Reputation system for web pages and online entities

• US 20070208613A1
• Filed: 02/09/2007
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alejandro Backer
• Original Assignee: Alejandro Backer
• Inventors: Backer, Alejandro
• Granted Patent: US 8,015,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for providing a measure of trust for each participant in a network is disclosed, together with a method to calculate it automatically. In particular, a method for rating online entities, such as online identities is provided, which also takes into account the reputation of the raters.

Claims

1. A method for rating an online entity in accordance with a tag, the method comprising:

arranging the online entity to be rated by a plurality of raters in accordance with the tag;

assigning a rater'"'"'s score to the raters rating the online entity with the tag, to establish reputation of the raters;

assigning a tag score to the online entity, the tag score depending on

i) ratings provided by the raters to the online entity in accordance with the tag, and

ii) the reputation of all raters rating the online entity with the tag.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the online entity is selected from the group consisting of a web page, an e-mail address, a telephone number and an online profile.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning a rater'"'"'s score to the raters rating the online entity with the tag is established by associating each rater with an online profile of the rater or one or more e-mail addresses of the rater.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a tag score to the online entity is established through a raters/entities tag matrix associated with a graph connecting the raters and the online entity.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein assigning a rater'"'"'s score to a rater Y rating the entity with a tag T is computed as a function of

i) ratings given to the rater Y,

ii) reputation of raters of the rater Y for each tag matrix of many tag matrices, and

iii) relationship between the many tag matrices and tag matrix T.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein relationship between tag matrices Ti and Tj is given by a coefficient of correlation between scores computed for each entity for tag i and scores computed for a same entity for tag j.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the tag score is calculated by calculating a dominant eigenvector of the tag matrix.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the ratings provided by the raters to the entity in accordance with the tag are selected from the group consisting of Boolean ratings and multi-value ratings.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the tag matrix allows assigning tag score to a plurality of entities in accordance with the tag, the dominant eigenvector for the tag matrix comprising a plurality of scalar values, each scalar value indicating a tag score for a particular entity for the tag.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein arranging the entity to be rated by a plurality of raters in accordance with the tag is established via a toolbar for the user'"'"'s Internet browser.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a rater'"'"'s score to the raters rating the entity with the tag, to establish reputation of the raters is established by associating each rater with one or more rater'"'"'s web pages or rater'"'"'s e-mails and rating the rater'"'"'s web pages or rater'"'"'s e-mails in accordance with the tag.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein when multiple rater'"'"'s web pages or rater'"'"'s e-mails are associated with a same rater, the rater'"'"'s score is calculated by computing initial reputation of each rater'"'"'s web page and rater'"'"'s e-mails separately and then providing further reputation of the rater as a function of each initial rater'"'"'s score.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the function is a sum of the initial rater'"'"'s scores.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the online entity is definable as a node n, the tag is definable as a tag t, and the tag score is a tag score TR is given as

TR(node n,tag t)=sum over all nodes n′

who have rated n “

agree”

with tag t of [sum over all
tags t′

of (predictivity(t′

→

t)*TR(n′

,t)/number of nodes n′

has rated “

agree”

with tag t/sum
over all tags t′

of predictivity(t′

→

t))]−

sum over all nodes n′

who have rated n “

disagree”

with
tag t of [sum over all tags t′

of (predictivity(t′

→

t)*TR(n′

,t)/number of nodes n′

has rated
“

disagree”

with tag t/sum over all tags t′

of predictivity(t′

→

t))]

15. The method of claim 1, wherein rating of the online entity is computed as a function of the eigenvector of a matrix of positive ratings and a negative rating, wherein the negative rating is computed as a function of a number of negative ratings and reputation or rating of raters who gave the negative ratings.

37. The toolbar of claim 36, wherein the ratings are established in accordance with the method of claim 1.

16. A method to establish trust in e-mail communications between senders and receivers, comprising:

assigning a trust score to an online entity represented by an e-mail address, the trust score depending on;

i) amount of communications received by the e-mail address from each sender; and

ii) a trust indication of all senders of the communications to the e-mail address.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein assigning a trust score to the online entity represented by the e-mail address is established through a senders/online identities matrix associated with a graph connecting the senders and the online identities.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the trust score further depends on amount of communications sent by the e-mail address.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising sending the trust score of the online identity to potential recipients of communications from the online entity.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising encrypting the trust score of the online entity.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

filtering communications receivable from the online entity based on the trust score.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the filtering is achieved by selecting a trust score threshold.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the trust threshold is variable over time.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein communications are displayed ranked by the trust score or reputation score of the online entity that sent them.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is further a function of distribution of time delays between a receiver'"'"'s receipt of communications from the online entity and the receiver'"'"'s response to the online entity.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is further a function of distribution of length of messages from a receiver to the online entity as compared to length of messages from the online entity to the receiver.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is transferable from a first e-mail address of the online entity to a second e-mail address of the online entity.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is modifiable in accordance with an amount of complaints against the online entity or endorsements in favor of the online entity.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the trust score is a function of senders and receivers, such that senders who have been endorsed with communications or ratings from users that are more trusted by a receiver are more trusted than those endorsed by users that are less trusted by the receiver.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein trust from the receiver radiates outward from the receiver in a network via positive communications or ratings made by the receiver and is diluted with every node away from the receiver.

31. A method of authenticating an association between a user and a web page comprising:

requesting the user to place a code in the web page;

searching the code in the web page; and

upon finding the code, authenticating the association.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the user is the owner of an email address.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the user is identified by a user identifier.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the user identifier is a username/password combination or an email address.

35. A method for rating an online entity, the method comprising:

arranging the online entity to be rated by a plurality of raters;

assigning a rater'"'"'s score to the raters rating the online entity, to establish reputation of the raters; and

assigning a score to the online entity, the score depending on

i) ratings provided by the raters to the online entity, and

ii) the reputation of all raters rating the online entity,

wherein assigning the score to the online entity is established through a raters/entities matrix associated with a graph connecting the raters and the online entity.

36. A toolbar for a web browser, the toolbar comprising tags, description, reviews or ratings assigned to a web page being visited by a user.

38. The toolbar of claim 36, wherein the web page represents a person and the ratings represent reputation of the person.

39. A toolbar for a web browser, the toolbar comprising ads relevant to the web page being visited.

40. The toolbar of claim 39, wherein the ads are provided in a link included in the toolbar.

41. A method for rating an online entity in accordance with a tag, the method comprising:

providing an agreement identifier, to allow users to agree with the tag;

providing a disagreement identifier, to allow users to disagree with the tag;

assigning a score to the tag in accordance with a difference between agreements with the tag and disagreements with the tag.

42. A method to establish reputation of an online entity, the method comprising:

Establishing a reputation score for the online entity, the reputation score depending on;

i) positive endorsements received by the online entity;

ii) negative endorsements received by the online entity;

iii) negative endorsements given by other entities that gave the online entity a negative endorsement; and

iv) reputation of the entities that gave the online entity a negative endorsement.