SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTEXT-BASED KNOWLEDGE SEARCH, TAGGING, COLLABORATION, MANAGEMENT, AND ADVERTISEMENT

• US 20070198506A1
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetSeer, Inc. (Inuvo, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ILIAL, INC.
• Inventors: Attaran Rezaei, Behnam, Muntz, Alice
• Granted Patent: US 8,380,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices

Abstract

Comprehensive methods and systems are described for creating, managing, searching, personalizing, and monetizing a knowledge system defined over a corpus of digital content. Systems and methods are described in which a user can initiate in-depth searches of subject matter and can browse, navigate, pinpoint, and select relevant contexts, concepts, and documents to gain knowledge. Systems and methods are described in which knowledge can be personalized through tagged, personalized context, and personalized context can be shared within social and professional networks, securely and confidentially and with the desired access control. Systems and methods are described in which products and services can be advertised in context and advertising can be selected through a bidding process. Systems and methods are described by which a user can navigate contexts and concepts to obtain relevant information, products and services.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining context comprising the steps of:

forming a context, the context including

content, and

one or more predefined concepts;

wherein each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the terms include terms comprising multiple words.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context further includes relevancy scores.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of providing a relevancy score for each of the one or more concepts by calculating relevance of the each concept to the context.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and further comprising the step of providing a relevancy score for each of the plurality of documents by calculating relevance of the each document to the context.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and further comprising the step of providing relevancy scores for each of the plurality of documents by calculating relevance of the each document to each of the one or more concepts.

7. The method of claim 1, and further comprising the step of defining the predefined concepts based on terms extracted from the content.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and wherein the step of defining includes calculating statistical concepts based on statistical frequency of occurrence of terms within the plurality of documents.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and wherein the step of defining includes calculating statistical concepts based on statistical frequency of occurrence of words within one or more of the plurality of documents.

10. The method of claim 1, and further comprising the step of adding new content to the context.

11. The method of claim 10, and further comprising the step of defining a new predefined concept in the context, wherein the new predefined concept is calculated based on terms derived from the new content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the new predefined concept is defined based on statistical frequency of occurrence of terms within the new content.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the new predefined concept is defined based on statistical frequency of occurrence of words within the content of the context, including the added new content.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and further comprising the steps of:

adding a new document to the context; and

providing a relevancy score for the new document by calculating relevance of the new document to the context.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of providing additional relevancy scores for the new document by calculating relevance of the new document to each of the one or more concepts.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises a plurality of documents, and further comprising the steps of:

providing a new document;

defining a new concept based on terms extracted from the new document; and

updating the context, including the steps of

adding the new concept to the one or more concepts to obtain updated concepts, and

adding the new document to the plurality of documents to obtain an updated plurality of documents.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of defining includes calculating statistical concepts based on statistical frequency of occurrence of terms within the new document.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of defining includes calculating statistical concepts based on statistical frequency of occurrence of words within the new document.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the context also includes relevancy scores and further comprising the step of recalculating the relevancy scores based on the new concept.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of recalculating includes providing relevancy scores for the new document by calculating relevance of the new document to the updated context.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of recalculating includes providing relevancy scores for the updated plurality of documents by calculating relevance of the updated plurality of documents to the updated context.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of recalculating includes providing relevancy scores for the updated concepts by calculating relevance of the updated concepts to the updated context.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of recalculating includes providing relevancy scores for the updated plurality of documents by calculating relevance of the updated plurality of documents to each of the one or more updated concepts.

24. The method of claim 1, and further comprising the step of creating a new context, the new context including:

the one or more concepts;

the content;

a new document; and

a new concept, the new concept being based on terms extracted from the new document.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the new context further comprises a link to the previously formed context and further comprising the step of adding a link to the new context to the previously formed context.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern of terms include terms comprising single and multiple words previously extracted from categorized data.

27. The method of claim 1, and further comprising the step of matching a query to the context based on concepts extracted from the query.

