Abstract: The disclosure details the implementation of apparatuses, methods, and systems for information querying and serving on the internet based on profiles. Information and/or advertisement providers may use a code triggered information server to serve context, demographic, and behavior targeted information to users on the internet. Users, in turn, trigger the provision of information by scanning or observing codes or information, or by selecting web links. The triggers, together with geographic, temporal, and user-specific information, are obtained by the server that receives, processes, and records the message. Based on these messages and a user profile—which may include continuously updated user-specific behavior information, situational and ambient information, an accumulated history of trigger messages, and integration with outside database information—the server selects information to serve to a user on the internet from an information base.

Abstract: The disclosure details the implementation of apparatuses, methods, and systems for information querying and serving in a virtual world based on profiles. Such virtual worlds may include, for example, massively multiplayer online games like The Sims Online, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Second Life, and/or the like. Information and/or advertisement providers may use a code triggered information server to serve context, demographic, and behavior targeted information to users in a virtual world. Users, in turn, trigger the provision of information by scanning or observing codes or information, or by making decisions within a virtual world such as attempting a mission within a game. The triggers, together with virtual world geographic, temporal, and user-specific information, are obtained by the server that receives, processes, and records the message.

Abstract: Personalized navigation for one or more individuals' use of a search engine is provided. Identification of a query submitted to the search engine is performed. If the query is identified to be a personal navigational query, which is a query via which the individuals intend to navigate to a particular site or information object that they have previously viewed, the particular site or information object associated with the query is identified, and results of the search are personalized based on knowledge of the identified site or information object.

Abstract: A method and system for selecting a healthcare provider includes a process for selecting a healthcare provider whereby healthcare provider list data is obtained, along with various data regarding the healthcare providers on the healthcare provider list, and the data is stored in a healthcare provider database. When a healthcare consumer initiates a healthcare provider search request, one or more healthcare consumer criteria for acceptable/desired healthcare providers and/or healthcare services needed is obtained and used to search the healthcare provider database to identify one or more healthcare providers most closely meeting the healthcare consumer's criteria. The availability of appointments and/or estimated wait times for the identified one or more healthcare providers are then obtained.

Abstract: A system for supplying network content to a device. The system includes a first interface for communicating with a network content source for retrieving the network content. The system also includes a second interface for communicating with the device for delivering processed network content to the device. The system includes an agent framework operatively connected to the first interface and the second interface and which operates a plurality of autonomous agents including a content retrieval agent, a content personalization agent, and a content delivery agent. The content retrieval agent is for retrieving the network content from the network content source via the first interface. The content personalization agent is for processing the network content thereby producing the processed network content. The content delivery agent is for delivering the processed network content to the device via the second interface.

Abstract: A multi-media broadcasting system that links a user profiles associated with a first user with a second user profile associated with a second user, where the first and second user profiles each comprise an indication of an interest common to the first and second users. The user profiles allow a user to customize a viewing experience via the broadcasting system. In addition, the system detects a content update to the first user profile, wherein the content update is associated with a content item that comprises content having a characteristic within the interest common to the first and second users. Furthermore, the system notifies the second user of the content update if the second user profile has not been updated with the content update.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of selectively displaying comments posted by users. The method comprises setting, by a first user, a threshold value for use in determining whether to display comments posted by users of an Internet service; and sending, by the first user, a request for displaying a page of the Internet service. The requested page contains a comment or a title of a comment posted by a second user who is assigned a reputation index. The method further comprises displaying, on a screen associated with the first user, the requested page, wherein the comment or the title of the second user is selectively redacted based on comparison of the reputation index of the second user with the threshold value of the first user.

Abstract: A document selector selects and ranks documents that are relevant to a query. The document selector executes an instance of a multi-armed bandits algorithm to select a document for each slot of a results page according to one or more strategies. The documents are selected in an order defined by the results page and documents selected for previous slots are used to guide the selection of a document for a current slot. If a document in a slot is subsequently selected, the strategy used to select the document is rewarded with positive feedback. When the uncertainty in an estimate of the utility of a strategy is less than the variation between documents associated with the strategy, the strategy is subdivided into multiple strategies. The document selector is able to “zoom in” on effective strategies and provide more relevant search results.

