Estimating the usefulness of an item in a collection of information
First Claim
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1. A method for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria comprising:
- (a) determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(b) determining a measure of the quality of the item; and
(c) determining a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality, wherein determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item comprises;
i. determining a measure of the relevance of the item to the first set of criteria; and
ii. predicting a selection rate of the item based on the measure of relevance.
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Abstract
A measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria is determined. A first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria is determined. A measure of the quality of the item is determined. A second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality is determined.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria comprising:
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(a) determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(b) determining a measure of the quality of the item; and
(c) determining a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality, wherein determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item comprises;
i. determining a measure of the relevance of the item to the first set of criteria; and
ii. predicting a selection rate of the item based on the measure of relevance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 13, 14, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26)
i. providing opportunities for user selection of the item;
ii. determining the actual overall popularity of the item;
iii. predicting the overall popularity of the item; and
iv. determining the measure of quality of the item based on the actual popularity of the item and the predicted overall popularity of the item.
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13. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the collection of information comprises a catalog of information resources available on a public network.
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14. The method of claim 13, wherein the collection of information comprises a catalog of information available on the World Wide Web.
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20. The methods of claim 1, 11, or 19, wherein the selection rate of an item is based on the number of times the item is selected during a given period relative to the number of queries made by users during that period.
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21. The methods of claim 1, 17, or 19, wherein the selection rate of an item is based on the number of times the item is selected during a given period relative to the number of selections of items during that period.
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24. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the first set of criteria is based on a search criterion received from a user.
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25. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the first set of criteria is based on a user profile.
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26. The method of claim 1 or 4, wherein the first set of criteria is based on a user'"'"'s prior search patterns.
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4. A method for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria comprising;
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(a) determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(b) determining a measure of the quality of the item; and
(c) determining a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality, wherein determining a measure of quality of the item comprises;
i. providing opportunities for user selection of the item;
ii. determining the actual overall popularity of the item;
iii. predicting the overall popularity of the item; and
iv. determining the measure of quality of the item based on the actual popularity of the item and the predicted overall popularity of the item. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 27)
(a) displaying a plurality of sets of items containing the item;
(b) receiving from a user a choice of the item from at least one of the sets of displayed items.
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6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one set of items containing the item is displayed ranked in accordance to a relevance metric.
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7. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one set of items containing the item is displayed ranked in accordance to a measure of the usefulness of the respective items.
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8. The method of claim 4, wherein predicting the overall popularity of an item comprises:
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(a) providing users with opportunities to present sets of criteria;
(b) determining respective measures of the relevance of the item to respective sets of criteria presented by users;
(c) predicting respective selection rates of the item based on the respective measures of relevance; and
(d) predicting the overall popularity based on the respective predicted selection rates.
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9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
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(e) determining respective measures of the popularity of the respective sets of criteria among users; and
(f) predicting the overall popularity based on the respective predicted selection rates and the respective measures of the popularity of the respective sets of criteria.
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10. The method of claim 9, wherein predicting a selection rate based on the measure of relevance comprises:
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(a) providing users with opportunities to select items from lists of items ranked according to ranking criteria;
(b) collecting data about selection rates of items having particular ranks;
(c) predicting the selection rate based on the rank of the item and the data about selection rates of items having particular ranks.
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11. The method of claim 8, wherein predicting the overall popularity of an item further comprises:
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(e) multiplying the respective predicted selection rates by the respective measures of popularity of respective sets of criteria; and
(f) adding the resulting products to determine the predicted overall popularity of the item.
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12. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the actual overall popularity value for the item further comprises determining the number of times that the item was selected by a user during a pre-determined period of time.
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15. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
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(d) collecting data concerning selection of the item by users, (e) applying an anti-spoof criterion to the data;
(f) decreasing the actual overall popularity of the item based on the results of applying the anti-spoof criterion to the data.
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16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:
displaying items from a collection of information ranked according to a relevance metric that is different from the second measures of usefulness.
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17. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the anti-spoof criterion comprises comparing the actual overall popularity of the item to a threshold value.
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18. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the anti-spoof criterion comprises comparing the actual overall popularity of the item in a particular time period to the actual overall popularity of the item in other time periods.
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19. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the anti-spoof criterion comprises determining the entropy of a selection rate of the item in a series of time periods and comparing the entropy to a threshold value.
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22. The method of claim 4, further comprising:
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(d) determining respective first measures of the usefulness of respective other items in the collection of information with respect to the first set of criteria;
(e) determining respective measures of the quality of the respective other items;
(f) determining respective second measures of usefulness of the respective other items based on the respective first measures of usefulness and the respective the measures of quality; and
(g) displaying the item and the other items ranked according to the respective second measures of usefulness.
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23. The method of claim 22, wherein the items displayed according to the relevance metric are from a different collection of information than the items displayed according to respective second measures of usefulness.
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27. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the actual overall popularity of the item comprises:
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(a) providing users with at least one preferred interface for selecting the items from lists of items; and
(b) determining the actual overall popularity of the item without regard to selection of the item using interfaces other than a preferred interface.
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28. A system for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria comprising:
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(a) means for determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(b) means for determining a measure of the quality of the item; and
(c) means for determining a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality, wherein determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item comprises;
i. determining a measure of the relevance of the item to the first set of criteria; and
ii. predicting a selection rate of the item based on the measure of relevance.
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29. A system for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria comprising:
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(a) computer processor;
(b) a memory for holding the collection of information;
(c) wherein the computer processor is programmed to;
(1) determine a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(2) determine a measure of the quality of the item; and
(3) determine a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality;
wherein determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item comprises;
i. determining a measure of the relevance of the item to the first set of criteria; and
ii. predicting a selection rate of the item based on the measure of relevance.
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30. A computer program residing on a computer readable medium for determining a measure of the usefulness of an item in a collection of information with respect to a first set of one or more criteria, comprising instructions for causing a computer to:
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(a) determine a first measure of the usefulness of the item with respect to the first set of criteria;
(b) determine a measure of the quality of the item; and
determine a second measure of usefulness based on the first measure of usefulness and the measure of quality;
wherein determining a first measure of the usefulness of the item comprises;
i. determining a measure of the relevance of the item to the first set of criteria; and
ii. predicting a selection rate of the item based on the measure of relevance.
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Specification