 as follows: 6.2.1 The Feeder 216 reorganises and restructures the ADSEE Ads 213 information into a recognisable and readable database format; and 6.2.2 The Feeder 216 classifies the ADSEE Ads 213 into, 30 inter alia, predefined sets of job-categories (being predefined generic occupations) and further into job-subcategories (being predefined specific occupations), based on list of predefined keywords for each job-category and job-subcategory.

- 34 6.3 A Job Search Engine Software Platform ("JSE") 217 reorganises and restructures the data which was aggregated by the JOBUI 212 into a recognisable and readable database format and classifies the said data into a predefined set 5 of certain job-categories and certain job-subcategories that were selected by the advertiser. 6.4 The data aggregation system 210 further comprises of a database ("DB") 218 which contains, inter alia, fields and tables for predefined job-categories and job 10 subcategories and interacts with the Feeder 216 as follows: 6.4.1 The ADSEE Ads data 213 is pushed by the Feeder 216 into the DB 218; and 6.4.2 the DB 218 receives the information contained in the JOBUI Ads 215 from the JSE 217 and the 15 information contained in the ADSEE Ads 213 from the Feeder 216 and stores this information based on the job-categories and job sub-categories which were used by the Feeder 216 and by the JSE 217, wherein the same job-categories and job-subcategories are 20 used for ADSEE Ads 213 and for JOBUI Ads 215; and 6.4.3 When the user initiates the job search, based on a selection of predefined job categories and/or job sub-categories without entering any search keyword/s, the JSE 217 sends the job search request 25 to the DB 218 and the DB sends back the results to the JSE; wherein the results include only the job ads which were stored in the DB 218 for the user selected predefined job categories and/or job subcategories; 30 6.5 The data aggregation system 210 further comprises of a Text Search Engine Software Component ("TSE") 219 which interacts with the DB 218 when the user initiates a job search request which involves entering keyword/s by the user, as follows: 6.5.1 When the user initiates the job search, based on entering textual keyword/s only, without selecting 5 any predefined job categories and/or job subcategories, the TSE conducts the job search in all the job ads in the DB and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the keyword/s from all the job ads in the DB; and 10 6.5.2 When the user initiates the job search based on a selection of predefined job categories and/or job subcategories and entering any search keyword/s, the TSE conducts the keyword/s search only in job ads in the DB which are included in the selected 15 predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories, and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the entered keyword/s only from the job ads which are included in the selected predefined job categories and job-subcategories; and 20 6.5.3 The DB sends back to the JSE 217 the results which were matched by the TSE 219 to the keyword/s search. 6.6 The system further comprises of a Display Priority Engine software component ("DPE") 220 that interacts with 25 the JSE 217 and applies priority rules which cause all the job ad headers of any one of the JOBUI Ads 215.1 to be displayed in priority to any of the job ad headers of the ADSEE Ads 213.1, as follows: 6.6.1 The job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads 215.1 30 must have superior location in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and 6.6.2 The job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads 215.1 must have larger size (of additional approximate 50%) in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header 213.1; and 5 6.6.3 The job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads 215.1 must have enhanced graphic user interface features and elements, compared with any ADSEE Ads header 213.1; and 6.6.4 The job ad header of any one of JOBUI Ads 215.1 10 must have additional functional user features, compared with any ADSEE Ads 213.1 ; and 6.6.5 After receiving the job search results from the DB, the JSE interacts with the DPE; the JSE apply the priority rules that were set by the DPE for each of 15 the ADSEE Ads headers 213.1 and the JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 in the job search results; the JSE sends the job search results back to the JOBUI to be displayed to the user. 6.7 A Secured Online-Payment software system ("SOP") 221 20 (not shown in Figs 4 and 5) interacts with the JSE. The SOP is adapted to process online payment from credit cards and debit cards and other forms of electronic payments. 6.8 Conversion of Information to XML In a further preferred form a software custom component 25 receives the unstructured electronic data from the Feeder 216 or from the ADSEE 211 and converts this data into Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, before storing the information in the DB 218. 6.9 Aggregation of Additional Information using XML and 30 RSS Feeds In a further preferred form, a software custom component is used to 'pull' structured electronic data from external sources which was exposed by those external sources using an industry standard computer language, including - but not limited to - Extensible Markup Language (XML)and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) data feeds. 6.10 Aggregation of Additional Information using Web 5 Services In a further preferred form a software custom component, receives structured electronic data from external sources through Web Services Architecture (being a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine 10 interaction over a network) including - but not limited to - by using Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Representational State Transfer (RESTful) Web Services. 15 6.11 Conversion of PDF In a further preferred form a software custom component converts Portable Document Format (PDF) files into text files or into Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). 6.12 Conversion of MS Word 20 In a further preferred form a software custom component converts Microsoft Word files into text files or into Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). 6.13 Additional Aggregation from Traditional Job Boards In use the data aggregation system 210 operates whereby the 25 ADSEE 211 extracts ('pulls') and aggregates electronic data which is publicly available to internet users from multiple web sources, being online job advertising information and job ads published in internet job boards, internet job search engines, career web pages of direct employers and 30 web pages of recruitment and job agencies. 6.14 Charging Method - Fix Cost JOBUI Ads & Free ADSEE Ads In a particular preferred form online job advertisers who are using data aggregation system 210 are charged as follows: The job advertising fees for displaying JOBUI Ads are paid on a fixed per job-ad/s basis; wherein advertising 5 of ADSEE Ads is offered for free at no charge to all advertisers (whether or not these advertisers also posted JOBUI Ads), for the purpose of increasing the job ads supply of ADSEE Ads and increasing the website traffic and number of users. 10 6.15 Charging Method - Subscription ADSEE Ads & JOBUI Ads An alternative charging methodology is as follows: The job advertising fees for displaying ADSEE Ads and for displaying JOBUI Ads are paid on a subscription per time period basis (e.g. per month subscription), wherein during 15 the subscription time-period all or part of the job ads which are displayed in the website of a specific advertiser are aggregated and displayed as ADSEE Ads; and, in addition, a limited number of JOBUI Ads (which are sourced from the same advertiser) are permitted and displayed. 20 ADSEE Ads are not offered at no charge to advertisers which did not purchase the said subscription. 6.16 Charging Method - CPC/PPC for ADSEE Ads In an alternative charging methodology online job advertisers who are using data aggregation system 210 are 25 charged for ADSEE Ads on a 'pay per click' or 'cost per click' basis and for JOBUI Ads on a fixed or subscription basis. 6.17 Charging Method - Subscription For All Ads In an alternative charging method online job advertisers 30 who are using the data aggregation system 210 are charged on a subscription per time-period basis (e.g. per month subscription) for all job ads.

