System for creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions

• US 7,664,747 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2006
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quick Comments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Quick Comments Incorporated
• Inventors: Thompson, Craig P., Parham, Flori N., Petras, Gregory J., Zywicki, Jeffrey T., Thomas, Rachael A., Osborn, Cory, Mason, Andrew F., Riffel, Connie, Hill, Richard W.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US11/563,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,177 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/5, 707/6, 707/4, 707/10, 715/277, 704/9, 705/51
• US Class Current: 707/805
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving.

Claims

1. A method, relating to creating and maintaining information in a database of subjects, on a database server computer, available to a population of users, comprising the steps of:

a) describing a database subject using a plurality of natural-language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;

b) rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved subset of such population of users;

c) associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database subject;

d) computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject; and

e) presenting, to at least one user of such population of users, such computed overall degree of relevance of at least one natural-language term of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject.

2. A method, relating to creating and maintaining, in at least one database on a database server computer, available to a population of users, information about a plurality of database of subjects, comprising the steps of:

a) associating with each database subject of such plurality of database subjects at least one plurality of natural-language tags potentially descriptive of such each database subject according to an involved subset of such population of database users;

b) computing, over all such involved subset of such population of users, in such at least one database, overall respective measures of such relevance of each respective one of such plurality of natural-language tags to each such respective database subject;

c) assessing at least one measure of descriptive relevance of each of such at least one plurality of natural-language tags to such each database subject according to each particular database user of such involved subset of such population of database users; and

d) associatively indexing, in such at least one database, such respective particular database users, such respective natural-language tags, such respective measures of relevance, and such respective database subjects;

e) presenting to a selected particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural-language tags with such respective overall measures of relevance;

f) collecting, from such selected particular user, such selected particular user'"'"'s opinions about respective measures of relevance to such particular database subject of such respective presented natural-language tags;

g) adding such selected particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and adding such selected particular user'"'"'s opinions to such database; and

h) updating, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall measures of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language tags associated with such particular database subject.

3. A method, relating to creating and maintaining, in at least one database on a database server computer, available to a population of users, information about a plurality of database of subjects, comprising the steps of:

a) associating with each database subject of such plurality of database subjects at least one plurality of natural-language tags potentially descriptive of such each database subject according to an involved subset of such population of database users;

b) computing, over all such involved subset of such population of users, in such at least one database, overall respective measures of such relevance of each respective one of such plurality of natural-language tags to each such respective database subject;

c) assessing at least one measure of descriptive relevance of each of such at least one plurality of natural-language tags to such each database subject according to each particular database user of such involved subset of such population of database users; and

d) associatively indexing, in such at least one database, such respective particular database users, such respective natural-language tags, such respective measures of relevance, and such respective database subjects;

e) associating with a particular user a set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags from such plurality of natural-language tags;

f) using such particular user'"'"'s preferred such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags, searching such database for database subjects associated with such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags;

g) determining a set of potentially-preferred such database subjects as are correlated with a high aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags; and

h) presenting to such particular user information about such potentially-preferred database subjects.

4. A computer system, relating to creating and maintaining, in at least one database available to a population of users, information about a plurality of database of subjects, comprising:

a) at least one (associating) computer processor structured and arranged to associate with each database subject of such plurality of database subjects at least one plurality of natural-language tags potentially descriptive of such each database subject according to an involved subset of such population of database users;

b) at least one (overall) computer processor structured and arranged to compute, over all such involved subset of such population of users in such at least one database, overall respective measures of such relevance of each respective one of such plurality of natural-language tags to each such respective database subject;

c) at least one (assessing) computer processor structured and arranged to assess, from input from at least one particular database user, at least one measure of descriptive relevance of each of such at least one plurality of natural-language tags to such each database subject according to each particular database user of such involved subset of such population of database users; and

d) at least one (indexing) computer processor structured and arranged to associatively index, in such at least one database, such respective particular database users, such respective natural-language tags, such respective measures of relevance, and such respective database subjects;

e) at least one (presenting) computer processor structured and arranged to present to a selected particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural-language tags with such respective overall measures of relevance;

f) at least one (collecting) computer processor structured and arranged to collect, from such selected particular user, such selected particular user'"'"'s opinions about respective measures of relevance to such particular database subject of such respective presented natural-language tags;

g) at least one (adding) computer processor structured and arranged to add such selected particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and to add such selected particular user'"'"'s opinions to such database; and

h) at least one (updating) computer processor structured and arranged to update, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall measures of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language tags associated with such particular database subject.

5. A computer system, relating to creating and maintaining, in at least one database available to a population of users, information about a plurality of database of subjects, comprising:

a) at least one (associating) computer processor structured and arranged to associate with each database subject of such plurality of database subjects at least one plurality of natural-language tags potentially descriptive of such each database subject according to an involved subset of such population of database users;

b) at least one (overall) computer processor structured and arranged to compute, over all such involved subset of such population of users, in such at least one database, overall respective measures of such relevance of each respective one of such plurality of natural-language tags to each such respective database subject;

c) at least one (assessing) computer processor structured and arranged to assess, from input from at least one particular database user, at least one measure of descriptive relevance of each of such at least one plurality of natural-language tags to such each database subject according to each particular database user of such involved subset of such population of database users; and

d) at least one (indexing) computer processor structured and arranged to associatively index, in such at least one database, such respective particular database users, such respective natural-language tags, such respective measures of relevance, and such respective database subjects;

e) at least one (preferred-tag) computer processor structured and arranged to associate with a particular user a set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags from such plurality of natural-language tags;

f) at least one (searching) computer processor structured and arranged to, using such particular user'"'"'s preferred such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags, search such database for database subjects associated with such set of particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags;

g) at least one (aggregate-relevance) computer processor structured and arranged to determine a set of potentially-preferred such database subjects as are correlated with a high aggregate degree of relevance among such respective overall degrees of relevance of such set of respective particular-user-preferred such natural-language tags; and

h) at least one (subject-presenting) computer processor structured and arranged to present to such particular user information about such potentially-preferred database subjects.

6. An Internet website client-server computer system, relating to use to determine a level of subject interest for each one of a population of users by capturing other users'"'"' (of such population of users) opinions about the degree of relevance of each of a respective set of natural language descriptive terms to each of a respective set of subjects, comprising:

a) a server database system of subjects, each associated with a set of relevant natural-language terms for describing each such subject;

i) wherein each of a respective subset of such terms has been assigned, by each of a subpopulation of such population of users, a degree of relevance with respect to a respective such subject;

b) a client interface system arranged so that such one user may select a set of preferred such natural-language terms which, to such one user, best describe preferred “

subjects of interest”

to such one user;

c) a server computer processor system connected with said server database system and said client interface system; and

d) a server computer software system, operational with said server computer processor system, arranged to provide search processing using such server database system to;

i) determine an overall, according to such population of users, degree of relevance of each such preferred natural-language term to each such associated subject of such server database system, and

ii) determine a set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

each having at least a specified aggregate degree of relevance considering each such overall degree of relevance of each such preferred natural-language descriptive term to each associated such subject; and

iii) return such set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

to such client interface system of such one user.

7. The computer system according to claim 6 wherein such set of search-return “

subjects of interest”

is ordered according to relative such aggregate degree of relevance.