SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RANKING CONTENT INTEREST

• US 20110289088A1
• Filed: 05/17/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc.
• Inventors: Salmela, David, Yarin, Robert Myers
• Application Number:
  US13/109,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289088A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method for providing a ranking of content is disclosed. A computer processor is configured to access ranked listing content from one or more electronic sources. A database is connected to the processor and configured to store information related to the content. A software-implemented parsing module is configured to parse text of the content into individual words. A software-implemented counting module computes an appearance frequency for each word. A software-implemented ranking module associates a ranking with a parsed word. A software-implemented topic module identifies the content items in the snapshot containing a word and the associated rank of each such content item in the ranked listing in which it appears. A software-implemented content index module forms an index ranked list by computing an aggregate grouping score from the ranking. A display device is connected to the processor and configured to display the ranking associated with a word.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system for processing data representing ranked listings of content items, comprising:

a computer processor configured to receive a snapshot associated with a point in time of data representing a ranked listing from each of two or more content sources, each listing ranking a plurality of content items;

a database operably connected to the processor and configured to store for each ranked listing from each content source in a snapshot at least a text sample and the ordinal ranking of each content item in its ranked listing;

a software-implemented topic grouping module configured to parse the text samples in a snapshot into keywords and responsive to keywords that the content items in a snapshot have in common, partitioning the content items in a snapshot into a plurality of topic grouping sets;

a software-implemented topic scoring module configured to compute an index score for each topic grouping set from a snapshot by assigning to each content item in each topic grouping an individual rank score that represents that content item'"'"'s ordinal ranking in the ranked listing in which it appears in the snapshot and, responsive to the individual rank scores, computing an aggregate topic grouping score for each topic grouping set from the individual rank scores for each content item in each topic grouping derived from a snapshot;

a software-implemented content index ranking module configured to form an index ranked list by forming a ranked listing by aggregate topic grouping score for each topic grouping set in a snapshot; and

a display device operably connected to the processor and configured to display the index ranked list.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software-implemented topic grouping module comprises:

a software-implemented parsing module configured to parse a text sample of each content item into individual words, to form a snapshot word list and to filter junk words from the snapshot word list to produce a filtered snapshot keyword list containing all content text sample words in a snapshot;

a software-implemented counting module configured to compute an appearance frequency for each keyword in the filtered snapshot keyword list for all text samples of content items included in the snapshot;

a software-implemented keyword ranking module configured to form a ranked list by appearance frequency of each keyword in the filtered snapshot keyword list;

a software-implemented initial topic module configured, for each keyword in the ranked filtered snapshot keyword list, to identify the content items in the snapshot containing that keyword and the associated rank of each such content item in the ranked listing in which it appears in the snapshot, said set of content items containing a common keyword in the filtered word list comprising an initial topic grouping set associated with that common keyword; and

a software-implemented final topic module configured to receive a Boolean input that refines initial topic grouping sets by specified logical operations with content items in at least one other initial topic grouping set identified as having content overlapping with or distinct from the initial topic grouping set to form a final topic grouping set.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer processor is configured to access content from a website.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the computer processor is configured to access an RSS feed from the website.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is configured to store one or more of a unique identifier, a URL, a date and time, a rank, and text, associated with a content item.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the parsing module is further configured with a list of junk words which are excluded from the filtered snapshot keyword list.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the topic scoring module comprises at least one scoring schema for associating a ranking in a ranked listing with a score.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the scoring schema is linear.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the text sample is selected from the group comprising a content item headline, an initial sentence of a content item, an initial paragraph of a content item and the full text of a content item.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the index ranked list displayed is a table with one row for each final topic grouping.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the index ranked list displayed identifies a final topic grouping set by an associated content headline.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the associated content headline provides an electronic link to the content item.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the display device is configured to display ranking information from both a current snapshot and a previous snapshot.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein a final topic grouping set is defined by two or more words with a specified Boolean operator joining them.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the two or more content sources are selected automatically by the system for a snapshot.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to receive a sequence of snapshots of data at regular intervals of time.

17. The system of claim 2, wherein the topic grouping module is further configured to allow a user to manually add or delete content items from a initial topic grouping set.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprising a software-implemented graphing module configured to display the index score for a topic grouping set over a period of at least twelve hours.

19. In a system for processing data representing ranked listings of content items, a method comprising:

using a computer processor;

accessing a snapshot associated with a point in time of data representing a ranked listing from each of two or more content sources, each listing ranking a plurality of content items;

using a database operably connected to the processor;

storing for each ranked listing from each content source in a snapshot at least a text sample and the ordinal ranking of each content item in its ranked listing;

using the computer processor and a software-implemented topic grouping module;

parsing the text samples in a snapshot into keywords and responsive to keywords that the content items in a snapshot have in common, partitioning the content items in a snapshot into a plurality of topic grouping set;

using the computer processor and;

computing an index score for each topic grouping set from a snapshot by assigning to each content item in each topic grouping set an individual rank score that represents that content item'"'"'s ordinal ranking in the ranked listing in which it appears in the snapshot and, responsive to the individual rank scores, computing an aggregate topic grouping score for each topic grouping set from the individual rank scores for each content item in each topic grouping set derived from a snapshot;

using the computer processor and a software-implemented content index module;

forming an index ranked list by forming a ranked listing by aggregate topic grouping score for each topic grouping set in a snapshot; and

using a display device operably connected to the processor, displaying the index ranked list.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the step of software-implemented topic grouping module comprises:

using the computer processor and a software-implemented parsing module;

parsing a text sample of each content item into individual words, to form a snapshot word list and to filter junk words from the snapshot word list to produce a filtered snapshot keyword list containing all content text sample words in a snapshot;

using the computer processor and a software-implemented counting module;

computing an appearance frequency for each keyword in the filtered snapshot keyword list for all text samples of content items included in the snapshot;

using the computer processor and a software-implemented keyword ranking module;

forming a ranked list by appearance frequency of each keyword in the filtered snapshot keyword list;

using the computer processor and a software-implemented initial topic module;

for each keyword in the ranked filtered snapshot keyword list, identifying the content items in the snapshot containing that keyword and the associated rank of each such content item in the ranked listing in which it appears in the snapshot, said set of content items containing a common keyword in the filtered word list comprising an initial topic grouping associated with that common keyword; and

using the computer processor and a software-implemented final topic module receiving a Boolean input that refines initial topic grouping sets by specified logical operations with content items in at least one other initial topic grouping set identified as having content overlapping with or distinct from the initial topic grouping set to form a final topic grouping set.

21. In a computer-implemented system for processing data representing ranked listings of content items, a method comprising:

using a computer processor;

receiving electronic data representing a snapshot of ranked content listings from each of two or more content sources, wherein the snapshot comprises a text sample and the ordinal ranking of each content item in its ranked listing;

parsing the text samples in the snapshots into keywords;

grouping the keywords into a plurality of initial topic groupings, wherein the initial topic grouping include an associated ranking based on the ranking of the content from the keyword originates;

displaying, through an electronic interface, the initial topic groupings to a user, wherein the interface is configured to allow the user to modify the initial topic groupings into final topic groupings by associating or removing one or more additional keywords with such initial topic groupings;

receiving, from the user and through the electronic interface, data representing the final topic groupings;

computing an index score for each final topic grouping; and

forming an index ranked listing by aggregate final topic grouping score for each final topic grouping.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein computing an index score comprises assigning to each content item in each topic grouping set an individual rank score that represents that content item'"'"'s ordinal ranking in the ranked listing in which it appears in the snapshot.