6.18 A Classifying Method A classifying method which is used by the data aggregation system 210 is as follows: 5 6.18.1 For ADSEE Ads: The data which is aggregated by the ADSEE is classified, inter alia, into a predefined set of job-categories, based on search logic rules which include predefined keywords for each job category. Then, after the data is classified into a 10 specific job-category, only the data which is classified into the specific job-category is sub classified into a predefined set of job subcategories, based on additional predefined keywords for each job-subcategory. 15 6.18.2 For JOBUI Ads: The advertiser who posts the online job ad into JOBUI classifies the job ad into a single job-category and, in addition, sub classifies the job ad into a single job-subcategory or into multiple job-subcategories. 20 6.18.3 The job-categories and job-subcategories which are used are always the same for ADSEE Ads and for JOBUI Ads, or any other source of information; 6.19 Job Search Method for ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads 25 The Job search methodologies in respect of the job categories and the job-subcategories used for the data aggregation system 210 are as follows: 6.19.1 Selecting predefined single job-category without selecting any job-subcategory. The job search will 30 result in all the job ads which were classified and stored in the DB under the selected job-category; and - 4U 6.19.2 Selecting predefined single job-category and predefined single-selected job-subcategory within the said job-category. The job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and 5 stored in the DB under the selected job subcategory; and 6.19.3 Selecting predefined single job-category and predefined multi-selected job-subcategories within the said job-category. The job search will result 10 in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under all selected job subcategories; and 6.19.4 Typing any keyword/s into the search box. The job search will result in all the job ads which contain 15 all the entered keyword/s; and 6.19.5 Typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category without selecting job-subcategory. The job search will result in all the job ads which were 20 classified and stored in the database under the selected job-category and also contain all the entered keyword/s; and 6.19.6 Typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category 25 and predefined single-selected job-subcategory within the said job-category. The job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under the selected job subcategory and also contain all the entered 30 keyword/s; and 6.19.7 Typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job category and predefined multi-selected job-subcategories within the said job-category. The job search will - L1J1 result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under all selected job subcategories and also contain all the entered keyword/s. 5 6.20 Job Search Method - Multi Selection Employer Industry In a further preferred search methodology the user selects more than one predefined different categories of 'employer industries', to search and display job ads from all the selected categories of employer industries (wherein the 10 definition of 'employer industry' is the industry to which a direct employer is part of, rather than the classification of the occupation or the profession itself, which is the job-category. 15 6.21 Job Search Method - Multi Selection Job-Category In a further preferred search methodology the user selects more than one predefined different job subcategories for each job-category, to search and display job ads from all the selected job subcategories of occupations; wherein a 20 job-category is the classification of the job role or the occupation itself, rather than the classification of the employer industry that the job role refers to. 6.22 Job Search Method - Direct Employers & Recruiters 25 In a further preferred search and display methodology used by the data aggregation system 210, job ads which are sourced from and advertised by direct employers and employment agencies (which act on behalf of direct 30 employers) can be separately displayed, in a manner which allows the user to refine or filter the job search results to display job ads which are sourced from and advertised by any of the web sources or following groups: 6.22.1 Direct employers only; and 6.22.2 Employment agencies only; and 6.22.3 Direct employers and employment agencies. 5 6.23 Job Search Method - Direct Employers & Recruiters In a further search methodology online job ads are sourced from multiple web sources, in a manner which allows the user to refine or filter the job search results to display job ads which are sourced from or advertised by: 10 6.23.1 Websites of direct employers only; and 6.23.2 Websites of employment agencies only; and 6.23.3 Traditional Job Boards only; and 6.23.4 Any combination of above sources. 15 6.24 Job Search Method - Direct Employers Groups In a further preferred search methodology, job ads which are sourced from and advertised by direct employers only are sub-classified into specific groups of direct employers and presented to the user separately as direct employer 20 group or groups: 6.24.1 Listed in the local stock exchange (bourse). This information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves for that purpose; and/or 25 6.24.2 Listed in publicly recognised business listings, business directories and business reports (e.g. BRW Top 1000 enterprises). This information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves 30 for that purpose; and/or 6.24.3 Categorised into predefined revenue ranges, based on their latest available annual sales revenue (turnover), presented in the local currency. This - 4Ji information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves for that purpose; and/or 6.24.4 'not for profit' organisations; and/or 5 6.24.5 Public-service and government sector organisations; wherein 6.24.6 the classification, search and display of search results are not dependant on or caused by text keyword/s which are entered by the user who 10 conducts the search. The feature described in this Section 6.24 and any of its subsections will be hereby referred to in other sections as "Direct Employers Groups Feature". 6.25 Job Search Method - Multi Selection Direct Employer 15 In a further preferred search methodology the user selects more than one predefined different groups of direct employers. 6.26 Display of ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads 20 In a preferred method for displaying the order of ADSEE Ads headers and of JOBUI Ads headers in the web user interface by default, the display order of the ADSEE Ads among themselves is defined by relevance, wherein the relevance of the search results is defined by prioritising any or all 25 of the following: 6.26.1 The location of keyword/s in the Job Title is ranked higher than location of the same keyword/s in the Job Description; and 6.26.2 The high proximity (short distance of text 30 characters) between two keywords from each other is ranked higher than if no or less proximity exists; and - 4j4 6.26.3 The number of appearances for each keyword/s in the Job Title and in the Job Description (the higher the number the higher the ranking); and 6.26.4 Exact match of keyword/s is ranked higher than the 5 plural or singular forms of the keywords; and Preferably, by default, the display order of the JOBUI Ads among themselves is defined by the chronological time order in which JOBUI Ads are inserted into the JOBUI by the advertisers and approved by the system administration; 10 wherein the last job ad that was posted and approved will receive a higher displaying order relative to JOBUI Ads which were posted before this ad. 6.27 Selective Display ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads - Location Priority Rules 15 In a preferred method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 in priority to ADSEE Ads headers 213.1, wherein logic rules define separate location for JOBUI Ads headers, compared with ADSEE Ads headers, in a manner which causes the web user interface to display the location of any of 20 the JOBUI Ads headers before and above the any of the ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results the user must view the job ad headers of JOBUI Ads in priority to the job ad headers of the ADSEE Ads ("Location Priority Rules"), wherein: 25 6.27.1 When the job-search results include sufficient number of JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then only JOBUI Ads headers will be displayed on the first web page of these search results, and ADSEE Ads headers will 30 not be displayed on the first web page of search results at all; and 6.27.2 When the job-search results include insufficient JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then all JOBUI Ads headers will be displayed in the first web page of search results before and above ADSEE Ads headers in this first web page. 5 6.28 Selective Display ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads - Size Priority Rules In a further preferred method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 in priority to ADSEE Ads headers 213.1, logic rules define larger size for JOBUI Ads header, compared 10 with ADSEE Ads header, which causes any JOBUI Ads header to have larger space area then any ADSEE Ads header, so that under any search-results displayed to the user, JOBUI Ads headers are visually more noticeable, compared with ADSEE Ads headers ("Size Priority Rules"). 15 6.29 Selective Display ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads - GUI Priority Rules In a further preferred method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 in priority to ADSEE Ads headers 213.1, logic rules define enhanced Graphic User Interface ("GUI") 20 features or elements for any JOBUI Ads header, compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes JOBUI Ads headers to display additional graphic features or elements (e.g. company logo) which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are not available to ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any 25 search results displayed to the user, JOBUI Ads headers are more graphically noticeable, compared with ADSEE Ads headers ("GUI Priority Rules"). 6.30 GUI Priority Rule - Advertiser Logo Feature In a preferred form, the method of Section 6.29 is 30 implemented, so that only JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 (but not ADSEE Ads headers 213.1) can include the graphical logo of the advertiser in each of the JOBUI Ads headers which are - 4ba displayed in the job search-results web page ("Advertiser Logo Feature"). 6.31 GUI Priority Rule -Business Listing Logo Feature 5 In a preferred form, only JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 (but not ADSEE Ads headers 213.1) can include certain graphical logo of the business listing/s which a specific direct employer may be part of (e.g. logo of the local stock exchange, say Australian Stock Exchange, when the advertiser is publicly 10 listed in this particular stock exchange, or the logo of BRW Top 1000 enterprises when the advertiser is included in this particular business group) ("Business Listing Logo Feature"). 15 6.32 Selective Display ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads Functionality Priority Rules In a further preferred method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 in priority to ADSEE Ads headers 213.1, logic rules define enhanced functional features for any JOBUI Ads 20 header, compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes the JOBUI Ads headers to contain and display additional functionality features which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are not available to ADSEE Ads headers ("Functionality Priority Rules"), so that under any search 25 results displayed to the user, the job ad headers of JOBUI Ads have additional functionality features displayed, compared with job ad headers of ADSEE Ads. 6.33 GUI & Functionality Priority Rule - Drag and Compare' Feature 30 In a preferred form, only JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 include a 'drag and compare' functionality feature, wherein this functionality is presented and to the user through a visual graphic icon which is placed in the header of any of the JOBUI Ads headers, wherein clicking on this particular - 4/ graphical icon activates the selection of this functionality, by allowing the user to 'drag' this JOBUI Ads header icon from the header location in the search results web page to a designated 'drop area' location in 5 the same web page with functional capability to contain a certain number of 'dropped' JOBUI Ads header icons, wherein the JOBUI Ads headers which were selected and 'dragged' by the user can then be 'dropped' in the said designated location and such a 'drop' causes to a change in the 10 graphics of the job ad headers from basic file graphics to a visually enhanced graphic icon; wherein after the said header icon is 'dropped' in the said designated 'drop area', the user can further activate a 'compare' functionality for the selected (i.e. 'dragged' and 15 'dropped') JOBUI Ads header icons, in a manner which displays to the user certain comparative and competitive elements of the selected JOBUI Ads header icons (such as, job title, employer name, potentially offered salary, certain range of annual revenues of the prospective 20 employer and/or other comparative or competitive elements which may be relevant for a reasonable jobseeker) ("Drag & Compare Feature"). 