5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the listing object is an unstructured alphanumeric string.
1. A computer implemented method for analyzing a listing object to define a match to a candidate object among many possible candidate objects, comprising; (a) receiving a listing object as an input; (b) using a text search engine to generate a set of candidate objects based on characteristics of the listing object, each of the set of candidate objects being paired with the listing object to define a listing-candidate pair, each listing candidate pair being processed by, (i) generating a matching feature vector for a listing-candidate pair, the matching feature vector including a matching score based on a common features between the candidate object and a canonical form of the listing object based on domain specific knowledge; (ii) analyzing the matching feature vector using a judging committee module; and (iii) rendering a match judgment by evaluating the results of the judging committee module to determine whether the listing object and the candidate object are a match, wherein the judging committee module applies a plurality of machine learning classifiers and a rule system to the matching feature vector to render the matching judgment and wherein the rule system includes a set of rules with precedence; (c) saving the match judgment to a computer readable media.