Entity Scoring Framework Using Multi-Source PlaceRank Signals

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing rating systems for entities of interest, such as restaurants or services, are often unreliable due to biased or misrepresentative user reviews, and lack robustness in evaluating various dimensions of quality and relevance.

Innovation Solution

A system that computes a placerank value for entities of interest by gathering and combining various features from internal and external data sources, including user reviews, API traffic, and social networking data, to provide a comprehensive and reliable score indicative of an entity's importance or relevance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If user reviews are used to generate ratings for entities of interest, then information about entity quality is provided, but the information becomes unreliable due to biased or misrepresentative reviews

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvereliability of ratingsVSAvoidinformation accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple data sources including user reviews, expert reviews, entity attributes, and behavioral data into a unified rating system. This merging of diverse information sources compensates for the biases in individual sources, particularly user reviews, to produce more reliable and accurate entity ratings.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary processing layer that aggregates and weights multiple data sources before generating final ratings. This intermediary mechanism filters out biased information from user reviews by balancing it with objective entity attributes and expert assessments, thereby improving reliability while preserving information accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If ratings are derived from a small number of sources, then the information is easier to generate, but the information has low statistical significance

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestatistical significanceVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal rating system that processes multiple types of data sources through a unified framework. The system handles user reviews, expert reviews, entity attributes, and behavioral data using consistent weighting and aggregation mechanisms, achieving high statistical significance while maintaining manageable system complexity through standardized processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts weighting parameters for different data sources based on their reliability and relevance. By changing these parameters adaptively, the system achieves high statistical significance in ratings while keeping the overall system complexity controlled through parameter optimization rather than structural complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Reliability

If multiple data sources are combined to improve rating reliability, then the scoring becomes more comprehensive, but the processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvescoring reliabilityVSAvoiddata processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the rating system into distinct modules: data collection from multiple sources, feature extraction, weighting and aggregation, and final rating generation. This segmentation allows each component to process specific data types independently, improving scoring reliability while managing processing complexity through modular architecture.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary processing of data sources before aggregation, including extracting relevant features from reviews, normalizing entity attributes, and pre-computing behavioral metrics. This preliminary action reduces the complexity of the main aggregation process while ensuring comprehensive and reliable scoring through thorough data preparation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS20230129014A1Apparatus, systems, and methods for analyzing characteristics of entities of interest
Publication Date: 2023.04.27 FOURSQUARE LABS INC
  • US20230129014A1 patent drawing
  • US20230129014A1 patent drawing
  • US20230129014A1 patent drawing

AI summary

The present disclosure relates to apparatus, systems, and methods for analyzing characteristics of entities of interest. In particular, the present disclosure provides a mechanism for analyzing information about entities of interest and for rating or scoring the entities of interest based on the analyzed information. The rating or the score of an entity of interest can sometimes be referred to as a placerank value of an entity of interest.