6.34 GUI Priority & Functionality Rule - Competition Index Feature 25 Preferably only JOBUI Ads headers 215.1 include a functionality which allows the user to identify whether the competition level or the number of job applications made by other jobseekers for a specific role is: very high - high, medium, low - very low; wherein this functionality is 30 displayed to the user through a visual graphic icon which is placed on the header of any one of the JOBUI Ads ("Competition Index Feature"). 6.35 Additional Jobseeker Features - Not For Me Feature - 140~ In a further preferred method for displaying job ad headers in the job search results web page, the headers of all job ads include a functionality which allows the user to select and deselect a specific job ad header. Selection minimises 5 the size of the job ad header and deactivates all the other functionalities for the specific selected job ad header, whereas de-selection restores the original size of the job as header and reactivates the job ad header original functionalities, wherein this is graphically displayed to 10 the user through a visual graphic icon, which is placed in the header of any of the job ads, wherein clicking on this icon activates the selection of this functionality and causes the header to 'fade away' or 'fade in transition' (to another graphical element) or become less visually 15 noticeable when selection is made by the user ("Not For Me Feature"). 6.36 Additional Jobseeker Features - Business Networking Feature 20 In a further preferred method any jobseeker can try to establish connection with other individuals who are employed by or involved with the specific employer, whose job ad the user is interested in, by clicking on a direct web link which will refer the jobseeker to the search 25 results web page of individuals or corporate, within widespread business and social networking websites, wherein this functionality is graphically displayed to the user through a visual graphic icon of the business / social networking website and is positioned in the header of any 30 one of the job ads, wherein clicking on this icon activates the selection of this functionality ("Business Networking Feature"). 6.37 Direct Employers Groups - 4 A method for classifying, searching and displaying online job ads using a Direct Employers Groups Feature, as defined in Section 6.24, in a web user interface; said method providing selectable search criteria for specific group/s 5 or sub-group/s of direct employers, which were defined in above Sub Section 6.24.1 to Sub Section 6.24.5; registry selection of selected ones of said selectable search criteria; conducting a search of database records on said selected ones of said selectable search criteria for and 10 only for advertisements derived from direct employers. With regards to the Direct Employers Groups Feature it is emphasized that the requested protection should apply independently in respect of any system for aggregating, reorganizing and restructuring, classifying, storing, 15 searching and displaying online job ads. 7. EXAMPLE 1 SCREEN SHOTS Figures 6 to 11 provide screen shots suited for use with implementations of certain features of the system of 20 Example 1. These screen shots are provided by way of example only and illustrate one preferred web interface, but not limiting other web interfaces that can be utilised to access the data aggregating system 210 of Example 1. 25 Figure 6 illustrates the entry screen 222 before activating search expansion options. Figure 7 illustrates the entry screen 222 in a first expanded state which allows criteria selection via sliding 30 the scales 223 and 224. Figure 8 illustrates the entry screen 222 in a further expanded state, wherein any job search for a single selected job-category (general occupations) can be further refined to display a single or multi select job subcategories, via ticking the predefined job subcategories check boxes. 5 Figure 9 illustrates the entry screen 222 (in its two expanded states), illustrating exemplary criteria upon which a search can be conducted for jobs from direct employers groups. The additional criteria are illustrated in drop down menu 225, previously described as the Direct 10 Employer Groups Feature. Figure 10 illustrates one form of advertisement listing particularly illustrating a typical form of a free advertisement of job ad header 226 derived from the ADSEE 15 system of Example 1. Figure 11 illustrates an arrangement of advertisements implementing together a job advertisement header 227 for an advertisement for which payment has been made via the JOBUI 20 system of Example 1. It will be observed that the header 227 is placed prominently at the top of the listing, is much larger is size than ADSEE Ad header 226 in Figure 10, and includes graphical information and functionalities not made available for the free advertisement ADSEE Ad header 25 226 in figure 10. The above described system of Example 1 can be implemented via a computer platform. Typical software development tools which allow building of the system include Microsoft 30 .NET framework 3.5, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET, C#, LINQ, AJAX, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Silverlight 3, Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Microsoft Presentation Foundation, Microsoft - 3.L Expression Blend 3, Java Script and Cascade Style Sheet (CSS). 8. IN USE 5 With reference to Figure 12 there is illustrated a block diagram of devices which can be associated with embodiments of the present invention. In this instance the data aggregation system 210 is implemented as a program 228 residing on storage media 229. The program is executed on a 10 data processing device in this instance in the form of computer 230. Input/output devices of the computer 230 communicate with internet 231 by way of data packets 232 which typically comprise a data portion 232a and an address portion 232b. Communication occurs via the internet with 15 job websites as described earlier in the specification and as typified by website 233 which, in this instance, is implemented as a data processing device in the form of a computer 234 which reads instructions from instructions stored on media 235 and communicating via input/output 20 devices with internet 231 again by way of data packets 232. The user 236 can enter data into the job board web user interface 212 on personal computer 237. This data is communicated via data packets 232 via the internet 231 to 25 the aggregation system 210 residing on computer 230. This information is made available to a job seeker 238 operating a data processing device in the form of personal computer 239 communicating with the data aggregation system 30 230 by way of data packets 232 transmitted over internet 231 to computer 230.