Abstract: Updates to landing pages of users in an online social network are fed from external sources so that content maintained by any one user can be consolidated in a single location regardless of where the changes are made to the content. When an update event occurs, users of the online social network are notified according to various criteria that they have set. With this feature, users can browse through content of other users efficiently.

Abstract: Apparatus, systems and methods for search filtering are disclosed. A search instance associated with a user device is identified, and a determination is made as to whether the search instance includes a filtering term. If the search instance is determined to include a filtering term, then filtered content items in the search instance are identified, and the filtered content items and access to a verification service that provides access approval or access denial for unfiltered content items in the search instance are provided to the user device. Conversely, if the search instance is determine not to include a filtering term, then the unfiltered content items are provided to the user device.

Abstract: Example embodiment of the present invention provide for assisting a user in managing the user's shared persona on a request-by-request basis. Upon requesting to share one or more types of identity information, the user is automatically presented with an interface through which the user can interact in selecting an amount of identity items to share. A subset of the total identity items selected may then be shared with specified entities. In another embodiment, the present invention assists a user in managing identity information that has been shared with others by providing the user with a visual list of entities for which the user has shared specified identity information. Other embodiments of the present invention use shared information about an entity to automatically provide the user with the ability to update identity information that has subsequently been edited.

Abstract: Systems and methods for delivery of user profile data are disclosed. An exemplary method includes detecting a request for a full copy of a user profile data package maintained by a user profile data source subsystem, creating an illusion that the request has been fulfilled, and copying on demand a portion of the user profile data package from the source subsystem to a target location for access by a data consuming subsystem. In certain embodiments, the method further includes utilizing the copied portion of the user profile data package for execution of a computing operation, without fully copying the user profile data package from the source subsystem. In certain embodiments, the portion of the user profile data package is streamed from the source subsystem to the target location over a network connection.

Abstract: A method and system for expanding attribute profiles are presented in which primary attributes from one or more attribute profiles are used to derive secondary attributes which are added to the respective attribute profiles to generate expanded attribute profiles. The expanded attribute profiles are generated to increase the strength of association of a query attribute with one or more attribute profiles associated with query-attribute-positive individuals.

Abstract: A method for classifying digital media files includes obtaining geographical information from geographical identification metadata associated with one or more digital media files stored in a memory of a mobile terminal, and assigning a respective ranking to the one or more digital media files within one or more media classification categories based on the obtained geographical information. A summary view of the one or more ranked digital media files is displayed, the summary view including two axes, each axis corresponding to at least one of the one or more media classification categories. A travel profile for a user of the mobile terminal, including the user's travel preferences as determined by the respective ranking of at least one ranked digital media file in one or more of the media classification categories, is generated, and relevant travel information is presented to the user. Related devices and computer program products are also discussed.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention improve the quality of search results returned for a given set of search terms based on metadata associated with the user performing the search. A search query may specify metadata elements to consider in ranking the search results. The metadata used may include bookmarks set by the user (either locally or at a social bookmaking site), group bookmarks, etc. In such a case, search results may be reordered to improve the ranking of websites that are both in the search results and in the bookmarks.

Abstract: A system and method for predicting what content a user wants to view based on such user's previous behavior and actions, comprising: receiving a cookie for every content page template in a web site; receiving a request for service of a content page; sending the content requested to a requester; for each content page sent, retrieving the cookie from the user; assigning a unique identifier (ID) to each new requester and storing the ID in the cookie; recording each ID, IP address, referrer, and time of request from the server; and storing the data recorded in a buffer for a period of time before storing it more permanently in a client-specific database. The system can be monetized by receiving fees from end users for presenting the content preferences or by receiving fees form content providers that include advertising related to the content preferences.

Abstract: Mechanisms for representing multiple locales in metadata models are provided. The mechanisms comprise a locale repository for storing locale information used to display multilingual metadata, and a display module for displaying the metadata model. The locale repository has locale references for representing locales, and multiple values of locale sensitive objects in a metadata model for representing locale values of the objects.

Abstract: The present invention provides systems, methods and computer-readable media comprising program code for affording access to a preferred provider of audio content. A method according to one embodiment of the present invention for presenting a control to navigate to a server for a preferred provider of audio content comprises identifying a link to an item of audio content in a result set generated in response to a search by the given user for one or more items of audio content. A preferred audio provider is determined for a given user and whether the item of audio content is available at the preferred audio provider for the given user. If the item of audio content is available at the preferred audio provider, a control is presented to navigate to a server of the preferred provider from which the user may download or stream the item of audio content.

