Relating people finding results by social distance
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of displaying search results to a user, said method comprising:
- retrieving distribution lists by accessing a directory service;
generating metadata for profiles contained in a database, each of the profiles associated with a different person, one or more of the profiles including colleague designations that indicate direct relationships between one person and another person, the metadata for the profiles indicating, for each profile, distribution lists that include people associated with the profile;
calculating weights for the metadata for the profiles, wherein the weights are a function of size of distribution lists that include a person associated with the profile such that distribution lists that are smaller have higher weights than the distribution lists that are larger;
receiving a query from the user;
generating a result set by executing a search on the database, the result set comprising one or more of the profiles that satisfy the query;
assigning a relevance value to each of the profiles in the result set as a function of the metadata for the profiles, the relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile and wherein the relevance values are assigned to the profiles as a function of the metadata and the calculated weights for the metadata;
determining a social distance for each of the profiles in the result set, said determined social distance being a function of the colleague designations included in the profile;
grouping the profiles in the result set by the determined social distance into one or more groups, each profile in a group having a common degree of social distance from the user and at least one of the groups representing a second level social distance from the user; and
displaying, to the user, the profiles in the result set grouped by the determined social distance and in order of the relevance values assigned to the profiles in the result set.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Search results are displayed according to relevance and grouped by the social distance between the person associated with the profile and the user performing the search. Metadata is defined of each of the profiles indicating groups affiliated the profile and a relevance value is determined as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set. The social distance is determined as a function of a colleague designation associated with the profile.
51 Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A method of displaying search results to a user, said method comprising:
-
retrieving distribution lists by accessing a directory service; generating metadata for profiles contained in a database, each of the profiles associated with a different person, one or more of the profiles including colleague designations that indicate direct relationships between one person and another person, the metadata for the profiles indicating, for each profile, distribution lists that include people associated with the profile; calculating weights for the metadata for the profiles, wherein the weights are a function of size of distribution lists that include a person associated with the profile such that distribution lists that are smaller have higher weights than the distribution lists that are larger; receiving a query from the user; generating a result set by executing a search on the database, the result set comprising one or more of the profiles that satisfy the query; assigning a relevance value to each of the profiles in the result set as a function of the metadata for the profiles, the relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile and wherein the relevance values are assigned to the profiles as a function of the metadata and the calculated weights for the metadata; determining a social distance for each of the profiles in the result set, said determined social distance being a function of the colleague designations included in the profile; grouping the profiles in the result set by the determined social distance into one or more groups, each profile in a group having a common degree of social distance from the user and at least one of the groups representing a second level social distance from the user; and displaying, to the user, the profiles in the result set grouped by the determined social distance and in order of the relevance values assigned to the profiles in the result set. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method of providing search results to a user, the method comprising:
-
retrieving distribution lists by accessing a directory service; generating metadata for profiles contained in a database, each of the profiles associated with different people, one or more of the profiles including colleague designations that indicate direct relationships between one person and another person, the metadata for the profiles indicating, for each profile, distribution lists that indicate the people associated with the profile; receiving a request from a user; assigning a weight to each of the profiles as a function of sizes of the distribution lists that include the people associated with the profile, such that smaller ones of the distribution lists have higher weights than larger ones of the distribution lists; generating a result set by executing a search on the database, the result set comprising ones of the profiles in the database that satisfy the query; assigning a relevance value to each of the profiles in the result set as a function of the metadata for the profiles in the result set and the weights assigned to the profiles in the result set, the relevance value assigned to the profile in the result set indicating likelihoods that the user is searching for the profile; determining a social distance for each of the profiles in the result set, said determined social distance being a function of the colleague designations included in the profiles, wherein determining the social distance for the profiles in the result set comprises; assigning a first degree of social distance to each of the profiles in the result set that includes the colleague designation indicating that the person associated with the profile has a direct relationship with the user; and assigning a second degree of social distance to each of the profiles in the result set that includes the colleague designation indicating that the person associated with the profile has a direct relationship with at least one other person having a direct relationship with the user; grouping the profiles in the result set by the determined social distance into one or more groups, each profile in a group having a common degree of social distance from the user and at least one of the groups representing a second level social distance from the user; and displaying, to the user, the profiles in the result set grouped by the determined social distance and then in order of the relevance values assigned to the profiles in the result set. - View Dependent Claims (9)
-
Specification