Device, System, and Method of Creating Virtual Social Networks Based On Web-Extracted Features

• US 20090216773A1
• Filed: 02/26/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wrp IP Management, LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Konopnicki, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Device, system, and method of creating virtual social networks based on web-extracted features. For example, a method for creating virtual social networks based on web-extracted data includes: accessing through a global communication network a first content item and a second content item, wherein each one of the first and second content items is selected from the group consisting of: an image, a video, text, and metadata; extracting data corresponding to a first feature from the first content item; extracting data corresponding to a second feature from the second content item; and based on a common attribute of the first and second features, clustering into a cluster a first identifier of a first user associated with the first content item and a second identifier of a second user associated with the second content item.

Claims

1. A method for creating virtual social networks based on web-extracted data, the method comprising:

accessing through a global communication network a first content item and a second content item, wherein each one of the first and second content items is selected from the group consisting of;

an image, a video, text, and metadata;

extracting data corresponding to a first feature from the first content item;

extracting data corresponding to a second feature from the second content item; and

based on a common attribute of the first and second features, clustering into a cluster a first identifier of a first user associated with the first content item and a second identifier of a second user associated with the second content item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing comprises:

automatically browsing the World Wide Web using a crawling algorithm.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying a representation included in the first and second content items, wherein the representation is selected from the group consisting of;

a representation of a common landmark,

a representation of a common person, and

a representation of a common article.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second content items is a non-text content item.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

sending to at least one of the first and second users an invitation to join a virtual social network associated with the common attribute of the first and second features.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

receiving a signal indicating user acceptance of the invitation; and

adding the user to the virtual social network associated with the common attribute of the first and second features.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

providing one or more virtual social network services to one or more participants of the virtual social network.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

sending to at least one of the first and second users a commercial content item based on the common attribute of the first and second features.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the commercial content item is selected from the group consisting of:

an advertisement, a promotion, a coupon, a discount representation, an offer to purchase an item, an offer to purchase a service, an offer to receive a free item, and an offer to receive a free service.

10. An apparatus for creating virtual social networks based on web-extracted data, the apparatus comprising:

a crawler module to access through a global communication network a first content item and a second content item, wherein each one of the first and second content items is selected from the group consisting of;

an image, a video, text, and metadata;

one or more content analyzers to extract data corresponding to a first feature from the first content item, and to extract data corresponding to a second feature from the second content item; and

a clustering module to cluster into a cluster, based on a common attribute of the first and second features, a first identifier of a first user associated with the first content item and a second identifier of a second user associated with the second content item.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first and second content items is a non-text content item.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the crawler module is to automatically browse the World Wide Web using a crawling algorithm.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the one or more content analyzers are to identify one or more representations selected from the group consisting of:

a representation of a common landmark included in the first and second content items;

a representation of a common person included in the first and second content items; and

a representation of a common article included in the first and second content items.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising:

an invitation module to send to at least one of the first and second users an invitation to join a virtual social network associated with the common attribute of the first and second features.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the invitation module is to receive a signal indicating user acceptance of the invitation, and wherein the apparatus comprises a virtual social network generator to add the user to the virtual social network associated with the common attribute of the first and second features.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the virtual social network generator is to provide one or more virtual social network services to one or more participants of the virtual social network.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, comprising:

a commercial content platform to send to at least one of the first and second users a commercial content item based on the common attribute of the first and second features.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the commercial content item is selected from the group consisting of:

an advertisement, a promotion, a coupon, a discount representation, an offer to purchase an item, an offer to purchase a service, an offer to receive a free item, and an offer to receive a free service.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform a method comprising:

accessing through a global communication network a first content item and a second content item, wherein each one of the first and second content items is selected from the group consisting of;

an image, a video, text, and metadata;

extracting data corresponding to a first feature from the first content item;

extracting data corresponding to a second feature from the second content item; and

based on a common attribute of the first and second features, clustering into a cluster a first identifier of a first user associated with the first content item and a second identifier of a second user associated with the second content item.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, comprising:

identifying one or more representations selected from the group consisting of;

a representation of a common landmark included in the first and second content items;

a representation of a common person included in the first and second content items; and

a representation of a common article included in the first and second content items.