Suggesting a discussion group based on indexing of the posts within that discussion group

• US 7,844,668 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2004
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kikkert, Sabrina, Canning, Benjamin, Anderson, Stephen N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): GREENE, JOSEPH L
• Application Number:
  US10/903,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,314 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4594 Address books, i.e. directories containing contact information about correspondents telephone directories in user terminals H04M1/27453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

A system and corresponding methods for recommending a discussion group as an appropriate place to post a message are provided. In one embodiment, the system searches a plurality of existing posts to identify the posts that are similar to a subject of a user'"'"'s message. The system identifies the discussion groups that contain the identified posts and selects one of the identified discussion groups to recommend as an appropriate discussion group to post the user'"'"'s message.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a storage device configured to store posts, the posts being organized into discussion groups, each discussion group relating to one or more topics of posts belonging to the discussion group;

a module for;

processing a request from a user to post a message, receiving from the user a subject and a message body of the message, searching the plurality of posts to identify posts that are similar to the subject and at least a portion of the message body, the posts being identified based at least in part on the received information relating to the application program, the identified posts belonging to one or more of the discussion groups;

selecting one of the discussion groups as a recommended discussion group based on a number of hits generated for a discussion group, wherein, a hit is generated for the discussion group each time a portion of a post belonging to the discussion group is identified as similar to the subject and at least a portion of the message body;

wherein, the recommended discussion group meets an activity threshold that is determined based on a number of posts in the recommended discussion group per unit time; and

wherein the recommended discussion group is selected based on a count of the number of hits generated for each of the one or more discussion groups normalized by an overall post activity of posts to the one or more discussion groups;

presenting the recommended discussion group to the user; and

a module for;

receiving, from a user a selection of the recommended discussion group; and

posting the message to the recommended discussion group, wherein the modules are implemented as instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the search is a text search of the plurality of posts using at least a portion of the received subject of the message.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommended discussion group meets or exceeds a user rating.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the module is further for receiving from the user an additional search parameter to use in searching the plurality of posts.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the module is further for presenting a list of suggested discussion groups to the user, the list composed of at least one of the one or more discussion groups.

6. A method in a computing system for selecting a discussion group to post a message, the method comprising:

Configuring a storage device to store posts, the posts being organized into discussion groups, each discussion group relating to one or more topics of posts belonging to the discussion group;

controlling a module that processes a request from a user to post a message, and that receives from the user a subject and a message body of the message, searching, by the computing system, the plurality of posts to identify posts that are similar to the subject and at least a portion of the message body, the posts being identified based at least in part on the received information relating to the application program, the identified posts belonging to one or more of the discussion groups;

automatically selecting one of the discussion groups as a recommended discussion group based on a number of hits generated for a discussion group, wherein, a hit is generated for the discussion group each time a portion of a post belonging to the discussion group is identified as similar to the subject and at least a portion of the message body;

wherein, the recommended discussion group meets an activity threshold that is determined based on a number of posts in the recommended discussion group per unit time; and

wherein the recommended discussion group is selected based on a count of the number of hits generated for each of the one or more discussion groups normalized by an overall post activity of posts to the one or more discussion groups;

presenting the recommended discussion group to the user; and

receiving, from a user a selection of the recommended discussion group; and

posting the message to the recommended discussion group.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the search is a text search of the plurality of posts.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the text is a body of the message.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the text is a subject of the message.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising presenting the selected discussion group.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising presenting at least one of the one or more discussion groups as a suggested discussion group to the user.

12. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving a search parameter other than the text of the message; and

searching the plurality of posts using the search parameter.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving from a first member of the community a message to post, the received message including a subject and a body; and

responsive to receiving the message;

searching a plurality of existing posts to identify one or more posts that are similar to the subject and at least a portion of the body of the received message;

for at least one of the identified posts, determining a second member associated with the identified post who is a preferred member of the community;

associating the received message with the determined member, wherein the association of the received message with the determined member comprises placing an indication of the received message in the determined member'"'"'s profile; and

presenting the received message to the determined member when the determined member next logs onto the community.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, presenting a thread comprising the received message to the determined member.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the search is a search of the plurality of existing posts using at least a portion of the subject of the received message.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the search is a search of the plurality of existing posts using at least a portion of the message body.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the determined member posted at least a threshold number of the identified one or more posts.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the determined member is a member who responded to the identified post.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the determined member is a member who posted the identified post.