SCALABLE TOPICAL AGGREGATION OF DATA FEEDS

• US 20110179020A1
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Patey, Eric, Lambert, Brian, Ozzie, Raymond, Moromisato, George
• Granted Patent: US 8,290,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Data items of various data feeds (such as articles posted to a website or entries in an RSS feed) may be associated with various topics, but a user may be unable to monitor a large number of data feeds, and to avoid previously reviewed data items while searching for new data items. An aggregation service may monitor many data feeds, perform an automated topical evaluation of the data items, and generate a set of topical data feeds. Additional services may also be applied, such as filtering the topical data feeds by various criteria, translating data items from a native language into another language, and removing equivalent data items, such as articles redundantly covering the same news story. A centralized or cooperatively distributed service may scale for improved efficiency and value, since each data feed may be monitored and each data item received and evaluated on behalf of many users.

Claims

1. A system configured to present to users at least one topical data feed comprising data items of at least two data feeds, respective data feeds provided by at least one data source, the system comprising:

a data item receiving component configured to, for respective data feeds, receive the data items from the data source of the data feed;

a topic identifying component configured to, for respective data items, identify at least one topic associated with the data item; and

a topical data feed presenting component configured to;

receive from a user at least one topic, and

for respective topics received from the user;

select the data items associated with the topic,

generate a topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic, and

present the topical data feed to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, the data item receiving component comprising:

at least one data source parsing component configured to, for a data source type, parse data items of data feeds of data sources of the data source type; and

a data source interface configured to, for respective data sources;

identify the data source type of the data source, and

invoke the data source parsing component for the data source type of the data source to parse the data items of the data source.

3. The system of claim 1:

the system having access to a data store configured to store data items respectively associated with at least one topic; and

the topical data feed presenting component configured to;

upon receiving from the user the at least one topic, store the topic in the data store associated with the user; and

upon receiving from the user a request for topical data feeds;

retrieve from the data store the at least one topic in the data store associated with the user;

generate the topical data feeds for respective topics; and

present the topical data feeds to the user.

4. A method of presenting to users at least one topical data feed comprising data items of at least two data feeds, respective data feeds provided by at least one data source, the method performed on a device having a processor and comprising:

executing on the processor instructions configured to;

for respective data feeds;

receive the data items from the data source of the data feed, and

for respective data items, identify at least one topic associated with the data item;

receive from a user at least one topic; and

for respective topics received from the user;

select the data items associated with the topic,

generate a topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic, and

present the topical data feed to the user.

5. The method of claim 4, receiving the data items from the data source of a data feed comprising:

subscribing to the data source to receive data items of the data feed.

6. The method of claim 4:

at least one topic associated with at least one topical metadata item; and

identifying at least one topic associated with a data item comprising;

identifying at least one metadata item of the data item that matches the topical metadata item of the topic.

7. The method of claim 4:

the topic having a topical identifier; and

identifying at least one topic associated with a data item comprising;

identifying at least one topical identifier associated with the data item, the topical identifier indicating an association of the data item with the topic having the topical identifier.

8. The method of claim 4:

at least one data item comprising an expression; and

identifying at least one topic associated with the data item comprising;

parsing the expression of the data item with a natural language parser to identify at least one topic referenced by the expression.

9. The method of claim 4:

a first data item of a data feed associated with at least one topic;

a second data item of a data feed associated with the first data item; and

identifying the at least one topic associated with the second data item comprising;

identifying as associated with the second data item the at least one topic associated with the first data item.

10. The method of claim 4, receiving a topic from a user comprising:

identifying at least one user descriptor of the user, and

based on the user descriptor, inferring at least one topic of interest to the user.

11. The method of claim 4:

at least one topic associated with at least one filter having at least one criterion for generating the topical data feed comprising the data items; and

generating the topical data feed comprising;

generating the topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic, the data items selected according to the filter associated with the topic.

12. The method of claim 11:

at least one criterion of the filter specifying a score attributable to a data item matching the criterion; and

generating the topical data feed comprising;

for respective data items, computing an aggregate score for the data item according to the at least one criterion of the filter; and

generating the topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic, the data items ordered according to the aggregate scores of the respective data items.

13. The method of claim 4:

the instructions configured to, for respective topics, identify at least one user-specific data item accessible to a user and associated with the topic; and

generating the topical data feed comprising;

generating a topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic and the at least one user-specific data item associated with the topic.

14. The method of claim 13:

at least one user-specific data item comprising an access-controlled data item that is accessible to the user; and

identifying the at least one user-specific data item comprising;

accessing the access-controlled data item on behalf of the user.

15. The method of claim 13:

the device represented within a deployable computing environment comprising a second device configured to store the user-specific data item; and

identifying the at least one user-specific data item comprising;

retrieving the user-specific data item from the second device through the deployable computing environment.

16. The method of claim 4, the instructions configured to remove from the topical data feed a first data item that is equivalent to a second data item of the topical data feed.

17. The method of claim 4, the instructions configured to, upon receiving at least one data item associated with a topic of a topical data feed after presenting the topical data feed to a user, update the topical data feed presented to the user.

18. The method of claim 4, presenting a topical data feed to a user comprising:

organizing the topical data feed according to a topical narrative, and

presenting the topical narrative to the user.

19. The method of claim 17:

a first data item of the topical data feed having a responsive relationship with a second data item of the topical data feed; and

presenting the topical narrative comprising;

presenting the first data item in the data feed with a responsive indicator associated with the second data item.

20. A method of presenting to users at least one topical data feed comprising data items of at least two data feeds, respective data feeds provided by at least one data source, the method performed on a device having a processor and represented within a deployable computing environment comprising a second device configured to store a user-specific data item, the method comprising:

executing on the processor instructions configured to;

for respective data feeds;

subscribing to the data source to receive data items of the data feed;

receive the data items from the data source of the data feed, and

for respective data items, identify at least one topic associated with the data item by at least one of;

identifying at least one metadata item of the data item that matches a topical metadata item associated with the topic,

identifying at least one topical identifier associated with the data item, the topical identifier indicating an association of the data item with a topical identifier of the topic;

parsing an expression of the data item with a natural language parser to identify at least one topic referenced by the expression; and

identifying as associated with the data item at least one topic associated with a second data item with which the data item is associated;

receive from a user at least one topic; and

for respective topics;

select the data items associated with the topic the data items selected according to at least one criterion of at least one filter associated with the topic, at least one criterion of the filter specifying a score attributable to a data item matching the criterion;

for respective data items selected for the topical data feed, compute an aggregate score for the data item according to the at least one criterion of the filter;

identify at least one user-specific data item stored on the second device and associated with the topic;

retrieving from the second device through the deployable computing environment at least one user-specific data item;

generate a topical data feed comprising the data items associated with the topic and the at least one user-specific data item associated with the topic, the data items ordered according to the aggregate scores of the respective data items;

remove from the topical data feed a first data item that is equivalent to a second data item of the topical data feed;

organizing the topical data feed according to a topical narrative of the topic;

present the topical narrative to the user; and

upon receiving at least one data item associated with a topic of a topical data feed after presenting the topical narrative to the user, update the topical narrative presented to the user.