Methods, Systems, and Articles of Manufacture for Managing Search Metadata

• US 20090254534A1
• Filed: 04/02/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Garbow, Zachary A., Paterson, Kevin G.
• Application Number:
  US12/061,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254534A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are generally related to metadata describing users accessing a network and network content. Each user may have a user profile comprising a list of user tags describing the user. Each item of network content may include a list of content tags describing the item. Each user tag and content tag may have an associated weight value. When a user selects an item of network content, weights of one or more user tags of the user profile and one or more content tags may be adjusted based on the selection. In some embodiments, the tags may be removed based on the weight values so that only tags relevant to the user profile and network content remain.

Claims

1. A method for describing content on a network, comprising:

receiving a selection of an item of network content from a user;

in response to receiving the selection, selecting one or more user tags of a user profile associated with the user based on a weight of each of the user tags, wherein the weight defines a correlation between the user tag and the user profile;

determining whether any of the one or more user tags are present in a list of content tags for the selected item, the content tags describing the item;

upon determining that a user tag is present in the list of content tags, adjusting a weight of the respective content tag, wherein the weight of the content tag defines a correlation between the content tag and the item; and

upon determining that a user tag is not present in the list of content tags, adding the user tag to the list of content tags.

2. The method of claim 1, selecting the one or more user tags of the user profile based on the weight comprises selecting user tags having the strongest correlation to the user profile.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether any of the content tags are present in the user profile;

upon determining that a content tag is present in the user profile, adjusting a weight of the respective user tag; and

upon determining that a content tag is not present in the user profile, adding the content tag to the list of content tags.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting the weight strengthens the correlation between:

a user tag and a respective user profile; and

a content tag and a respective item.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting the weight comprises adding a predetermined value to the weight.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined value is based on a type of the selection, the types of selection comprising:

selecting a link to the item; and

saving the item.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising removing a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is not increased by a predetermined value within a predetermined period of time.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising removing a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is below a threshold value for a predetermined period of time.

9. A computer readable storage medium comprising a program product which, when executed by a processor, is configured to perform an operation for describing content on a network, comprising:

receiving a selection of an item of network content from a user;

in response to receiving the selection, selecting one or more user tags of a user profile associated with the user based on a weight of each of the user tags, wherein the weight defines a correlation between the user tag and the user profile;

determining whether any of the one or more user tags are present in a list of content tags for the selected item, the content tags describing the item;

upon determining that a user tag is present in the list of content tags, adjusting a weight of the respective content tag, wherein the weight of the content tag defines a correlation between the content tag and the item; and

upon determining that a user tag is not present in the list of content tags, adding the user tag to the list of content tags.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein selecting the one or more user tags of the user profile based on the weight comprises selecting user tags having the strongest correlation to the user profile.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the operation further comprising:

determining whether any of the content tags are present in the user profile;

upon determining that a content tag is present in the user profile, adjusting a weight of the respective user tag; and

upon determining that a content tag is not present in the user profile, adding the content tag to the list of content tags.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein adjusting the weight strengthens the correlation between:

a user tag and a respective user profile; and

a content tag and a respective item.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein adjusting the weight comprises adding a predetermined value to the weight.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the predetermined value is based on a type of the selection, the types of selection comprising:

selecting a link to the item; and

saving the item.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, the operation further comprising removing a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is not increased by a predetermined value within a predetermined period of time.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising removing a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is below a threshold value for a predetermined period of time.

17. A system, comprising:

memory comprising;

one or more user profiles, wherein each user profile comprises a list of user tags describing a user, each user tag having a weight value defining a correlation between the user tag and the user profile;

one or more content profiles, wherein each content profile comprises a list of content tags describing an item of content available on a network, each content tag having a weight value defining a correlation of the content tag to a respective item; and

a program configured to manage the user tags and content tags; and

a processor communicably coupled with the memory which, when executing the program, is configured to;

receive a selection of an item of network content from a user;

in response to receiving the selection, selecting one or more user tags from a user profile associated with the user based on the weight of each of the user tags;

determine whether any of the one or more user tags are present in the list of content tags for the selected item;

upon determining that a user tag is present in the list of content tags, adjust a weight of the respective content tag; and

upon determining that a user tag is not present in the list of content tags, add the user tag to the list of content tags.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to select the one or more user tags of the user profile by selecting user tags having the strongest correlation to the user profile.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine whether any of the content tags are present in the user profile;

upon determining that a content tag is present in the user profile, adjust a weight of the respective user tag; and

upon determining that a content tag is not present in the user profile, add the content tag to the list of content tags.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein adjusting the weight strengthens the correlation between:

a user tag and a respective user profile; and

a content tag and a respective item.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein adjusting the weight comprises adding a predetermined value to the weight.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the predetermined value is based on a type of the selection, the types of selection comprising:

selecting a link to the item; and

saving the item.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to remove a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is not increased by a predetermined value within a predetermined period of time.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to remove a user tag from the user profile and removing a content tag from the list of content tag if a weight of the respective user tag and content tag is below a threshold value for a predetermined period of time.