AUTOMATED TAGGING OF OBJECTS IN DATABASES

• US 20100082575A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Caplis, Timothy, Bedard, Scott, Walker, Hubert M., Lara, Ankarino S., Morrison, Noel C., Blake, Stephen James
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,216 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for automatically generating tag terms (or tags) for objects in databases of a web site. The metadata of the objects (or data) of the web site are processed and parsed to automatically generate tag terms for the corresponding objects. Information (or data, or content) downloaded from the Internet often comes with metadata, which can exist in titles, description, sources, and authors of the information, etc. The metadata of downloaded information can be process and parsed to generate tag terms for the corresponding objects. The system can automatically generate tag terms for the data, which are stored as objects in the databases, and make the data (or objects) searchable. In addition, the automatically generated tag terms allow associated data to maintain their relationship. For example, data from the same sources, same authors, or same subjects can be identified based on the common tag terms. Automatically generated tag terms enable searching and association of data (or objects) in databases in a web site.

Claims

1. A method for automatically generating tag terms for objects in databases of a web site that is automatically created based on a subject, comprising

receiving a plurality of search terms related to the subject to create the website;

searching Internet web sites to identify information associated with the plurality of search terms on the Internet web sites to automatically create the web site;

storing an identified information associated with the plurality of search terms as an object to a database of the web site;

processing the identified information to determine which one of the plurality of search terms the identified information is associated with;

automatically generating a tag term for the identified information in the database using the one of the plurality of search terms determined to be associated with the identified information;

processing and parsing any additional metadata of the identified information stored as an object to determine keywords to be used as additional tag terms for the identified information; and

automatically storing the additional tag terms as automatically generated tag terms for the identified information in the database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically generated tag terms for the identified information enable the identified information to be searched and to be associated with other objects in the databases on the web site without user involvement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the any additional metadata of the identified information include at least one in the group consisting of title, description, author, and source of the identified information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag terms for the identified information stored as the object in the database can be added by users of the web site.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified information associated with the plurality of search terms to be used as content of the web site includes one or more of photos, music, videos, and articles.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the any additional metadata involves identifying a keyword in the any additional metadata that exists in metadata of other objects in the database of the web site.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining the subject for the web site prior to receiving the plurality of search terms related to the subject.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of content of the web site automatically created based on the subject comes from information available on the Interent.

9. Computer-readable media including program instructions for automatically generating tag terms for objects in databases of a web site that is automatically created based on a subject, comprising:

program instructions for receiving a plurality of search terms related to the subject to create the web site;

program instructions for searching Internet web sites to identify information associated with the plurality of search terms on the Internet web sites to automatically create the web site;

program instructions for storing an identified information associated with the plurality of search terms as an object to a database of the web site;

program instruction for processing the identified information to determine which one of the plurality of search terms the identified information is associated with;

program instructions for automatically generating a tag term for the identified information in the database using the one of the plurality of search terms determined to be associated with the identified information;

program instructions for processing and parsing any additional metadata of the identified information stored as an object to determine keywords to be used as additional tag terms for the identified information; and

program instructions for automatically storing the additional tag terms for the identified information in the database.

10. The computer readable media of claim 9, wherein the automatically generated tag terms for the identified information enable the identified information to be searched and to be associated with other objects in the databases on the web site without user involvement.

11. The computer readable media of claim 9, wherein the any additional metadata of the identified information include at least one in the group consisting of title, description, author, and source of the identified information.

12. The computer readable media of claim 9, wherein the tag terms for the identified information stored as the object in the database can be added by users of the web site.

13. The computer readable media of claim 9, wherein the identified information associated with the plurality of search terms to be used as content of the web site includes one or more of photos, music, videos, and articles.

14. The computer readable media of claim 9, wherein the processing of the any additional metadata involves identifying a keyword in the any additional metadata that exists in metadata of other objects in the database of the web site.

15. The computer readable media of claim 10, further comprising:

program instructions for determining the subject for the web site prior to receiving the plurality of search terms related to the subject.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of content of the web site automatically created based on the subject comes from information available on the Internet.

17. A system for automatically generating tag terms for objects in databases of a web site that is automatically created based on a subject, comprising:

a search engine for searching information available on Internet based on a plurality of search keywords related to the subject of the web site to enable automatically creating the web site;

at least a server for storing objects in the databases of the web site, wherein the objects in the databases are composed of information based on search results identified by the search engine to be associated with the plurality of search keywords; and

a server with an algorithm to automatically generate tag terms from metadata of the objects to store in databases along with the objects, wherein the automatically generated tag terms for the objects enable the objects to be searched and to be associated with one another.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the server with the algorithm to automatically generate tag terms includes:

an algorithm to determine which search keywords the objects in the databases are associated with to automatically generate tag terms for the objects based on the associated search keywords;

a parser for parsing the metadata of the objects; and

a metadata analyzer working with the parser to process and analyze the metadata of the objects stored in the databases to determine keywords to be used as tag terms for the objects.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the search engine also index content of the web site to enable searching for contents in the web site, and wherein tag terms of objects in the databases enable searching of objects in the web site.

20. The claim of claim 18, wherein the processing and analyzing of the metadata involves identifying a keyword that exists in more than one object in the database of the web site to be used as a tag term.