News aggregator and search engine using temporal decoding
First Claim
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1. A method of automatically sorting electronic documents by their temporal characteristics with a computing system comprising:
- a. providing a set of temporal ordered electronic documents related to an event, which event is associated by the computing system with a plurality of corresponding event states defined for a progress template for such event;
wherein said event states are associated by the computing system with content distinctive to different temporal periods within said progress template;
b. wherein each of said set of temporal ordered electronic documents is associated with a temporal value established by the computing system, and wherein said temporal value is not any of a creation time alone, a publication time alone, or a combination of a creation time and a publication time alone;
c. comparing the contents of a separate first electronic document with the computing system to the contents of one or more electronic documents in said set of temporal ordered electronic documents to determine a closest content match document;
d. with the computing system, determining if said separate first electronic document and said closest content match document based are substantial duplicates;
filtering one of said separate first electronic document and said closest content match document when they are determined to be substantial duplicates;
comparing said first electronic document to said closest content match document when they are determined not to be duplicates to identify temporal differences with the computing system, including by comparing first content identifying a first state for the event in said first electronic document to second content identifying a second state for said event in said closest content match document;
e. generating a temporal related value for said first electronic document based on steps (c)-(d) with the computing system, which temporal value is derived from comparing said first state and said second state for said event and identifying their respective temporal periods within said progress template; and
f. adjusting a temporal order of said set of temporal ordered documents as needed with the computing system based on said temporal related value determined for said separate first electronic document.
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Abstract
Electronic documents are classified and compared according to their temporal qualities. The content of a document relating to an event is analyzed to identify temporal components. These components can be compared with corresponding counterparts in other documents to identify a relative temporal order. The invention can be used in environments such as automated news aggregators, search engines, and other electronic systems which compile information having temporal qualities.
57 Citations
45 Claims
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1. A method of automatically sorting electronic documents by their temporal characteristics with a computing system comprising:
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a. providing a set of temporal ordered electronic documents related to an event, which event is associated by the computing system with a plurality of corresponding event states defined for a progress template for such event; wherein said event states are associated by the computing system with content distinctive to different temporal periods within said progress template; b. wherein each of said set of temporal ordered electronic documents is associated with a temporal value established by the computing system, and wherein said temporal value is not any of a creation time alone, a publication time alone, or a combination of a creation time and a publication time alone; c. comparing the contents of a separate first electronic document with the computing system to the contents of one or more electronic documents in said set of temporal ordered electronic documents to determine a closest content match document; d. with the computing system, determining if said separate first electronic document and said closest content match document based are substantial duplicates; filtering one of said separate first electronic document and said closest content match document when they are determined to be substantial duplicates; comparing said first electronic document to said closest content match document when they are determined not to be duplicates to identify temporal differences with the computing system, including by comparing first content identifying a first state for the event in said first electronic document to second content identifying a second state for said event in said closest content match document; e. generating a temporal related value for said first electronic document based on steps (c)-(d) with the computing system, which temporal value is derived from comparing said first state and said second state for said event and identifying their respective temporal periods within said progress template; and f. adjusting a temporal order of said set of temporal ordered documents as needed with the computing system based on said temporal related value determined for said separate first electronic document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of causing a computing system to automatically present electronic documents in accordance with their temporal characteristics comprising:
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a. automatically retrieving a set of one or more documents pertaining to a first event identified with the computing system; selecting an event template for said first event, which event template includes a plurality of corresponding event states for said first event correlated and assigned to different temporal periods of such first event; b. identifying first content embodied in a first document which characterizes a first state of such event using the computing system; correlating said first state to one of said plurality of corresponding event states; c. presenting said first electronic document within a presentation portion of a web page in human perceptible form using the computing system; d. it analyzing a second electronic document with second content characterizing a second state of said first event using the computing system; correlating said second state to one of said plurality of corresponding event states; e. determining any temporal differences between said first document and said second document with respect to said first content and said second content using the computing system, including differences between said first state and second state within said event template; and f. wherein after determining any temporal differences said computing system; i. sorts said first electronic document and said second electronic document in a temporal order based on said event template with respect to their content describing said first event, wherein said temporal order is based on content associated with said documents but is not any of creation time alone, publication time alone, or a combination of creation time and publication time alone; ii. determines how such first electronic document and said second electronic document should be arranged to denote a temporal order within said presentation portion of said web page; and further wherein duplicate versions of electronic documents describing a duplicate state of said first event can be selectively omitted from said presentation portion of a web page. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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28. A method of processing a search query with an online computing system comprising:
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a) receiving a search query relating to a first event and/or a first topic; determining if said search query includes temporal parameters related to said first event and/or said first topic; b) generating an initial set of search results, including an initial set of electronic documents, which are responsive to the search query with the online computing system; c) based on steps (a) and (b) processing documents, including said initial set of electronic documents, to determine temporal characteristics of such documents with respect to said first event and/or said first topic; wherein said temporal characteristics are associated with content in said documents pertaining to {object, object status} pairs but are not any of creation time alone, publication time alone, or a combination of creation time and publication time alone; further wherein said processing determines said temporal characteristics in said documents by analyzing said {object, object status} pairs and assigning an object status for each object to a distinct temporal period; and d) altering a composition and/or ordering of said initial set of search results based on said step (c) and returning such as a final set of search results responsive to said search query. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method of processing a search query with an online computing system comprising:
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a) receiving a search query relating to a first event; determining if said search query includes temporal parameters related to said first event; b) generating an initial set of search results, including an initial set of electronic documents, which are responsive to the search query with the online computing system; c) based on steps (a) and (b) processing said initial set of electronic documents to determine temporal characteristics of such documents with respect to one or more events and/or topics, wherein said temporal characteristics are associated with content in said documents pertaining to {event, event state} content snippets but are not any of creation time alone, publication time alone, or a combination of creation time and publication time alone; further wherein said processing determines said temporal characteristics in said documents by analyzing said {event, event state} content snippets and assigning an event state for each event to a distinct temporal period; d) generating a search result for said search query to contain a subset of said initial set of electronic documents selected based on said determined temporal characteristics; and e) presenting said search result to said user responsive to said search query. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification