System and method for metadata transfer among search entities

• US 9,129,017 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2011
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ghosh, Rishab Aiyer, Prakash, Vipul Ved
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, BAI DUC
• Application Number:
  US13/160,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20110307465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,547 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24537 of operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to ascribe or transfer metadata from one search-related entity to another, where each entity can be one of subject or source, citation, and object or target. First, one or more complete or incomplete attributes associated with one or more of entities across source, citation and target are identified with a high degree of probable accuracy, wherein such metadata or attributes include but are not limited to, time, language, and location of the entities. The identified attributes are then ascribed or transferred from one entity where the metadata is available to other search entities. Finally, the transferred attributes can be utilized to facilitate the selection and ranking of the cited targets for the search result.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a citation search engine including a processor, which in operation, retrieves a plurality of citations each composed by one of a plurality of subjects citing one or more of a plurality of objects that fit searching criteria, wherein a citation is an online posting of an opinion of an object by a subject;

an object selection engine coupled to the citation search engine and including a processor, which in operation,

identifies one or more attributes associated with the citations,

determines a selection and ranking of objects cited by the citations,

uses one or more attributes as a filter to select objects, identified attributes being transferred from one entity to other search entities, the transferred attributes facilitating a selection and ranking of cited targets for a search result,

transfers the identified attributes from the citations where the attributes are available to the one or more objects, and

selects the objects as a search result based on the matching of the search criteria with the attributes transferred to the objects from the citations; and

an influence evaluation engine that calculates influence scores of entities that determine a ranking of any subset of objects obtained from the plurality of citations, and

the influence evaluation engine, which in operation, calculates influence scores of the plurality of subjects that compose the plurality of citations citing the plurality of objects,

wherein the citation search engine enables a citation centric search process that focuses on influence of the plurality subjects that cite the plurality of objects.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of subjects has an opinion wherein expression of the opinion is explicit, expressed, implicit, or imputed through any other technique.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of subjects is one of;

representation of a person, web log, and entities representing Internet authors or users of social media services, user of microblogging services, users of social networks, reviewer who provides expressions of opinion, reviews, or other information useful for the estimation of influence.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of objects is one of;

Internet web sites, blogs, videos, books, films, music, image, video, documents, data files, objects for sale, objects that are reviewed or recommended or cited, subjects/authors, natural or legal persons, citations, or any entities that are associated with a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of citations includes one or more of;

expression of opinions on the objects, expressions of authors in the form of Tweets, blog posts, reviews of objects on Internet web sites Wikipedia entries, postings to social media, postings to websites, postings in the form of reviews, recommendations, or any other form of citation made to mailing lists, newsgroups, discussion forums, comments to websites or any other form of Internet publication.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of citations is made by a subject regarding an object, a subject regarding another subject, or an object regarding another object.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the citation search engine accepts and enforces a plurality of criteria on citation searching, retrieving and ranking, each of which is either be explicitly described by a user or best guessed by the system based on internal statistical data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the plurality of criteria include one or more of constraints for the plurality of citations, type of the plurality of objects cited, and ranking bias of the cited objects.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the attributes of the entities are semantic or descriptive data regarding the entities.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein:

the attributes include timestamp, language, and location of the entities.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the object selection engine sorts timestamps of the citations of an object and ascribes the earliest timestamp to the object as the object'"'"'s birth timestamp, which provides an accurate estimate of when the object was created.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the object selection engine utilizes known language or location of the subjects to determine the language of the citations or the location of the objects.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the object selection engine utilizes one of the attributes as a content filter to select the objects for the search result, wherein such attribute is one of the properties of the objects or the citations.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the object selection engine tags the objects as obscene and the subjects as a source of obscene content if the citation includes obscene words.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the object selection engine tags the subjects that cited an object as sources which cite obscene content if the object is flagged by users as obscene.

16. A method, comprising:

using a processor to retrieve a plurality of citations each composed by one of a plurality of subjects citing one or more of a plurality of objects that fit searching criteria, wherein a citation is an online posting of an opinion of an object by a subject;

using a processor to identify one or more attributes associated with citations, and determine a selection and ranking of objects cited by the citations and using one or more attributes as a filter to select objects;

ranking of objects cited by the citations and use one or more attributes as a filter to select objects, identified attributes being transferred from one entity to other search entities, the transferred attributes facilitating a selection and ranking of cited targets for a search result;

transferring the identified attributes from the entities of the citations where the attributes are available to the one or more objects;

selecting the objects as a search result based on the matching of the search criteria with the attributes transferred to the objects from the citations;

using an influence evaluation engine to calculate influence scores of entities that determine a ranking of any subset of objects obtained from the plurality of citations;

the influence evaluation engine, which in operation, calculates influence scores of the plurality of subjects that compose the plurality of citations citing the plurality of objects; and

enabling a citation centric search process that focuses on influence of the plurality subjects that cite the plurality of objects.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

accepting and enforcing a plurality of criteria on citation searching, retrieving and ranking, each of which is either be explicitly described by a user or best guessed by the system based on internal statistical data.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

sorting timestamps of the citations of an object and ascribing the earliest timestamp to the object as the object'"'"'s birth timestamp, which provides an accurate estimate of when the object was created.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

utilizing known language or location of the subjects to determine the language of the citations or the location of the objects.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

utilizing one of the attributes as a content filter to select the objects for the search result, wherein such attribute can be one of the properties of the objects or the citations.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

tagging the objects as obscene and the subjects as a source of obscene content if the citation includes obscene words.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

tagging the subjects that cited an object as sources which cite obscene content if the object is flagged by users as obscene.

23. A non-transitory machine-readable medium containing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing device cause the device to perform a method comprising:

using a processor to retrieve a plurality of citations each composed by one of a plurality of subjects citing one or more of a plurality of objects that fit searching criteria, wherein a citation is an online posting of an opinion of an object by a subject;

using a processor to identify one or more attributes associated with the citations, and determine a selection and ranking of objects cited by the citations and using one or more attributes as a filter to select objects;

ranking of objects cited by the citations and use one or more attributes as a filter to select objects, identified attributes being transferred from one entity to other search entities, the transferred attributes facilitating a selection and ranking of cited targets for a search result;

transferring the identified attributes from the entities of the citations where the attributes are available to the one or more objects;

selecting the objects as a search result based on the matching of the search criteria with the attributes transferred to the objects from the citations;

using an influence evaluation engine to calculate influence scores of entities that determine a ranking of any subset of objects obtained from the plurality of citations;

the influence evaluation engine, which in operation, calculates influence scores of the plurality of subjects that compose the plurality of citations citing the plurality of objects; and

enabling a citation centric search process that focuses on influence of the plurality subjects that cite the plurality of objects.