28. A search method comprising:

maintaining a plurality of contexts, each context including

content comprising a plurality of documents, and

one or more predefined concepts;

extracting search terms from the query; and

matching the search terms to at least one of the plurality of contexts, wherein

each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of matching includes calculating relevance of the search terms to selected ones of the plurality of contexts.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of matching includes

calculating relevance of the search terms to a selected one of the plurality of contexts, and

matching the selected one based on the calculated relevance.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein, relevance is calculated as a frequency of occurrence of terms within the plurality of documents of the selected one.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the plurality of contexts comprises a first context including links to a second context.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the second context includes at least one concept included in the first context.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the second context includes at least one document included in the first context.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the second context includes fewer concepts than the first context.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the second context identifies more responses to the query than identified by the first context.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the first context identifies fewer responses to the query than identified by the second context.

38. A method for sharing context comprising:

maintaining a plurality of contexts, each context including

content, and

one or more predefined concepts; and

providing access to selected contexts to a plurality of users, wherein the content comprises documents and objects, and wherein each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein at least one of the plurality of contexts is updated based on input received from the plurality of users.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein a portion of one of the plurality of contexts is generated based on input of a user.

41. The method of claim 38, and further comprising the step of personalizing a portion of a selected context, wherein personalizing includes modifying at least one element of the selected context, the elements including one or more tags, summaries, descriptions, contacts, discussions, messenger logs and email addresses.

42. The method of claim 38, wherein the at least one of the plurality of contexts is maintained private for a first user.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein access to at least one of the plurality of contexts is provided to less than all of the plurality of users.

44. The method of claim 38, wherein access to at least one context is provided to each of the plurality of users.

45. The method of claim 38, wherein access to at least one context is unrestricted.

46. The method of claim 38, wherein access includes view privileges.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein access includes modify privileges.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein access includes delete privileges.

49. The method of claim 38, wherein access is protected by a security system.

50. The method of claim 49, and further comprising the step of encrypting at least one context.

51. A method for providing relevant advertising comprising:

maintaining a plurality of contexts, each context including

content relevant to the each context, and

one or more predefined concepts; and

mapping advertising content to selected ones of the plurality of contexts;

wherein

each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms, and

the advertising content is provided to a user in response to a query.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of mapping includes obtaining one or more advertisements from an external advertisement feed.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of mapping includes obtaining one or more advertisements from a manual entry based on user selection of one or more contexts.

54. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of mapping further includes providing an advertisement based on bids received from one or more sources.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the step of mapping includes obtaining one or more advertisements based on context of a query.

56. A method for providing categorized data comprising:

maintaining a plurality of contexts, each context including

content relevant to the each context, and

one or more predefined concepts; and

mapping categorized data to selected ones of the plurality of contexts;

wherein

each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms, and

the categorized data is provided to a user in response to a query.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the categorized data is obtained from one or more external feeds.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein the categorized data is obtained from a manual entry based on user selection of one or more contexts.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the categorized data is mapped based on context of a query.

60. A computer implemented method for operating context-sensitive databases comprising:

maintaining a plurality of contexts, each context including

content relevant to the each context, and

one or more predefined concepts;

associating an advertisement with certain of the plurality of contexts; and

presenting the advertisement in response to user selection of one of the certain contexts.

61. The computer implemented method of claim 60, wherein each of the predefined concepts is characterized by a pattern of terms.

62. The computer implemented method of claim 60, wherein the advertisement is associated based on relevancy of the certain contexts to one or more concepts.

63. The computer implemented method of claim 60, wherein the step of presenting includes:

matching a document retrieved by the user with one of the certain contexts; and

providing the advertisement in a context-sensitive Ad Billboard.

64. The computer implemented method of claim 63, wherein matching includes determining relevance of terms in the document to at least one of the predefined concepts.

65. The computer implemented method of claim 60, wherein associating includes subscribing to a service implementing the method.