Automated tagging of objects in databases

• US 8,407,216 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• 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: Walker, Hubert M., Morrison, Noel C., Caplis, Timothy, Bedard, Scott, Lara, Ankarino S., Blake, Stephen James
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/238,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,643 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/731
• 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 web site;

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;

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;

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, the processing and parsing removing symbols and words without functionality as 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;

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;

automatically generating the web site and populating the web site with the identified information, the web site including a search box; and

in response to receiving a search query at the search box, searching the automatically generated tag terms.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the any additional metadata involves identifying a common term in the any additional metadata that exists in metadata of other objects in the database of the web site, the common term determined as a keyword for the identified information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

6. 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 Internet.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising,

assigning a first weighting value to the tag term generated using the one of the plurality of search terms;

assigning a second weighting value to the additional tag terms; and

wherein searching the automatically generated tag terms includes searching both the tag term generated using the one of the plurality of search terms and the automatically generated tag terms based on the assigned first weighting and assigned second weighting, respectively.

7. 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 automatically creating the web site and 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, wherein the information associated with the plurality of search keywords to be used as content of the web site includes one or more of photos, music, videos, and articles; 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;

a page server for generating a web page of the web site, the web page defining a content area related to the subject of the web site, the content area of the web page populated based on a search of the automatically generated tag terms.

8. The system of claim 7, 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, the parsing including removing symbols and words without functionality as tag terms for the identified information; 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.

9. The system of claim 7, 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.

10. The system of claim 8, 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.

11. 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 web site;

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;

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;

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, the processing and parsing removing symbols and words without functionality as 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;

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;

generating a web page of the web site, the web page defining a content area related to the subject of the web site;

populating the content area of the web page based on a search of the automatically generated tag terms.

12. The method of claim 11, 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.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the tag terms for the identified information stored as the object in the database can be added by users of the web site.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the processing of the any additional metadata involves identifying a common term in the any additional metadata that exists in metadata of other objects in the database of the web site, the common term determined as a keyword for the identified information.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

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

16. The method of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of content of the web site automatically created based on the subject comes from information available on the Internet.