Claims (37)

1. A system for aggregating, reorganising and restructuring, classifying, storing, searching, and 5 displaying in a web interface electronic data, comprised of an Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ("ADSEE") and a Job Board Web User Interface software platform ("JOBUI"), wherein: the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software 10 platform ADSEE extracts ('pulls') and aggregates unstructured electronic data which is publicly available to internet users from multiple web sources, being online job advertising information and job ads published in career web pages of direct employers and in web pages of recruitment 15 and job agencies ("ADSEE Ads"); wherein the JOBUI receives structured electronic data which is inserted by the users (advertisers) via a web browser into the JOBUI (using a human natural language) or is inserted electronically (using a computer programming language or a 20 computer markup language), being job advertising information and job ads inserted into the JOBUI by direct employers and recruitment agencies ("JOBUI Ads"); wherein the ADSEE Ads and JOBUI Ads are aggregated separately during different time frames or separately during the same 25 time frames.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprised of a Customised Feeder Software Platform ("Feeder") which interacts with the ADSEE; wherein the Feeder reorganises and restructures the ADSEE Ads information into a 30 recognisable and readable database format; wherein the Feeder classifies the ADSEE Ads into, inter alia, a predefined set of job-categories (being predefined generic occupations), and further into job-subcategories (being predefined specific occupations),based on a list of predefined keywords for each job-category and job subcategory. 5

