METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR USING COMMUNITY DEFINED FACETS OR FACET VALUES IN COMPUTER NETWORKS

• US 20090198675A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Gather, Inc.
• Inventors: Meyer, Richard A., Bostick, James E., Evans, William, Gerace, Thomas A., Tresch, Timothy R., Barbour, Russell G., Wescoe, Kurt F., Hann, Jennifer R., Mihalik, John L., Sandborg, David A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,251,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90328 using search space presentation or visualization, e.g. category or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

A database search method and system utilize user community defined facets and facet values for refining searches. The system provides access to a database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information. Each record has one or more facets to the respective category of information. The system enables user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the database. In response to the user input, the invention system displays (a) a set of search results, including records from the database of the at least one category of information, and (b) a listing of facets and/or facet values of the records in the search results. The listing of facets and/or facet values serve as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search terms or guiding user navigation of the database. In response to user selection of a facet value from the listing, the system refines the search term resulting in a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus the user selected facet and/or facet value. A search of the database is rerun using the refined search term. The facets and facet values are defined by a computer network community of users over time and through use of the network community portal. Another embodiment is an advertising engine that displays targeted advertisements to the user based on refined search. Another embodiment is a method that utilizes refined search to help the user with navigation of a site (e.g., website or other computer network site) as a component of a GUI.

Claims

1. A database search method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

providing access to a database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

enabling user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the database;

searching the database for records of the at least one category of information;

in response to the user input, displaying;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the database of the at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term; and

in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing, refining the search term, resulting in (i) a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus the user-selected any one or combination of facets and facet values, and (ii) a search of the database using the refined search term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the listing of facets is by facet number and kind, a facet number being a count of the entries having that kind of facet.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the listing of facet values is by facet value count and kind, a facet value count being a count of the entries being described with that facet value.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values is ordered based on relevance to the data set.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the facets being defined by a community of users include:

users defining types of facets, and users suggesting new categories of information and defining corresponding facets.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for categories of information pertaining to people, the facets include any of gender, school, age, marital/family status, geographic location, group membership, company/business entity, entertainment/literature interest, and tags, by member connection, and by connection type/group.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for categories of information pertaining to content, the facets include any of media type, tags, length, rating, groups where posted, author, author ranking, number of comments, date posted, by member connection, and by connection type/group.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for categories of information pertaining to groups, the facets include any of tags, content published, membership size, geographic location, events, recency of activity, friend ownership/membership, and by any one or combination of member and number of members.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for categories of information pertaining to events, the facets include any of location, date, number of people, friends invited, tags, group, category, admission price, length of time, and accessibility.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the displayed set of search results is an ordered set.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the displayed set of search results includes an indication of the total number of records in the search results and the steps of

a) refining the search term in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values;

and

b) searching the database using the refined search term are repeated to reduce the total number of records in the search results.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1, where a facet is defined as “

Group Membership” and

facet values are the groups a member has joined.

14. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a facet is defined as “

Attendance of an Event” and

facet values are the events a member is attending.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein facet values with facet value count of zero are not listed adjacent search results.

16. A method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein a facet that contains facet values all of which, or all but one of which, have a facet value count of zero is not listed.

17. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein certain facets and facet values may be set by programmers, certain facets and facet values may be defined by members, and certain facet values may be determined by the system through observation, regardless of who defined the facets themselves.

18. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein facet value display is limited to facet values with a facet value count above some minimum number.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein facet value display is limited to a certain number of facet values for each facet.

20. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein facet value display is limited by any one or combination of facet value count and number of facet values and where a user can request, receive, and select from a complete list of available facet values.

21. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein facet number provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

22. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the listing of facet values is rank-ordered by facet value count.

23. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the listing of facet values is rank-ordered by statistical correlation with respect to the search query.

24. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein facet value count provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

25. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the listing order provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

26. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein a user may create or invite a group of others into a group and any one or combination of the organizer and the group members may define facets specific to that group.

27. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein respective values of facets are determined by any one or combination of user community activity and user community-entered information continuously tallied over time.

28. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein respective values of facets are determined by computer system tallies of user activity.

29. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein at least one facet is defined by a single user.

30. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is a list of any one or combination of names, usernames, and images of people, and ordering of the set is a ranking by any one or combination of:

relative closeness of relationship between the user and each person listed;

degree of relative interaction; and

social importance in the community of users.

31. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is a list of content works and the ordering of the set is a ranking by any one or combination of relative readership of the content works, recency, ratings, connection level to the author, moderated group acceptance level, tag specificity level, and impact among readers.

32. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the content works of members posted to a certain group on a site.

33. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the member profiles of members connected to the searcher in a social network.

34. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the content works of members connected to the searcher in a social network.

35. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to one or more of the groups created and the groups joined by members connected to the searcher in a social network.

2. A database search method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

providing access to a plurality of databases, each database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

enabling user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the databases;

searching the databases for records of the at least one category of information;

in response to the user input, displaying;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the databases of the at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term; and

in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing, refining the search term, resulting in (i) a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus the user-selected any one or combination of facets and facet values, and (ii) a search of the databases using the refined search term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users.

36. A method for targeting advertising comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing access to a database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

enabling user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the database;

in response to the user input, displaying;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the database of at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users; and

targeting advertising to the user based on the user input search term.

37. The method as claimed in claim 36 further comprising the steps of:

in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing, refining the search, term resulting in (i) a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus the user selected any one or combination of facets and facet values, and (ii) a search of the database using the refined search term; and

refining targeting of advertising based on the user selected any one or combination of facets and facet values.

38. A computer system comprising:

a database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

means for receiving user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the database;

a search engine to implement a search of the database for records of the at least one category of information;

means for displaying, in response to the user input;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the database of the at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term; and

a refinement engine for refining the search based on the listing and additional user input.

40. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the refinement engine comprises:

means for receiving user input of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing; and

means for refining the search term, in response to user input of a facet or facet value from the listing, resulting in (i) a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus any one or both of the facet and the facet value, and (ii) a search of the database using the refined search term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users.

41. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the listing of facets is by facet number and kind, a facet number being a count of the entries having that kind of facet.

42. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the listing of facet values is by facet value count and kind, a facet value count being a count of the entries being described with that facet value.

43. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values is ordered based on relevance to the data set.

44. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein for categories of information pertaining to people, the facets include any of gender, school, age, marital/family status, geographic location, group membership, company/business entity, entertainment/literature interest, and tags, by member connection, and by connection type/group.

45. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein for categories of information pertaining to content, the facets include any of media type, tags, length, rating, groups where posted, author, author ranking, number of comments, date posted, by member connection, and by connection type/group.

46. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein for categories of information pertaining to groups, the facets include any of tags, content published, membership size, geographic location, events, recency of activity, friend ownership/membership, and by member or number of members.

47. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein for categories of information pertaining to events, the facets include any of location, date, number of people, friends invited, tags, group, category, admission price, length of time, and accessibility.

48. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the displayed set of search results is an ordered set.

49. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein the displayed set of search results includes an indication of the total number of records in the search results, and the steps of

a) refining the search term in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values;

and

b) searching the database using the refined search term are repeated to reduce the total number of records in the search results.

50. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein a facet is defined as “

Group Membership” and

facet values are the groups a member has joined.

51. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein a facet is defined as “

Attendance of an Event” and

facet values are the events a member is attending.

52. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein facet values with facet value count of zero are not listed adjacent search results.

53. A system, as claimed in claim 38, wherein a facet that contains facet values all of which, or all but one of which, have a facet value count of zero is not listed.

54. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein certain facets and facet values may be set by programmers, certain facets and facet values may be defined by members, and certain facet values may be determined by the system through observation, regardless of who defined the facets themselves.

55. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein facet value display is limited to facet values with a facet value count above some minimum number.

56. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein facet value display is limited to a certain number of facet values for each facet.

57. A system as claimed in claim 38, wherein facet value display is limited by any one or combination of facet value count and number of facet values and where a user can request, receive, and select from a complete list of available facet values.

