Device, System and Method of Handling User Requests

• US 20080235005A1
• Filed: 09/13/2006
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yedda Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Golan, Yaniv, Nissenbaum, Avichay
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,640 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods of handling user requests. For example, a method includes: receiving an electronic representation of a submitted request; calculating request-related information, submitter-related information, and/or recipient-related information; based on the request-related information and the submitter-related information, determining one or more recipients for the request; distributing the request to said one or more recipients; and storing the request and one or more responses received from said one or more recipients.

Claims

1-22. -22. (canceled)

23. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request submitted by a submitter;

generating a semantic representation of the request, said semantic representation comprising a plurality of tags, and comprising data values representing degrees of relevance of said tags to the request;

comparing the semantic representation of the request to respective semantic representations of each of a plurality of users who can potentially respond to the request; and

based at least in part on a result of said comparison, selecting, from said plurality of users, at least one user to whom to route the request.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the request is a question to which the submitter is seeking an answer.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the semantic representation of each of the plurality of users comprises a set of tags reflective of topics associated with the respective user, and comprises data values representing degrees of relevance of said tags to the respective user.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of comparing comprises determining a correlation level between the semantic representation of the request and the respective semantic representation of each of the plurality of users.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of comparing comprises using a vector-distance calculation in which each of the semantic representations is treated as a multi-dimensional vector.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising using the semantic representation of the request to automatically match the request to at least one prior user-submitted request for which a response is available, and making said response available to the submitter.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein generating the semantic representation of the request comprises taking profile information of the submitter into consideration in generating the semantic representation of the request, said profile information being distinct from the request.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising using a semantic representation of the submitter to generate the semantic representation of the request, said semantic representation of the submitter including tags derived from a user profile of the submitter.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein generating the semantic representation of the request comprises generating a semantic cloud representation of the request.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the semantic cloud representation comprises weighted links between specific tags, said weighted links representing degrees of association between specific tags.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein generating the semantic representation of the request comprises generating a set of suggested tags for the request, and outputting the set of suggested tags to the submitter.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising providing a user option for the submitter to do at least one of the following:

(a) accept the set of suggested tags;

(b) submit a modified set of tags for the request.

35. The method of claim 23, wherein selecting at least one user to whom to route the request comprises, for at least a first user of said plurality of users, taking into consideration how many requests have been routed to the first user over a selected period of time.

36. The method of claim 23, wherein selecting at least one user to whom to route the request comprises, for at least a first user of said plurality of user, taking into consideration both (a) an average response time of the first user, and (b) an average response time experienced by the submitter in the past.

37. The method of claim 23, wherein selecting a user to whom to route the request comprises, for at least a first user of said plurality of users, taking into consideration whether the first user is currently online.

38. The method of claim 23, wherein selecting at least one user to whom to route the request comprises, for at least a first user of said plurality of users, taking into consideration whether the first user is currently available to receive the request via an instant messaging client.

39. The method of claim 23, further comprising automatically creating a blog for said question and user responses thereto.

40. A system for matching user-submitted requests to users qualified to respond to such requests, the system comprising:

a generator that receives a request submitted by a submitter and generates a semantic representation of the request, the semantic representation comprising a plurality of tags, and comprising data values representing degrees of relevance of said tags to the request;

a matching system that compares the semantic representation of the request to respective semantic representations of each of a plurality of users who can potentially respond to the request; and

a request distribution system that selects one or more particular users to which to send the request based at least on part on an output of the matching system.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the semantic representation of each of the plurality of users comprises a set of tags reflective of topics associated with the respective user, and comprises data values representing degrees of relevance of said tags to the respective user

42. The system of claim 40, wherein the matching system determines a correlation level between the semantic representation of the request and the respective semantic representation of each of the plurality of users.

43. The system of claim 40, wherein the matching system performs a vector-distance calculation in which each of the semantic representations is treated as a multi-dimensional vector.

44. The system of claim 40, further comprising a component that uses the semantic representation of the request to automatically match the request to at least one prior user-submitted request for which a response is available.

45. The system of claim 40, wherein the generator takes user profile information of the submitter into consideration in generating the semantic representation of the request, said profile information being separate from the request.

46. The system of claim 40, wherein the generator takes into consideration a semantic representation of the submitter in generating the semantic representation of the request, said semantic representation of the submitter including tags derived from a user profile of the submitter.

