Search results weighted by real-time sharing activity

• US 8,671,114 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Issued: 03/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Fischer, Donald
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US11/564,986
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,658 Days
• Field of Search: 707/726, 707/793, 707/800, 707/805, 707/807, 707/608, 707/687, 707/705, 707/790, 707/813, 707/821
• US Class Current: 707/790
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a mechanism for weighting search results based on active and passive sharing activity among users in the context of a social network. In particular, information being shared among users is monitored. When a search is requested by a user, information recently shared among a user'"'"'s social network is consulted and is used to weight the search results in the relevance calculation. For example, sharing activity that occurred recently or ongoing is used to weight the search results.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a search request from a user in a network;

determining a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set was previously shared by at least one other user in the network, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources, in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was previously shared, as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result; and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising actively monitoring sharing activity of the users in the network.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising passively monitoring sharing activity of the users in the network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a profile of the user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on an age of the user.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a location of the user; and

filtering the set of resources based on the location of the user.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a type of content in the set of search results.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing information indicating a strength of relevance of the set of resources that was weighted.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a search request from a user in a network;

determining a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining, by the processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set was previously shared by at least one other user in the network, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources, in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was previously shared, as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result; and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

3. A method comprising:

receiving a search request from a user in a network;

determining a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set was previously shared by at least one other user in the network and how recently each resource in the sub-set was shared by the at least one other user, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result; and

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was shared; and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

17. The method of claim 3, further comprising actively monitoring sharing activity of the users in the network.

18. The method of claim 3, further comprising passively monitoring sharing activity of the users in the network.

19. The method of claim 3, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a profile of the user.

20. The method of claim 3, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on an age of the user.

21. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a location of the user; and

filtering the set of resources based on the location of the user.

22. The method of claim 3, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a type of content in the set of resources.

23. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing information indicating a strength of relevance of the set of resources that was weighted.

24. The method of claim 3, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

4. A method comprising:

receiving a search request from a user in a network;

determining a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining a context for the network based on network sharing activity between users in the network;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set matches the context for the network and was previously shared by at least one other user in the network, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was shared to generate a weighted search result; and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

25. The method of claim 4, further comprising actively monitoring the network sharing activity of the users in the network.

26. The method of claim 4, further comprising passively monitoring the network sharing activity of the users in the network.

27. The method of claim 4, wherein the higher relevance is also based on a time of the network sharing activity relative to a time of the search request.

28. The method of claim 4, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a profile of the user.

29. The method of claim 4, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on an age of the user.

30. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a location of the user; and

filtering the set of resources based on the location of the user.

31. The method of claim 4, further comprising filtering the set of resources based on a type of content in the set of search results.

32. The method of claim 4, further comprising providing information indicating a strength of relevance of the search results that was weighted.

33. The method of claim 4, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

5. A method comprising:

identifying a search request from a user in a network;

receiving a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set was previously shared by at least one other user in the network, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources, in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was previously shared, as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result; and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

34. The method of claim 5, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

6. A method comprising:

identifying a search request from a user in a network;

receiving a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set was previously shared by at least one other user in the network and how recently each resource in the sub-set was shared by the at least one other user, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was shared, and

providing the weighted search result to the user.

35. The method of claim 6, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.

7. A method comprising:

identifying a search request from a user in a network;

receiving a search result for the search request, the search result comprising a set of resources;

determining a context for the network based on network sharing activity between users in the network;

determining, by a processor, a sub-set of the set of resources, where each resource in the sub-set matches the context for the network and was previously shared by users in the network, where a first user shares a resource in the sub-set by directly addressing a second user;

weighting the sub-set of the set of resources, in view of how recently each resource in the sub-set was previously shared, as having a higher relevance than other resources of the search result to generate a weighted search result;

providing the weighted search result to the at-least-one user.

36. The method of claim 7, wherein the first user directly addresses the second user by at least one of an email address or a short nickname to share the resource in the sub-set.