Using application metadata to identify applications of interest

• US 8,825,663 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mahaniok, Ihar, Mehta, Bhaskar
• Primary Examiner(s): Shanmugasundaram, Kannan
• Application Number:
  US13/530,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20120290583A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 707/741, 707/754, 707999001-999005, 707/948
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/948 Product or catalog

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatus, and computer storage mediums for receiving an initial index, the initial index associating each application of one or more applications with one or more applications of interest; for each application, receiving metadata associated with the application and receiving metadata associated with each of the one or more applications of interest; processing the metadata to selectively remove at least one of the one or more applications of interest from the initial index to provide a final index, the final index associating each application of the one or more applications with a remaining one or more applications of interest; storing the final index in memory; receiving a user selection of a particular application of the one or more applications; retrieving the one or more applications of interest based on the particular application using the final index; and providing the one or more applications of interest for display.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer-readable device coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving an initial index, the initial index associating each application of one or more applications with one or more applications of interest to provide one or more application pairs, each application pair associated with a weight that identifies a degree to which the applications of the application pair are related, the applications being executable on a mobile computing device;

for each application, receiving scoring metadata associated with the application and receiving scoring metadata associated with each of the one or more applications of interest, the scoring metadata comprising title metadata, description metadata, and permission metadata, the permission metadata including data related to permissions by the application and the one or more applications of interest to access an application programming interface of the mobile computing device;

for each application pair, comparing the scoring metadata associated with the application with the scoring metadata associated with the application of interest;

based on the comparison, calculating, for each application pair, one or more similarity scores;

calculating a metadata score based on the one or more similarity scores for each application pair;

calculating an overall score for each application pair based on a combination of i) the metadata score associated with each application pair and ii) the weight associated with each application pair; and

removing an application of interest of at least one application pair from the initial index when the overall score of the at least one application pair is less than a threshold score to provide a final index, the final index associating each application of the one or more applications with a remaining one or more applications of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises filtering metadata.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

comparing filtering metadata of an application of interest of at least one application pair to filtering criteria; and

selectively removing the application of interest of the at least one application pair from the initial index based on the comparing.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the filtering metadata comprises title metadata corresponding to a title of the application of interest and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the title is blank.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the filtering metadata comprises description metadata corresponding to a description of the application of interest and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the description is blank.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the filtering metadata comprises install metadata corresponding to a number of times the application of interest has been installed on a computing device and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the number of times is less than a threshold number of times.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the filtering metadata comprises rating metadata corresponding to ratings of the application of interest.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the rating metadata comprises an average rating of the application of interest and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the average rating is less than a threshold average rating.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the rating metadata comprises a number of ratings corresponding to the application of interest and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the number of ratings is less than a threshold number of ratings.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the filtering metadata comprises developer rating metadata corresponding to a rating of a developer of the application of interest and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when the rating is less than a threshold rating.

11. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

comparing filtering metadata of an application of interest of at least one application pair to filtering metadata of an application of the at least one application pair; and

selectively removing the application of interest of the at least one application pair from the initial index based on the comparing.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the filtering metadata comprises category metadata and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when a category of the application of interest is different from a category of the application.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the filtering metadata comprises content metadata and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when a content of the application of interest is different from a content of the application.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the filtering metadata comprises locale metadata and the application of interest is removed from the initial index when a locale associated with the application of interest is different from a locale associated with the application.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more similarity scores include at least one of a title similarity score, a concept similarity score, a permission similarity score, and title and description similarity scores.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein comparing the scoring metadata associated with the application with the scoring metadata associated with the application of interest further comprises:

comparing a first category of the scoring metadata associated with the application with a second, differing category of the scoring metadata associated with the application of interest,

wherein a particular similarity score of the one or more similarity scores is based on the comparison of the first category of the scoring metadata associated with the application with the second, differing category of the scoring metadata associated with the application of interest.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first category includes the title metadata and the second, differing category includes the description metadata.

18. A non-transitory computer storage device encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving a user selection of a particular application of one or more applications available through an application marketplace;

retrieving one or more applications of interest based on the particular application using a final index of applications, the final index provided by removing an application of interest of at least one application pair from an initial index of applications, the initial index of applications associating each application of one or more applications with one or more applications of interest to provide one or more application pairs, each application pair associated with a weight that identifies a degree to which the applications of the application pair are related, the application of interest of the at least one application pair removed from the initial index when the overall score of the at least one application pair is less than a threshold score, the overall score for each application pair based on a combination of i) a metadata score associated with each application pair and ii) the weight associated with each application pair, the metadata score of each application based on one or more similarity scores for each application pair, the one or more similarity scores, for each application pair are calculated based on a comparison of scoring metadata associated with the application with scoring metadata associated with the application of interest, the scoring metadata comprising title metadata, description metadata, and permission metadata, the permission metadata including data related to permissions by the application and the one or more applications of interest to access an application programming interface of a mobile computing device, the final index associating each application of the one or more applications with a remaining one or more applications of interest; and

providing the one or more applications of interest for display.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a user selection of a particular application of one or more applications available through an application marketplace;

retrieving one or more applications of interest based on the particular application using a final index of applications, the final index provided by removing an application of interest of at least one application pair from an initial index of applications, the initial index of applications associating each application of one or more applications with one or more applications of interest to provide one or more application pairs, each application pair associated with a weight that identifies a degree to which the applications of the application pair are related, the application of interest of the at least one application pair removed from the initial index when the overall score of the at least one application pair is less than a threshold score, the overall score for each application pair based on a combination of i) a metadata score associated with each application pair and ii) the weight associated with each application pair, the metadata score of each application based on one or more similarity scores for each application pair, the one or more similarity scores, for each application pair are calculated based on a comparison of scoring metadata associated with the application with scoring metadata associated with the application of interest, the scoring metadata comprising title metadata, description metadata, and permission metadata, the permission metadata including data related to permissions by the application and the one or more applications of interest to access an application programming interface of a mobile computing device, the final index associating each application of the one or more applications with a remaining one or more applications of interest; and

providing the one or more applications of interest for display.