47. The system of claim 40, wherein the generator generates a semantic cloud representation of the request, the semantic cloud representation comprising weighted links between specific tags, said weighted links representing degrees to which specific tags are related.

48. The system of claim 40, further comprising a tags suggestion generator that generates a set of suggested tags for the request, and outputting the set of suggested tags to the submitter.

49. The system of claim 40, wherein the request distribution system, in selecting one or more particular users to which to send the request, takes into consideration how many requests have been routed to said users over a period of time.

50. The system of claim 40, wherein the request distribution system, in selecting one or more particular users to which to send the request, takes into consideration (a) average response times of the candidate recipients of the requests, and (b) an average response time previously experienced by the submitter.

51. The system of claim 40, wherein the request distribution system, in selecting one or more particular users to which to send the request, takes into consideration whether particular candidate users are currently online.

52. The system of claim 40, wherein the request distribution system, in selecting one or more particular users to which to send the request, takes into consideration whether particular candidate users are currently available to receive the request via an instant messaging client.

53. A system, comprising:

computer storage; and

executable code represented in said computer storage, said executable code embodying a method that comprises;

receiving an electronic representation of a user-submitted request;

generating a request semantic cloud associated with said request;

calculating a match ranking between the request semantic cloud and a profile associated with a potential recipient of the request; and

determining, based at least partly on the match ranking, whether to send the user-submitted request to the potential recipient.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the request semantic cloud includes a plurality of tags, and includes data values representing degrees of relevance of particular ones of said tags to the user-submitted request.

55. The system of claim 53, wherein generating the request semantic cloud comprises incorporating information about a submitter of the request into the request semantic cloud, said information about the submitter being distinct from the user-submitted request.

56. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving user profile information of a user;

generating a semantic representation of the user based, at least in part, on the user profile information, said semantic representation comprising a plurality of tags, and comprising data values representing degrees of relevance of particular tags of said plurality of tags to the user; and

matching user-submitted requests for information to said user based, at least in part, on the semantic representation of the user and semantic representations of the user-submitted requests for information, said user-submitted requests for information submitted by other users.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein at least some of the user-submitted requests for information are user-submitted questions.

58. The method of claim 56, further comprising updating the semantic representation of the user based on responses of said user to at least some of the user-submitted requests.

59. The method of claim 56, wherein the method is performed by a network-accessible system, and the method comprises using user profile information provided to the system by the user, in combination with user information extracted by said system from at least one external source identified to the system by the user, to generate the semantic representation of the user.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the at least one external source comprises at least one of the following:

(a) a blog of the user, (b) a profile of the user on a social networking site.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the at least one external source comprises an external bookmarking site with which the user has an account, and the method comprises using bookmarks created by the user on the bookmarking site to generate the semantic representation.

62. The method of claim 59, wherein the semantic representation of the user is additionally based on at least one of the following:

(a) information requests submitted to the system by the user, (b) responses provided by the user to information requests matched by the system to said user.

63. The method of claim 56, wherein the method comprises obtaining information about the user from a network-accessible information source that is external to a system that performs said method, and using said information to generate the semantic representation of the user.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the network-accessible information source comprises a web site that is external to, and distinct from, said system, and the method comprises scraping data from said web site.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the web site is a social networking site on which the user maintains a profile.

66. The method of claim 56, wherein generating the semantic representation of the user comprises generating a semantic cloud representation of the user.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the semantic cloud representation comprises weighted links between specific tags, said weighted links representing relationships between specific tags.

68. The method of claim 56, wherein generating the semantic representation of the user comprises generating an initial set of tags that includes both tags supplied by the user and tags derived from at least one source of information about the user, and using data regarding semantic relationships between tags to augment the initial set of tags.

69. The method of claim 56, wherein matching the user-submitted requests for information to the user comprises comparing semantic representations of said requests to the semantic representation of the user.

70. The method of claim 56, wherein matching the user-submitted requests to the user comprises taking into consideration an online presence of the user.

71. A system for automatically matching user-submitted requests for information to users capable of responding to such requests for information, the system comprising:

a person semantic representation generator that generates a semantic representation of a user based, at least in part, on user profile information associated with the user, said semantic representation comprising a plurality of tags, and comprising data values representing degrees of relevance of particular tags of said plurality of tags to the user; and

a matching system that matches user-submitted requests for information to said user based, at least in part, on the semantic representation of the user and semantic representations of the user-submitted requests for information, said user-submitted requests for information submitted by other users.

72. The system of claim 71, wherein the user-submitted requests for information comprise user-submitted questions.

73. The system of claim 71, wherein the person semantic representation generator updates the semantic representation of the user based on responses of said user to user-submitted requests to which the user responds.

74. The system of claim 71, wherein the person semantic representation generator uses user profile information provided to by the user, in combination with user information extracted from at least one external source identified by the user, to generate the semantic representation of the user.

75. The system of claim 74, wherein the at least one external source comprises at least one of the following:

(a) an external blog of the user, (b) a profile of the user on an external social networking site.

76. The system of claim 74, wherein the at least one external source comprises an external bookmarking site with which the user has an account, and the method comprises using bookmarks created by the user on the bookmarking site to generate the semantic representation.

77. The system of claim 74, wherein the person semantic representation generator generates the semantic representation of the user based additionally on at least one of the following:

(a) information requests submitted to the system by the user, (b) responses provided by the user to information requests matched by the system to said user.

78. The system of claim 71, wherein the person semantic representation generator obtains information about the user from a network-accessible information source that is external to said system, and incorporates said information into the semantic representation of the user.

79. The system of claim 78, wherein the network-accessible information source comprises a web site that is external to, and distinct from, said system.

80. The system of claim 79, wherein the web site is a social networking site on which the user maintains a profile.

81. The system of claim 71, wherein the person semantic representation generator generates a semantic cloud representation of the user, said semantic cloud representation comprising weighted links between specific tags, said weighted links representing relationships between specific tags.

82. The system of claim 71, wherein the person semantic representation generator generates an initial set of tags that includes both tags supplied by the user and tags derived from at least one source of information about the user, and uses data regarding semantic relationships between tags to augment the initial set of tags.

83. The system of claim 71, wherein the matching system uses a vector-distance calculation to compare semantic representations of said requests to the semantic representation of the user.

84. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request submitted by a submitter;

selecting, from a set of users registered to respond to requests, a subset of users whose profiles correspond to the request, said subset of users comprising a plurality of users; and

routing the request to one or more users in said subset of users according to a policy that takes into consideration an incoming request rate, and which further takes into consideration capacities of the users to respond to incoming requests.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration degrees to which the profiles of the users are relevant to the request.

86. The method of claim 85, further comprising performing a semantic analysis of said request and of profiles of the subset of users to assess said degrees to which the profiles of the users are relevant to the request.

87. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, an extent to which the first user has satisfied a response quota for a current time period.

88. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, how many requests have been sent to the first user during a selected time interval.

89. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, how many requests are outstanding for the first user.

90. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration online presence statuses of particular users in said subset of users.

91. The method of claim 84, wherein routing the request comprises, for at least a first user in the subset of users, determining whether the first user is currently available to receive the request via an instant messaging system.

92. The method of claim 84, wherein the policy seeks to optimize usage of response fulfillment resources over a period of time.

93. A computing platform programmed to perform the method of claim 84.

94. A system comprising:

computer storage; and

executable code represented in said computer storage, said executable code embodying a method that comprises;

receiving a request submitted by a submitter;

selecting, from a set of users registered to respond to requests, a subset of users whose profiles correspond to the request, said subset of users comprising a plurality of users; and

routing the request to one or more users in said subset of users according to a policy that takes into consideration information regarding at least (a) an incoming request rate, and (b) capacities of the users to respond to incoming requests.

95. The system of claim 94, wherein the method embodied in the executable code takes into consideration degrees to which the profiles of the users are relevant to the request.

96. The system of claim 94, wherein the method embodied in the executable code further comprises performing a semantic analysis of said request and of profiles of the subset of users to assess said degrees to which the profiles of the users are relevant to the request.

97. The system of claim 94, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, an extent to which the first user has satisfied a response quota for a current time period.

98. The system of claim 94, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, how many requests have been sent to the first user during a selected time interval.

99. The system of claim 94, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration, for at least a first user in the subset of users, how many requests are outstanding for the first user.

100. The system of claim 94, wherein routing the request comprises taking into consideration online presence statuses of particular users in said subset of users.

101. The system of claim 94, wherein routing the request comprises, for at least a first user in the subset of users, determining whether the first user is currently available to receive the request via an instant messaging system.

102. The system of claim 94, wherein the policy seeks to optimize usage of response fulfillment resources over a period of time.