System for ranking the relevance of information objects accessed by computer users

Abstract

Information presented to a user via an information access system is ranked according to a prediction of the likely degree of relevance to the user's interests. A profile of interests is stored for each user having access to the system. Items of information to be presented to a user are ranked according to their likely degree of relevance to that user and displayed in order of ranking. The prediction of relevance is carried out by combining data pertaining to the content of each item of information with other data regarding correlations of interests between users. A value indicative of the content of a document can be added to another value which defines user correlation, to produce a ranking score for a document. Alternatively, multiple regression analysis or evolutionary programming can be carried out with respect to various factors pertaining to document content and user correlation, to generate a prediction of relevance. The user correlation data is obtained from feedback information provided by users when they retrieve items of information. Preferably, the user provides an indication of interest in each document which he or she retrieves from the system.

Description

[0001]More than one reissue application has been filed for the reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,058: the reissue applications are (i) application Ser. No. 10 / 388,362 (the present application) filed on Mar. 12, 2003, (ii) application Ser. No. 11 / 499,819(now abandoned) filed on Aug. 3, 2006 which is a divisional reissue application of application Ser. No. 10 / 388,362, and (iii) application Ser. No. 11 / 499,820(now abandoned) filed on Aug. 3, 2006 which is also a divisional reissue application of application Ser. No. 10 / 388,362.<?insert-end id="INS-S-00001" ?>FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present inversion is directed to information access in multiuser computer systems, and more particularly to a system for ranking the relevance of information that is accessed via a computer.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The use of computers to obtain and / or exchange information is becoming quite widespread. Currently, there are three prevalent types of systems that can be employed to distribute...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The prediction of relevance is carried out by combining data pertaining to one or more attributes of each item of information with other data regarding correlations of interests between users. For example, a value indicative of the content of a document can be added to another value which defines user cor...

Problems solved by technology

As the use of these types of systems becomes ever more common, the amount of information presented to users can reach the point of becoming unmanageable.

Part of this problem is due to the fact that junk mail of no particular interest is regularly sent in bulk to lists of user accounts.

As a result, an opportunity to view documents that are critically relevant may be missed if the user cannot take the time to view all documents in the category.

There is always the danger in such an objective approach that potentially relevant items of information can be missed.

While approaches of this type have some utility, they are limited because the prediction of relevance is made only on the basis of one attribute, e.g., word content.

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