Temporal link analysis of linked entities

• US 20040128273A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carmel, David, Weiss, Uri, Lempel, Ronny, Amitay, Einat, Herscovici, Michael, Soffer, Aya
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

A method for gathering and recording temporal information for a linked entity, the method including identifying a link related activity within a linked source entity, and recording a time stamp in association with the link related activity.

Claims

1. A method for gathering and recording temporal information for a linked entity, the method comprising:

identifying a link related activity within a linked source entity; and

recording a time stamp in association with said link related activity.

2. A method according to claim 1 and further comprising creating a link activity record comprising an identifier of said source entity, an identifier of a destination of said link, and said time stamp.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein said creating step comprises creating said link activity record comprising an identifier of said activity.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein said recording step comprises recording a time stamp of when said link was added to said entity.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein said recording step comprises recording a time stamp of when anchor text of said link was modified.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said recording step comprises recording a time stamp of when the location of said link within said entity was changed.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein said recording step comprises recording a time stamp of when said link is deleted.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein said recording step comprises recording a time stamp of when said entity was last modified.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein said identifying step comprises identifying among a collection of linked entities.

10. A method for gathering temporal information for a linked entity, the method comprising:

examining a linking entity to identify any links contained therein;

generating for any of said links a time stamp corresponding to a link related activity;

subsequently examining said linking entity to determine whether said linking entity has changed since said previous examination; and

if said linking entity has changed since said previous examination generating for any of said links a new time stamp corresponding to said change.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein either of said generating steps comprises generating according to the value of a last modified header field of said linking entity.

12. A method according to claim 10 wherein either of said generating steps comprises generating according to when said linking entity was examined to identify said links.

13. A method according to claim 10 wherein said subsequently examining step comprises comparing at least a portion of said linking entity with at least a portion of a previously stored version of said linking entity.

14. A method according to claim 11 wherein said subsequently examining step comprises comparing the current value of said last modified header field to a previously stored value of said last modified header field.

15. A method according to claim 10 and further comprising:

if said linking entity has been deleted since said previous examination, generating a new time stamp corresponding to when said deletion was detected.

16. A method for measuring link activity as a function of time, the method comprising:

selecting a plurality of link activity records from a set of link activity records; and

projecting said selected link activity records onto a time axis.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein said selecting step comprises selecting said link activity records that are limited to at least one type of activity.

18. A method according to claim 16 wherein said selecting step comprises selecting the most recent link activity record for each link in said set.

19. A method according to claim 16 wherein said selecting step comprises selecting based on predefined temporal criteria.

20. A method for temporally ranking a collection of linked entities, the method comprising:

for each link activity record related to a link, assigning a weight to said link according to a temporal criterion applied to said link activity record;

performing said assigning step for at least one link to each of a plurality of linked entities; and

ranking said linked entities and associated links using said weights.

21. A method according to claim 20 wherein said assigning step comprises assigning more weight to any of said links having either of more link activity records and more recent link activity records than to any of said links having either of fewer link activity records and fewer recent link activity records.

22. Apparatus for recording temporal information for a linked entity, comprising:

an identifier of a source entity comprising at least one link;

an identifier of a destination of said link; and

a time stamp indicating when an activity occurred that is associated with said link.

23. A system for gathering and recording temporal information for a linked entity, the system comprising:

means for identifying a link related activity within a linked source entity; and

means for recording a time stamp in association with said link related activity.

24. A system according to claim 23 and further comprising means for creating a link activity record comprising an identifier of said source entity, an identifier of a destination of said link, and said time stamp.

25. A system according to claim 24 wherein said means for creating is operative to create said link activity record comprising an identifier of said activity.

26. A system for gathering temporal information for a linked entity, the system comprising:

means for examining a linking entity to identify any links contained therein;

means for generating for any of said links a time stamp corresponding to a link related activity;

means for subsequently examining said linking entity to determine whether said linking entity has changed since said previous examination; and

means for generating for any of said links a new time stamp corresponding to a change that occurred in said linking entity since said previous examination.

27. A system according to claim 26 wherein said means for subsequently examining is operative to comparing at least a portion of said linking entity with at least a portion of a previously stored version of said linking entity.

28. A system for measuring link activity as a function of time, the system comprising:

means for selecting a plurality of link activity records from a set of link activity records; and

means for projecting said selected link activity records onto a time axis.

29. A system according to claim 28 wherein said means for selecting is operative to selecting said link activity records that are limited to at least one type of activity.

30. A system for temporally ranking a collection of linked entities, the system comprising:

means for assigning a weight to a link for each link activity record related to said link according to a temporal criterion applied to said link activity record;

means for performing said assigning step for at least one link to each of a plurality of linked entities; and

means for ranking said linked entities and associated links using said weights.

31. A system according to claim 30 wherein said means for assigning is operative to assign more weight to any of said links having either of more link activity records and more recent link activity records than to any of said links having either of fewer link activity records and fewer recent link activity records.

32. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the computer program comprising:

a first code segment operative to identify a link related activity within a linked source entity; and

a second code segment operative to record a time stamp in association with said link related activity.