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Processes for calculating item distances and performing item clustering

  • US 8,019,766 B2
  • Filed: 03/30/2007
  • Issued: 09/13/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method of measuring the distance between a first item and a second item, the method comprising:

  • identifying a first set of one or more paths in a hierarchical browse structure from a root node of the hierarchical browse structure to the first item, said hierarchical browse structure comprising multiple levels of browse nodes arranged in a hierarchy, each browse node representing a respective item category;

    identifying a second set of one or more paths in the hierarchical browse structure from the root node to the second item;

    identifying a plurality of shared browse nodes for the first and second items, said shared browse nodes being browse nodes that occur in both the first set of paths and the second set of paths, each shared browse node representing a respective item category in which the first and second items are both categorized;

    calculating data values for particular shared browse nodes;

    calculating a distance value that represents the distance between the first item and the second item such that the distance value is dependent upon at least (a) the number of said shared browse nodes, (b) the total number of browse nodes in the first and second sets of paths, and (c) said data values, such that different amounts of weight are given to different shared browse nodes in calculating the distance value; and

    storing the distance value in computer storage.

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