3. The system of claim 1 or claim 2 further comprised of a Job Search Engine Software Platform ("JSE"), wherein the JSE reorganises and restructures the data which was aggregated by the JOBUI into a recognisable and readable database format and classifies the said data into a 10 predefined set of certain job-categories and certain job subcategories that were selected by the advertiser.

4. The system of any previous claim further comprised of a database which contains, inter alia, fields and tables for predefined job-categories and job-subcategories ("DB") 15 and interacts with the Feeder and/or the ADSEE and/or the JSE; wherein the ADSEE Ads data is pushed by the Feeder or by the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE into the DB; wherein the DB receives the information contained in the JOBUI Ads from the JSE and the 20 DB receives the information contained in the ADSEE Ads from the Feeder or from the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE; and the DB stores all the said information, inter alia, based on the job-categories and job sub-categories which were used by the Feeder and/or 25 by the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE and/or by the JSE, wherein the same job categories and job-subcategories are used for ADSEE Ads and for JOBUI Ads; wherein when the user initiates the job search, based on a selection of predefined job categories 30 and/or job sub-categories without entering any search keyword/s, the JSE sends the job search request to the DB and the DB sends back the results to the JSE; wherein the said results include only the job ads which were stored in the DB for the user-selected predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories.

5. The system of any one of claims 1 to 4 further comprised of a Text Search Engine Software Component 5 ("TSE") which interacts with the DB when the user initiates a job search request which involves entering keyword/s by the user; wherein when the user initiates the job search, based on entering textual keyword/s only, without selecting any predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories, the 10 TSE conducts the job search in all the job ads in the DB and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the keyword/s from all the job ads in the DB; wherein when the user initiates the job search based on a selection of predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories and 15 entering any search keyword/s, the TSE conducts the keyword/s search only in job ads in the DB which are included in the selected predefined job categories and/or job-subcategories, and obtains the matches which contain all or any of the entered keyword/s only from the job ads 20 which are included in the selected predefined job categories and job-subcategories; wherein the DB sends back to the JSE the results which were matched by the TSE to the keyword/s search.

6. The system of any one of claims 1 to claim 5 further 25 comprised of a Display Priority Engine software component ("DPE") that interacts with the JSE and applies priority rules which cause all the job ad headers of any of the JOBUI Ads to be displayed in priority to any of the job ad headers of the ADSEE Ads; wherein the job ad header of any 30 one of the JOBUI Ads must have superior location in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and/or the job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads must have larger size (of additional approximate 50%) - b5 in the job search results web page, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; and/or the job ad header of any one of the JOBUI Ads must have enhanced graphic user interface features and elements, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; 5 and/or the job ad header of any one of JOBUI Ads must have additional functional user features, compared with any ADSEE Ads header; wherein after receiving the job search results from the DB, the JSE interacts with the DPE; wherein the JSE apply the priority rules that were set by 10 the DPE for each of the ADSEE Ads headers and the JOBUI Ads headers in the job search results; wherein the JSE sends the job search results back to the JOBUI to be displayed to the user.

7. The system of any one of claims 1 to 6 further 15 comprised of a Secured Online-Payment software system ("SOP") which interacts with the JSE, wherein the SOP is capable to process online payment from credit cards and debit cards and other forms of electronic payments.

8. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims 20 further comprised of a software custom component which receives the unstructured electronic data from the Feeder and/or from the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE and converts this data into Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, before storing the 25 information in the DB.

9. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, further comprised of a software custom component, wherein this component is used to pull structured electronic data from external sources, which was exposed by those external 30 sources using an industry standard computer language, including - but not limited to - Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) data feeds.

10. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, further comprised of a software custom component, wherein this component receives structured electronic data from external sources through Web Services Architecture (being a 5 software system designed to support interoperable machine to-machine interaction over a network) including - but not limited to - by using Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Representational State 10 Transfer (RESTful) Web Services.

11. The system as claimed in any of the preceding claims, further comprised of a software custom component which converts Portable Document Format (PDF) and/or Microsoft Word files into text files or into Hyper Text Markup 15 Language (HTML).

12. A method of charging advertising fees from online job advertisers, using the system of any one of the claims 1 to 11; said method comprising charging advertisers on a fixed per job-ad/s basis, or on subscription per time-period 20 basis (e.g. per month subscription), or on a 'pay per click' or 'cost per click' basis, wherein the advertising charge apply in respect of JOBUI ADS only, or ADSEE ADS only or both.

13. A method for classifying and sub-classifying job ads 25 data and information, using the system of any one of claims 1 to 11 into job-categories and job-subcategories; wherein the data which was aggregated by the Automated Data Seeking & Extraction Engine software platform ADSEE is classified, inter alia, into a predefined set of job-categories, based 30 on search logic rules which include predefined keywords for each job category, then, after the data is classified into a specific job-category, only the data which is classified - :> / into the specific job-category is sub-classified into predefined set of job-subcategories, based on additional predefined keywords for each job-subcategory; wherein the advertiser who posts the online job ad into JOBUI 5 classifies the job ad into a single job-category and, in addition, sub-classifies the job ad into a single job subcategory or multiple job-subcategories; and wherein the job-categories and job-subcategories which are used are the same, for ADSEE Ads and for JOBUI Ads or any other source 10 of information.

14. The method of claim 13 for searching job ad data and information which was stored in the database (DB) of the system of any one of claims 1 to 11, said method comprising: 15 selecting a predefined single job-category without selecting any job-subcategory, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were classified and stored in the DB under the selected job-category; and selecting a predefined single job-category and predefined single 20 selected job-subcategory within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the DB under the selected job-subcategory; and selecting a predefined single job category and predefined multi-selected job-subcategories 25 within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under all selected job subcategories; and typing any keyword/s into the search box, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads 30 which contain all the entered keyword/s; and typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category without selecting job subcategory, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were classified and stored in the database under the selected job-category and also contain all the entered keyword/s; and typing any keyword/s into the search box and selecting predefined single-selected job-category 5 and predefined single-selected job-subcategory within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub-classified and stored in the database under the selected job-subcategory and also contain all the entered keyword/s; and typing any keyword/s 10 into the search box and selecting predefined single selected job category and predefined multi-selected job subcategories within the said job-category, wherein the job search will result in all the job ads which were sub classified and stored in the database under all selected 15 job-subcategories and also contain all the entered keyword/s.

15. A method for classifying, sub-classifying, searching and displaying in a web interface job ads data and information, using the system of any one of claims 1 to 11, 20 wherein job ads which are sourced from and advertised by direct employers and employment agencies (which act on behalf of direct employers) can be separately displayed, in a manner which allows the user to refine or filter the job search results to display job ads which sourced from and 25 advertised by any of the web sources or the groups: direct employers only; and recruitment and job agencies only; and direct employers and recruiters.

16. A method for classifying, sub-classifying, searching and displaying in a web interface job ads data and 30 information, using the system of any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein said method providing selectable search criteria for specific groups or sub-groups of direct employers only; selection of selected ones of said selectable search criteria; conducting a search of database records on said selected ones of said selectable search criteria for and only for advertisements derived from direct employers; wherein said direct employers groups are comprised of at 5 least one of the following direct employers groups: direct employers which are listed in a local stock exchange (bourse) (e.g. Australian Stock Exchange, ASX, is a local stock exchange for Australia); and/or direct employers listed in a local stock exchange and are sub-classified 10 into one or more equity market indices with fixed number of constituents (e.g. ASX 200, ASX 300 and ASX All Ordinaries indices), wherein this information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves; and/or direct employers which are 15 listed or ranked in publicly recognised business listings, rankings, or indices (e.g. by FORTUNE, BRW and FORBES business magazines), business directories and business reports, wherein this information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the 20 advertisers themselves; and/or direct employers categorised by any financial criteria which is based on the quantity or quality of their revenues (turnover), earnings, expenses, profits, book value of equity, market value of equity, assets and liabilities, presented in local or foreign 25 currency, wherein this information is obtained from publicly available sources of information and/or from the advertisers themselves; wherein the classification, sub-classification, search and display of said search results are not dependant on or 30 caused by textual search or by text keyword/s which are entered by the user who conducts the relevant search(the feature described in claim 16 will be hereby referred to in other claims as the "Direct Employers Groups Feature").

