Using community annotations as anchortext

• US 20060294085A1
• Filed: 08/02/2006
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rose, Daniel E., Xu, Zhichen, Walther, Eckart, Lu, Qi, Mao, Jianchang, Ku, David, Tam, Chung-Man
• Granted Patent: US 7,647,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for using community annotations to content items as anchortext for search and index purposes. The method according to one embodiment comprises generating one or more items of personalized information by a user for storage in a user profile, the one or more items of personalized information associated with one or more content items, the one or more content items and the one or more items of personalized information comprising one or more words. One or more items of personalized information is selected from a given user profile. The method further comprises indexing the one or more words in the one or more content items and the one or more words in the selected personalized information into an index, identifying one or more content items responsive to on or more query words in a query of the index and returning the identified content items as a result set to the user.

Claims

1. A method of generating a result set, the method comprising:

generating one or more items of personalized information by a user for storage in a user profile, the one or more items of personalized information associated with one or more content items, the one or more content items and the one or more items of personalized information comprising one or more words;

selecting one or more items of personalized information from a given user profile;

indexing the one or more words in the one or more content items and the one or more words in the selected personalized information into an index;

identifying one or more content items responsive to on or more query words in a query of the index; and

returning the identified content items as a result set to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein indexing the one or more words comprises indexing one or more words in a web page.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein indexing the one or more words comprises indexing personalized information that indicates a user annotation associated with the web page.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein indexing the one or more words comprises indexing personalized information that indicates that a user saved the web page.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein indexing the one or more words comprises indexing personalized information that indicates that a user tagged the web page.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein indexing the one or more words comprises indexing the location of the one or more words in a given content item and the location of the one or more words in a given item of personalized information from the user profile.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising:

generating an annotation by a subsequent user for storage in a user profile, the annotation associated with one or more content items and comprising one or more words; and

indexing the one or more words in the annotation into the index.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising storing an indication of a relationship between the user and a subsequent user

9. The method of claim 8 comprising storing the indication of the relationship between the user and the subsequent user as social network information.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising:

identifying one or more content items responsive to on or more query words in a query of the index on the basis of the social network information; and

returning the identified content items as a result set to the user.

11. The method of claim 9 comprising indexing the social network information in the index in association with the one or more content items.

12. A method of generating a result set, the method comprising:

means for generating one or more items of personalized information by a user for storage in a user profile, the one or more items of personalized information associated with one or more content items, the one or more content items and the one or more items of personalized information comprising one or more words;

means for selecting one or more items of personalized information from a given user profile;

means for indexing the one or more words in the one or more content items and the one or more words in the selected personalized information into an index;

means for identifying one or more content items responsive to on or more query words in a query of the index; and

means for returning the identified content items as a result set to the user.