User profile snapshots

Abstract

A method for personalizing content for a particular user using profile snapshots in a computing system comprising a user interface configured to display content. The method comprises identifying a first snapshot of a user profile at a first point in time, identifying a second snapshot of a user profile at a second point in time occurring after the first point in time, maintaining a history of the first snapshot and the second snapshot, and allowing a user to access the history of the first snapshot and the second snapshot.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This applications claims priority to and benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 892,201, filed Feb. 28, 2007, and entitled “Active and Passive Personalization Techniques,” which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to personalization of content. More particularly, the present invention relates to user interface techniques and active and passive personalization techniques to enhance a user's personalization experience.[0004]2. Background[0005]With more and more content being continually added to the world wide information infrastructure, the volume of information accessible via the Internet, can easily overwhelm someone wishing to locate items of interest. Although such a large source pool of information is desirable, only a small amount is usually relevant to a given person. Personalization techniques are developin...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

With more and more content being continually added to the world wide information infrastructure, the volume of information accessible via the Internet, can easily overwhelm someone wishing to locate items of interest.

Unfortunately, user modeling to date (such as information filtering agents) has been relatively unsophisticated.

However, personalization content as well as profiles can be difficult for users to digest, especially where such content is dispersed through a web page that often requires a large amount of scrolling.

Furthermore, developing a personalization profile can be cumbersome and time consuming.

The fill-in profile type of user model misses much of the richness desired in user modeling because user interests typically do not fall into neat categories.

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