17. A method for displaying JOBUI Ads headers in priority to ADSEE Ads headers, using the system of any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein logic rules define at least one of the following: 5 separate location for JOBUI Ads headers, compared with ADSEE Ads headers, in a manner which causes the web user interface to display the location of any JOBUI Ads header before and above any of the ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results the user must view the job ad 10 headers of JOBUI Ads in priority to the job ad headers of the ADSEE Ads ("Location Priority Rules"); wherein when the job-search results in displaying sufficient number of JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then only JOBUI ads headers will be displayed in 15 the first web page of these search results, and ADSEE Ads headers will not be displayed in the first web page of search results at all; wherein when the job-search results in displaying insufficient number of JOBUI Ads headers to fill at least one web page of search results, then all 20 JOBUI Ads headers will be displayed in the first web page of search results, before and above all ADSEE Ads headers; or larger size for any JOBUI Ads header, compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes any JOBUI Ads header to have 25 larger surface / area then any ADSEE Ads header, so that under any search results displayed to the user, any JOBUI Ads header is visually more noticeable, compared with any ADSEE Ads header ("Size Priority Rules"); or enhanced Graphic User Interface ("GUI") features or 30 elements for any JOBUI Ads header, compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes the JOBUI Ads headers to display additional graphic features or elements (e.g. company logo) - 01I which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are not available to ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results displayed to the user, JOBUI Ads headers are more graphically noticeable, compared with ADSEE Ads headers 5 ("GUI Priority Rules"); or enhanced functional features for any JOBUI Ads header compared with any ADSEE Ads header, which causes the JOBUI Ads headers to include and display additional functionality features which are exclusive to JOBUI Ads headers and are 10 not available to ADSEE Ads headers, so that under any search results displayed to the user, job ad headers of JOBUI Ads have more functionality features displayed, compared with job ad headers of ADSEE Ads ("Functionality Priority Rules"). 15

18. A data aggregation system for aggregation and display of job advertisements, said system including a web interface driver which communicates with a database; said database obtaining information from a data seeking engine; said data seeking engine seeking and obtaining unstructured 20 information from at least a first data source type; said database also obtaining information from a data receiving engine; said data receiving engine receiving structured information input into it.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein said data seeking 25 engine seeks and obtains information from a second data source type.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein said data seeking engine seeks and obtains information from a third data source type.

21. The data aggregation system of claim 18, 19 or 20 wherein data is input to said data receiving engine manually via a web interface.

22. The system of claim 18 wherein said first data source 5 type comprises source data from a career webpage of a direct employer.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein said second data source type comprises recruitment or job agency data derived from web pages of recruitment or job agencies. 10

24. The data aggregation system of claim 20 wherein said third data source type comprises receiver data derived from online job advertising information.

25. The data aggregation system of any one of claims 18 to 24, wherein data received from said data receiving 15 engine is ranked more highly or otherwise given more prominence than data derived from said data seeking engine.

26. The system of any one of claims 18 to 25, wherein data is aggregated data from said data seeking engine and said data is displayed via a web interface. 20

27. The data aggregation system of claim 26 wherein aggregated data is arranged to be searchable based on pre selected criteria.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said predetermined criteria includes searching based on grouping of direct 25 employers.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said grouping is based on selected financial criteria.

30. The system of claim 18 wherein said web interface driver is implemented as a data processing device.

31. The system of claim 18 wherein said data seeking engine is implemented as a data processing device.

32. The system of claim 18 wherein said data receiving 5 engine is implemented as a data processing device.

33. A data aggregation system comprising first data processing means in communication via the internet with at least a first website wherein unstructured data comprising at least a first data source type is transmitted in the 10 form of data packets to said first data processing means thereby to construct said data aggregation system in accordance with the system claimed in any one of claims 18 to 32; said first data processing means further communicating via the internet with at least one data 15 processing device by which user-entered structured advertisement data is transmitted as data packets via the internet to said first data processing means; said first data processing means in communication with at least one other data processing means by which a job seeker accesses 20 data concerning said data aggregation system from said first data processing means via the internet in the form of data packets.

34. A data aggregation system comprising first data processing means in communication via the internet with at 25 least a first website wherein unstructured data comprising at least a first data source type is transmitted in the form of data packets to said first data processing means thereby to construct a data aggregation system in accordance with the system claimed in any one of claims 1 30 to 11; said data processing means further communicating via the internet with at least one data processing device by which user-entered structured advertisement data is transmitted as data packets via the internet to said first data processing means; said first data processing means in communication with at least one other data processing means by which a job seeker accesses data concerning said 5 vertical job board system from said first data processing means via the internet in the form of data packets.

35. A method of aggregating structured and unstructured data, said method comprising seeking unstructured data of at least a first data type from one or more websites 10 accessible via the Internet; accepting structured data input via a web interface; collating both the unstructured data and structured data so as to define a vertical jobs board; said vertical jobs board accessible via a web interface. 15

36. The method of claim 35 further including seeking unstructured data of at least a second data type.

37. The method of claim 36 further including seeking unstructured data of at least a third data type.