Method and apparatus for determining peer groups based upon observed usage patterns
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method for automatically determining, in an on-line community, any of importance of an on-line asset, topic of said asset, a user'"'"'s current context/topic of interest, and relationships among users, without asking said on-line community'"'"'s members directly, comprising the processor executed steps of:
- observing individual and community usage by a community of peers and experts;
employing automatic techniques to extract patterns from said usage;
identifying usefulness of an online asset by observing user implicit behaviors in connection with said usage patterns of said online asset and by extracting behavioral patterns from said observations;
refining said identified online asset usefulness by context, wherein the context of each online asset is automatically detected based on observed terms/topics from individual and group user behaviors when said online asset is determined to be useful based upon said individual and group user behaviors;
determining a user'"'"'s current context/topic based on an aggregation of the identified context of each online asset that the said user has found useful during their navigation, where an asset'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by an asset'"'"'s recency of use;
refining said identified user context based on searches performed during the user'"'"'s navigation, where a search'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by the recency of the search;
comparing the identified context of the current user with previously identified contexts of other users and assigning to each user a similarity score based on its similarity to the current user'"'"'s context;
and using said similarity score to automatically determine each user'"'"'s peer group;
said observed usage patterns comprising user online search, navigation, and interaction behavior, said behavior including any of searches performed and position in user trail, assets viewed and position in user trail, dwell, range, scrolling, think time, and mouse movement on an asset, anchors and lines used in asset text, virtual bookmarks and virtual printing, and explicit downloading, emailing, printing, saving, and removing to and/or from a computer hardware memory.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention comprises a set of complementary techniques that dramatically improve enterprise search and navigation results. The core of the invention is an expertise or knowledge index, called UseRank that tracks the behavior of website visitors. The expertise-index is designed to focus on the four key discoveries of enterprise attributes: Subject Authority, Work Patterns, Content Freshness, and Group Know-how. The invention produces useful, timely, cross-application, expertise-based search and navigation results. In contrast, traditional Information Retrieval technologies such as inverted index, NLP, or taxonomy tackle the same problem with an opposite set of attributes than what the enterprise needs: Content Population, Word Patterns, Content Existence, and Statistical Trends. Overall, the invention encompasses Baynote Search—a enhancement over existing IR searches, Baynote Guide—a set of community-driven navigations, and Baynote Insights—aggregated views of visitor interests and trends and content gaps.
105 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method for automatically determining, in an on-line community, any of importance of an on-line asset, topic of said asset, a user'"'"'s current context/topic of interest, and relationships among users, without asking said on-line community'"'"'s members directly, comprising the processor executed steps of:
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observing individual and community usage by a community of peers and experts; employing automatic techniques to extract patterns from said usage; identifying usefulness of an online asset by observing user implicit behaviors in connection with said usage patterns of said online asset and by extracting behavioral patterns from said observations; refining said identified online asset usefulness by context, wherein the context of each online asset is automatically detected based on observed terms/topics from individual and group user behaviors when said online asset is determined to be useful based upon said individual and group user behaviors; determining a user'"'"'s current context/topic based on an aggregation of the identified context of each online asset that the said user has found useful during their navigation, where an asset'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by an asset'"'"'s recency of use; refining said identified user context based on searches performed during the user'"'"'s navigation, where a search'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by the recency of the search; comparing the identified context of the current user with previously identified contexts of other users and assigning to each user a similarity score based on its similarity to the current user'"'"'s context; and using said similarity score to automatically determine each user'"'"'s peer group; said observed usage patterns comprising user online search, navigation, and interaction behavior, said behavior including any of searches performed and position in user trail, assets viewed and position in user trail, dwell, range, scrolling, think time, and mouse movement on an asset, anchors and lines used in asset text, virtual bookmarks and virtual printing, and explicit downloading, emailing, printing, saving, and removing to and/or from a computer hardware memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for automatically determining, in an on-line community, any of importance of an on-line asset, a user'"'"'s current context/topic, and relationships among user without asking said on-line community'"'"'s members directly, comprising:
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means for observing individual and community usage by a community of peers and experts; a processor for employing automatic techniques to extract patterns from said usage; said processor identifying usefulness of an online asset by observing user implicit behaviors in connection with said usage patterns of said online asset and by extracting behavioral patterns from said observations; said processor refining said identified online asset usefulness by context, wherein the context of each online asset is automatically detected based on observed terms/topics from individual and group user behaviors when said online asset is determined to be useful based upon said individual and group user behaviors; said processor determining a user'"'"'s current context/topic based on an aggregation of the identified context of each online asset that the said user has found useful during their navigation, where an asset'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by an asset'"'"'s recency of use; said processor refining said identified user context based on searches performed during the user'"'"'s navigation, where a search'"'"'s contribution to the aggregate context is weighted by the recency of the search; said processor comparing the identified context of the current user with previously identified contexts of other users and assigning to each user a similarity score based on its similarity to the current user'"'"'s context; and said processor using said similarity score observed usage patterns to automatically determine each user'"'"'s peer group; said observed usage patterns comprising user online search, navigation, and interaction behavior, said behavior including any of searches performed and position in user trail, assets viewed and position in user trail, dwell, range, scrolling, think time, and mouse movement on an asset, anchors and lines used in asset text, virtual bookmarks and virtual printing, and explicit downloading, emailing, printing, saving, and removing. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification