Rating based on relationship

• US 8,296,356 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Obasanjo, Oludare, Sethi, Bhupinder S., Nichols, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Neurauter, George C
• Application Number:
  US11/897,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20090063630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,880 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 705/26.7
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

People often trust ratings provided by those with whom they have an existing relationship more than they would trust ratings provided by strangers. A system that provides ratings can combine the ratings with information about a person'"'"'s social network, in order to provide information that a person seeking the rating may find more reliable. The information provided to a person may, in some manner, differentiate between ratings that were provided by members of the person'"'"'s social network and ratings that were provided by those outside of the persons'"'"' social network.

Claims

1. A method of providing a rating comprising:

using a processor to perform acts comprising;

receiving, from a first person, an indication of a rating target, wherein said rating target is an object, a thing, a service, a product, or a second person other than said first person;

identifying a first set of one or more raters that stand in a relationship to said first person and that have rated said rating target;

communicating, to said first person, information based on (a) one or more ratings of said rating target that have been provided by said first set of one or more raters, and (b) a differentiation of said first set of one or more raters from a second set of raters that do not stand in said relationship to said first person, wherein said information comprises a number based on said one or more ratings; and

performing a computation to generate said number, where said computation is based on each of said one or more ratings, and where said computation assigns, to each given rating, r_i, a weight, w_i, based on a degree of connection, d_i, between said first person and a rater that provided the given rating, wherein the weight, w_i, is a non-zero number for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection to said person is n or less, and zero for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection to said first person is greater than n, where n is a positive number, and wherein the weight is the same non-zero number for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection is n or less, so that said number is equal to Σ

_i((r_i·

w_i)/s), where s equals either 1 or the total number of ratings, where w_i=0 for all d_i>

n and w_i≠

0 for all d_i<

n.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said relationship comprises an n-or-fewer-degree connection between said first person and each rater in said first set, where n is two or greater.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said rating target comprises a seller, and wherein said information comprises at least one of:

(a) said one or more ratings, and (b) an aggregate of said one or more ratings that is not based on ratings provided by said second set of raters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said information comprises an identification of one or more items that are being offered for sale by one or more sellers that have been rated by raters in said first set, said rating target being one of said sellers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said rating target comprises an answerer of a question that said first person asks, wherein said one or more ratings rate said rating target'"'"'s performance at answering said question, and wherein said information comprises:

(a) said one or more ratings, and (b) an aggregate of said one or more ratings that is not based on ratings provided by said second set of raters.

6. One or more computer-readable storage devices comprising executable instructions to perform a method comprising:

identifying a first set of participants in a community that stand in a relationship to a first person and that have rated a rating target, wherein said rating target is an object, a thing, a service, a product, or a second person other than said first person;

communicating, to said first person, identities of at least some members of said first set;

communicating to said first person, information based on membership of said first set and on ratings that members of said first set have provided of said rating target, wherein said information comprises a number based on said ratings; and

performing a computation to generate said number, where said computation is based on each of said ratings, and where said computation assigns, to each given rating, r_i, a weight, w_i, based on a degree of connection, d_i, between said first person and a participant that provided the given rating, wherein the weight, w_i, is a non-zero number for ratings provided by participants whose degree of connection to said person is n or less, and zero for ratings provided by participants whose degree of connection to said person is greater than n, where n is a positive number, and wherein the weight is the same non-zero number for ratings provided by participants whose degree of connection is n or less, so that said number is equal to Σ

_i((r_i·

w_i)/s), where s equals either 1 or the total number of ratings, where w_i=0 for all d_i>

n and w_i≠

0 for all d_i<

n.

7. The one or more computer-readable storage devices of claim 6, wherein said relationship comprises an n-or-fewer-degree connection between said first person and each participant in said first set, where n is two or greater.

8. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein said rating target is neither said first person nor any other person.

9. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a first database that stores one or more ratings;

a second database that stores data concerning relationships among people;

software that executes on at least one of said one or more processors and that is stored in one or more data remembrance devices, that uses said first database and said second database to identify a first set of raters that stand in a relationship to a first person, and that communicate information to said first person, said information comprising a number based on said one or more ratings from said first database and on a differentiation of said first set of raters from a second set of raters that do not stand in said relationship to said first person, wherein said ratings are of a rating target that is an object, a thing, a service, a product, or a second person other than said first person, wherein the software performs a computation to generate said number, wherein said computation is based on those ones of said one or more ratings provided by raters in said first set, and where said computation assigns, to each given rating, r_i, provided by a rater in said first set, a weight, w_i, based on a degree of connection, d_i, between said person and a rater that provided the given rating, and wherein the weight, w_i, is a non-zero number for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection to said person is n or less, and zero for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection to said person is greater than n, where n is a positive number, and wherein the weight is the same non-zero number for ratings provided by raters whose degree of connection is n or less, so that said number is equal to Σ

_i((r_i·

w_i)/s), where s equals either 1 or the total number of ratings, where w_i=0 for all d_i>

n and w_i≠

0 for all d_i<

n.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said relationship comprises an n-or-fewer-degree connection between said first person and each rater in said first set, where n is two or greater.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said information comprises an aggregate that is based on ratings provided by said first set of raters and that is not based on ratings provided by said second set of raters.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein said information comprises an identification of one or more items that are being offered for sale by one or more sellers that have been rated by raters in said first set, and wherein said information excludes items offered for sale by raters in said second set.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein said relationship comprises membership of said first set of raters in a contacts list of said first person.