METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR USING SMART TAGS AND A RECOMMENDATION ENGINE USING SMART TAGS

• US 20070078832A1
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fukuda, Matt, Ott, Edward, Hayashi, Nathanael
• Application Number:
  US11/424,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20070078832A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for recommending tags and/or content items in response to requests received from remote computing devices. In one aspect, a content item recommendation system comprises a database configured to store an identifier of a first content item, a first tag and information from which a tag density associated with the first tag and with the first content item may be derived. The tag density may be a measure of times a tag has been associated with a content item by any user of a plurality of users who are members of a community. The system also comprises a recommendation engine configured to receive search results containing the first tag from a search engine and to correlate the first tag with information stored in the database. The recommendation engine may be further configured to determine a recommended tag, based on a recommendation threshold and a tag density, the tag density associated with both the recommended tag and the first content item.

Claims

1. A content item recommendation system comprising:

a database configured to store an identifier of a first content item, a first tag and information from which a tag density associated with the first tag and with the first content item may be derived, tag density being a measure of times a tag has been associated with a content item by different users of a plurality of users;

a recommendation engine configured to receive search results containing the first tag from a search engine and to correlate the first tag with information stored in the database; and

wherein the recommendation engine is further configured to determine a recommended tag, based on a recommendation threshold and a tag density, the tag density associated with both the recommended tag and the first content item.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a tag association module configured to accept a user-suggested tag as a descriptor of a content item from a first user of the plurality of users, the tag association module further configured to associate the user-suggested tag with the content item.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the tag association module is further configured to access the database to associate the user-suggested tag with user information stored in the database.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommendation engine is further configured to determine a recommended content item, based on the recommendation threshold and a tag density associated with both the recommended tag and the recommended content item.

5. A method of providing recommendations with results of a first search, comprising:

retrieving a first tag from a set of results of a first search for content items;

performing a second search based on the first tag, includes identifying a first content item that has been associated with the first tag;

wherein the identifying a first content item includes,

determining a first tag density, wherein the first tag density is a measure of the number of times the first tag has been associated with the first content item;

making a determination based on the first tag density and a first threshold;

wherein the performing the second search includes identifying a recommended tag associated with the first content item; and

wherein the identifying a recommended tag includes,

determining a recommended tag density, wherein the recommended tag density is a measure of the number of times the recommended tag has been associated with the first content item;

making a determination based on the recommended tag density and a recommendation threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, including:

presenting the recommended tag with the set of results from the first search.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein presenting the recommended tag further comprises:

providing a user-selectable link wherein selection of the link by a user initiates a search of content items associated with the recommended tag.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the recommended tag is not contained in the set of results from the first search.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the first content item is not contained in the set of results from the first search.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein performing further comprises:

identifying a recommended content item;

wherein identifying a recommended content item includes,

determining a second tag density, wherein the second tag density is a measure of the number of times the recommended tag has been associated with the recommended content item;

making a determination based on the second tag density and a second threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

presenting the recommended content item with the set of results from the first search.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a search request for content items associated with a first tag;

generating a set of related tags based on the first tag;

correlating the first tag and a candidate tag contained in the set of related tags to determine a recommended tag; and

returning the recommended tag.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein correlating further comprises:

ascertaining a first tag density, the first tag density being a measure of the number of times the first tag has been associated with a first content item;

ascertaining a candidate tag density, the candidate tag density being a measure of the number of times the candidate tag has been associated with a first content item;

making a determination based on the first tag density and the candidate tag density.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein making a determination comprises:

comparing the first tag density and a first threshold;

comparing the candidate tag density and a second threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein making a determination comprises:

comparing the first tag density and the candidate tag density.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein generating further comprises:

identifying a plurality of content items, wherein each of the plurality of content items is associated with the first tag.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of content items is associated with the first tag, and has a tag density associated with the first tag greater than a first threshold.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the first tag is not contained in the search request.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the search request includes a link to a content item.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the content item not associated with the first tag.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the first tag is contained in a set of search results generated in response to the search request for content items.

22. The method of claims 21, wherein the recommended tag is not contained in the set of search results.