58. A system as claimed in claim 38. wherein the database includes network community data from users interacting with a network portal or site, with the system further comprising:

a central database formed of a plurality of such databases;

a plurality of servers which read the central database;

at least one highly optimized index of the data in the central database, where the index is created by and stored on a first server;

replicas of said index which are created by the first server and are stored on servers other than the first server.

59. A system as claimed in claim 58, wherein the indexes created include Content, People, Groups, and Events.

60. A system as claimed in claim 58, further comprising load balancers to balance the load on the servers.

61. A system as claimed in claim 40. wherein the facets being defined by a community of users include:

users defining types of facets, and users suggesting new categories of information and defining corresponding facets.

62. A system as claimed in claim 41. wherein facet number provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

63. A system as claimed in claim 42, wherein the listing of facet values is rank-ordered by facet value count.

64. A system as claimed in claim 42, wherein the listing of facet values is rank-ordered by statistical correlation with respect to the search query.

65. A system as claimed in claim 42, wherein facet value count provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

66. A system as claimed in claim 43, wherein the listing order provides an indication of an interesting cross-section of a category of information.

67. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is a list of any one or combination of names, usernames, and images of people, and ordering of the set is a ranking by any one or combination of:

relative closeness of relationship between the user and each person listed;

degree of relative interaction; and

social importance in the community of users.

68. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is a list of content works and the ordering of the set is a ranking by any one or combination of relative readership of the content works, recency, ratings, connection level to the author, moderated group acceptance level, tag specificity level, and impact among readers.

69. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the content works of members posted to a certain group on a site.

70. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the member profiles of members connected to the searcher in a social network.

71. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to the content works of members connected to the searcher in a social network.

72. A system as claimed in claim 48, wherein the displayed set of search results is limited to one or more of the groups created and the groups joined by members connected to the searcher in a social network.

73. A system as claimed in claim 61, wherein a user may create or invite a group of others into a group and any one or combination of the organizer and the group members may define facets specific to that group.

74. A system as claimed in claim 61, wherein respective values of facets are determined by any one or combination of user community activity and user community-entered information continuously tallied over time.

75. A system as claimed in claim 61, wherein respective values of facets are determined by computer system tallies of user activity.

76. A system as claimed in claim 61, wherein at least one facet is defined by a single user.

39. A computer system comprising:

a plurality of databases, each database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

means for receiving user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the databases;

a search engine to implement a search of the databases for records of the at least one category of information;

means for displaying, in response to the user input;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the databases of the at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term; and

a refinement engine for refining the search based on the listing and additional user input.

77. An advertising engine comprising:

a database having a plurality of records in respective categories of information, each record having one or more facets to the respective category of information;

means for enabling user input of a search term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the database;

means for displaying, in response to the user input;

(a) a set of search results, including records from the database of at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values of the records in the search results, the listing of facet values serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the search term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users; and

advertisements that are displayed to the user and that are targeted to the user based on the user input search term.

78. The advertising engine as claimed in claim 77 further comprising:

means for refining the search term in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing, resulting in (i) a refined search term formed of the first parameter plus the user-selected any one or combination of facets or facet values, and (ii) a search of the database using the refined search term; and

means for refining targeting of advertising based on any one or combination of user-selected facets and user-selected facet values.

79. A site navigation method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

providing access to a data store having information indicative of a subject site, said information being in respective categories of information, there being one or more facets to the respective categories of information;

enabling user input of an input term formed of a first parameter indicative of at least one category of information of the data store;

matching the input term to the data store to identify at least one category of information;

in response to the user input, displaying;

(a) a set of results, including indications from the data store of the at least one category of information, and

(b) a listing of any one or combination of facets and facet values in the results, the listing serving as suggested additional parameters for further refining the input term, wherein any, some or all of the facets and facet values are defined by a community of users of the subject site; and

in response to user selection of any one or combination of facets and facet values from the listing, refining the input term, resulting in a refined input term formed of the first parameter plus the user-selected any one or combination of facets and facet values;

matching the refined input term to the data store to identify information corresponding to the refined input term; and

navigating to the location on the site of the refined input term.