Interest-Based Content Segmentation for Search Relevance

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Solution Overview

Problem

The rapid growth of content on the Web makes it difficult for users to find highly relevant content due to the lack of effective tools for targeted exploration, leading to tedious browsing and inadequate search systems that lack interactive user interfaces and navigational tools.

Innovation Solution

A system and method for collecting and navigating content items and annotations based on user interests, allowing users to share and discover content items rated or annotated by peers, with mechanisms for visualization and organization of content items across networks, using interest servers, content servers, and client devices to provide personalized and efficient access to relevant content.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If users browse multiple sites to search for content, then they can find relevant content, but the process becomes tedious and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent relevanceVSAvoidsearch time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the vast web content into organized interest-based communities and topical hierarchies. Users can navigate pre-organized content segments rather than browsing randomly, with each interest page displaying content items categorized by relevance and community annotations, thereby reducing search time while maintaining content relevance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces interest pages and community annotations as intermediaries between users and content. These intermediaries aggregate, organize, and rank content based on community feedback and relevance metrics, serving as a mediator that filters and presents relevant content without requiring users to manually browse multiple sites.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If search systems provide comprehensive results, then users can find relevant content, but the results become difficult to manage and present

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent relevanceVSAvoidresult management complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments comprehensive search results into organized interest-based pages with hierarchical topic structures. Each interest page divides content into manageable sections with clear navigation, displaying only the most relevant items at the top while providing access to broader categories, thereby reducing the complexity of managing and presenting comprehensive results.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies local quality by providing different presentation formats and levels of detail for different sections of search results. Highly relevant content receives prominent display with detailed annotations, while less relevant content is organized in summary formats or secondary sections, allowing users to focus on important information without being overwhelmed by comprehensive but undifferentiated results.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

3Measurement precision

If users manually sort and analyze content items, then they can find interesting content, but the process requires significant effort

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent qualityVSAvoidcontent exploration ease
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements self-service by enabling community members to annotate, rate, and organize content items for other users. The system automatically aggregates these community contributions to generate organized interest pages with pre-sorted content, allowing users to access quality-filtered content without manual sorting efforts. The community serves itself by continuously improving content organization through collective annotation activities.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where user annotations, ratings, and interactions are automatically processed to improve content organization and relevance ranking. The system uses this feedback to dynamically update interest pages, prioritize high-quality content, and refine search results, thereby maintaining content quality while reducing the operational effort required for content exploration.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS8510377B2Methods and systems for exploring a corpus of content
Publication Date: 2013.08.13 R2 SOLUTIONS LLC
  • US8510377B2 patent drawing
  • US8510377B2 patent drawing
  • US8510377B2 patent drawing

AI summary

Methods and systems are described for exploring a corpus of content items stored in one or more information repositories within a distributed communications system.