Deriving semantic relationships based on empirical organization of content by users

• US 9,569,728 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2015
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bublup, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bublup Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Cohen, Alain J., Cohen, Marc A., McKeown, Ryan, Znam, Stefan, Morales, Alberto
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zidanic, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/664,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20160140447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/048 Fuzzy inferencing

Abstract

A computer-implemented content suggestion engine provides content suggestions to a requesting user based on information about content items that other users may have independently categorized or organized into folders within a content repository. Embodiments of the method comprise a content repository having a plurality of content items, where each content item is associated with one or more user-created folders. Embodiments further comprise receiving, via a network, a suggestion request for suggested content, where the suggestion request identifies a first content item for which suggestions are sought. Other content items in the content repository are then identified as potential suggestions based on the application of a formal relationship between the first content item and the potential suggested content items. One or more of the potential suggested content items may then be provided in response to the suggestion request via the network.

Claims

1. A computerized method for suggesting web pages to users comprising:

receiving, at a first suggestion assistant executing on a first client computer, a first request from a first user to create a first folder;

creating, in response to the first request, a first folder ID in a content repository on a server computer, wherein the first folder ID represents the first folder;

receiving, at the first suggestion assistant, a second request from the first user to save a first web page to the first folder;

creating, in response to the second request,

a first link ID that represents the first web page, and

a first folder association between the first link ID and the first folder ID in the content repository;

receiving, at the first suggestion assistant, a third request from the first user to save a second web page to the first folder;

creating, in response to the third request,

a second link ID that represents the second web page, and

a second folder association between the second link ID and the first folder ID in the content repository;

automatically, based on the first folder association and the second folder association;

associating the second link ID with the first link ID by adding the second link ID to a first set of related link IDs in the content repository, wherein each link ID in the first set of related link IDs is associated with the first link ID, and

associating the first link ID with the second link ID by adding the first link ID to a second set of related link IDs in the content repository, wherein each link ID in the second set of related link IDs is associated with the second link ID;

receiving, at a second suggestion assistant executing on a second client computer, a fourth request from a second user to create a second folder;

creating, in response to the fourth request, a second folder ID in the content repository, wherein the second folder ID represents the second folder;

receiving, at the second suggestion assistant, a fifth request from the second user to save the first web page to the second folder;

creating, in response to the fifth request, a third folder association between the first link ID and the second folder ID in the content repository;

receiving, at the second suggestion assistant, a sixth request from the second user to save a third web page to the second folder;

creating, in response to the sixth request,

a third link ID that represents the third web page, and

a fourth folder association between the third link ID and the second folder in the content repository;

automatically, based on the third folder association and the fourth folder association;

associating the third link ID with the first link ID by adding the third link ID to the first set of related link IDs in the content repository, and

associating the first link ID with the third link ID by adding the first link ID to a third set of related link IDs in the content repository, wherein each link ID in the third set of related link IDs is associated with the third link ID;

receiving, at a third suggestion assistant executing on a third client computer, a suggestion request from a third user based on the first web page;

providing, at the third suggestion assistant in response to the suggestion request, the second web page and the third web page as suggestions based on the presence of the second link ID and the third link ID in the first set of related link IDs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each link ID in the first set of related link IDs is associated with a respective copresence count, and wherein providing the second web page and the third web page as suggestions is based on the copresence counts associated with the second link ID and the third link ID respectively in the first set of related link IDs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the copresence counts associated with the second link ID and the third link ID respectively in the first set of related link IDs meets or exceeds a specified threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold is an integer specified by the third user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold is an integer specified by the server computer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the suggestion request further comprises one or more constraints on characteristics of the suggestion, and wherein providing the second web page and third web page as suggestions is additionally based on the one or more constraints.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more constraints comprise one or more of a keyword, a regular expression, a date-time value, and an activity metric.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the network, an indication that the third user has taken an action on the second web page.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the action comprises one of:

viewing the second web page, ignoring the second web page, blacklisting the second web page, and requesting to save the second web page with another folder in the content repository.