Abstract: Information retrieval systems face challenging problems with delivering highly relevant and highly inclusive search results in response to a user's query. Contextual personalized information retrieval uses a set of integrated methodologies that can combine automatic concept extraction/matching from text, a powerful fuzzy search engine, and a collaborative user preference learning engine to provide accurate and personalized search results. The system can include constructing a search query to execute a search of a database, parsing an input query from a user into sub-strings, and matching the sub-strings to concepts in a semantic concept network of a knowledge base. The system can further map the matched concepts to criteria and criteria values that specify a set of constraints on and scoring parameters for the matched concepts. Furthermore, the system can learn user preferences to construct one or more profiles, including combined internal and profile weights, for producing personalized search results.

Abstract: Improved information analysis techniques are disclosed. For example, a computer-implemented method of automatically assisting an analyst in a current information analysis task includes the following steps. An analytic context is modeled in a user-system cooperative manner, wherein the analytic context is a structure representative of user analytic actions and relationships associated therewith. At least a portion of the user-system cooperatively-modeled analytic context structure is utilized to adaptively gather information relevant to a current information analysis task.

Abstract: A method for content recommendation for a user, wherein a song or a video is recommended to the user and a confidence measure is determined for the recommended song. The confidence measure is displayed to the user, so the user may get more confidence into the recommendation of the system.

Abstract: A search expertise level system and method for determining a search expertise level of a search engine user and then using that information to improve the searcher's experience. The search expertise level system and method identifies the search expertise level of the searcher based on query behavior, post-query browsing behavior, and other behaviors of the searcher. One simple and important behavior that indicates a skilled searcher is the use of advanced query syntax and operators in the query. Once the search expertise level of a searcher is known, the search engine user interface can be modified and tailored to the needs of both skilled and novice searchers. The search expertise level also can be used to rank search results, such that search results for a novice searcher are ranked differently than those for a skilled searcher. The search expertise level also can be used in advertising and marketing.

Abstract: A system for collecting, managing and disseminating information relating to medical procedures includes a central computer and a plurality of medical devices each in communication with an injector, a scanner, a hospital system and/or at least one other device. Each medical device receives (I) before a procedure is performed, patient identification information from a user interface, the scanner and/or the hospital system and (II) during and/or after the procedure, injection information from the injector and imaging study information from the scanner. Each medical device has an associated database for storing as a record therein the patient identification information, the injection information and the imaging study information for each procedure performed on each patient.

Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting search results based on relevancy in an interactive media guidance application are disclosed. After performing a user-initiated or automatic search for media content, the interactive media guidance application determines which of the hits are most relevant to the user. The guidance application then displays, or visually identifies, the relevant items. Some embodiments employ using different display arrangements based on the number of relevant items. Some embodiments display the relevant items in recommendation lists or hot lists.

Abstract: Presented is a method and system for personalized video retrieval. The method includes specifying a user's video interests as channels, wherein each channel corresponds to a distinct video interest, querying at least one video source upon selection of a channel by the user, retrieving videos corresponding to the channel selected by the user, obtaining a personalized ranking of the retrieved videos from the user, and presenting videos for viewing based on the user ranking.

Abstract: A method includes: generating profile data for users including a first user, the profile data related to contacts or persons used in messages to or from each user; generating, via a server platform, parameters corresponding to the profile data for ranking contacts or persons; and transmitting the parameters to client devices to allow each client device to determine ranks of contacts or persons in the profile data based on the parameters and a function that uses the parameters.

Abstract: An apparatus and method is provided to dynamically search for available Web services by persistently searching a distributed multi-level UDDI registry chain, interrogating their published technical specifications and enabling the consumer to find, bind, and invoke the desired Web service in real-time and without intervention by the consumer. The search criteria includes identifying candidate published services that fall within an acceptable margin of error based on information previously published within a consumer service profile. The measure of conformance between the registry semantic map and consumer service profile is parameterized and chosen by the consumer in advance. The service profile includes an XML schema which exposes consumer profile metadata and corresponding information sets used by a rules engine for pattern matching purposes.

Abstract: An information providing device for providing various provide information formed with the predetermined format responding to a transfer request, and the information receiving system comprised of information processing device for receiving the provide information to be transmitted from the information providing device via the predetermined network and conducting information processing; the information providing device forms provide information by describing the comment data with the format readable by the information processing device in the comment area set with the format according to the predetermined program of the provider side, the information processing device receives the provided information to be transmitted via the network, and analyzing this according to the predetermined analyzing program, reads out the comment data of comment area, and delivers the comment data to the predetermined application software and conducts the predetermined information processing according to the application software.

Abstract: Search results are displayed according to relevance and grouped by the social distance between the person associated with the profile and the user performing the search. Metadata is defined of each of the profiles indicating groups affiliated the profile and a relevance value is determined as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set. The social distance is determined as a function of a colleague designation associated with the profile.

Abstract: A query enhancer module providing a unique method to modify user submitted queries within a web-based, multi-tier enterprise solution. The user submitted query specifies data to be retrieved from a database. Without any user interaction the query enhancer module rewrites the query to specify a subset of the data specified in the user submitted query. This rewritten query is then executed against the database to retrieve the subset of the data. Generally, the subset set of the data comprises the amount of data that can be displayed on a single web page.

Abstract: A user profile and/or the suggestions computed based thereon are obtained taking a special set of user features into account. The user features are defined to represent a typical general behaviour of an individual user in respect to the application where the user profile is used. In other words, for each application where a user profile is used a special set of user features are defined which are able to represent a typical general behaviour of an individual user. Based on these user features the weights in the list of word-weight pairs or weighted keywords which represents the user profile are computed or influenced during the creation of the user profile, and/or a mufti-user profile is split during the creation of an individual user profile from a mufti-user profile, and/or during specification of a suggestion a user history which is used to create the user profile, and/or the user profile, and/or the suggestion results are filtered.

Abstract: An improved system and method for ranking search results using social information is provided. A social information ranking engine may be provided to rerank a list of URLs of web pages in search results from a search engine using social information. To do so, the search query may be applied to a social information domain and a second list of references to web pages may be obtained as search results. A dimensional vector of users with the plurality of terms may be constructed using search results from social information domain, and a similarity measure may be computed between the references to web pages obtained from search results by the search engine and the references to web pages obtained from search results by the social information ranking engine. The score from the similarity measure may then be used to rerank the list of references to web pages.

Abstract: A system and method for personalizing a search results mix based on a user's search history. A system monitors the types of search results that the user frequently accesses. A default search results page can then be modified according to the frequency in which the user accesses certain search results. The modified search results page can then be presented to the user upon the submission of a search request.

Abstract: Computer-implemented systems and methods for displaying multidimensional data as graphical time-based objects. A system and method could include associating actual calendar units with time dimension members. The association can be based on the time periods and the corresponding time-level information in the cube's time dimension hierarchies. Query results involving time periods and time period analysis are displayed as graph chart objects within the time period's visual presentation.

Abstract: A search method provides a search client user with personalized search that may provide related search results according to the interest model of the search client user. The search method includes: receiving a search request from a search client, where the search request includes one or more search key words; extracting an interest model of a user according to the personalized data of the user; distributing the one or more search key words and the interest model to one or more member search devices; receiving search results and corresponding ranking scores of the search results from the one or more member search devices, where the ranking scores are calculated according to the interest model; and sorting the search results according to the ranking scores, obtaining final search results, and returning the final search results to the search client. A search system is also provided. With the present invention, the search results are more personalized, and the search service may be promoted more conveniently.

Abstract: A query result set is an example of a type of body of data whose content is defined by a query. Modifications to a database can change the result of a query and therefore what the content of such a body of data, such as a result set, should be. Active Queries is an approach that enables a database server to detect database changes that alter the result of a query registered for a client and to notify a client of those changes. The notifications may be sent to, for example, a cache manager responsible for maintaining coherency of a result set cache generated by the query. The notification notifies the cache manager of when and/or what changes are needed to maintain the coherency of the cache.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for determining availability of presentable content via a subscription service are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes receiving a selection of first presentable content associated with a first subscription service. Metadata associated with the selected first presentable content is received. Based on the received metadata, it is determined whether second presentable content corresponding to the first presentable content is available from a second subscription service. Further, it is indicated whether the second presentable content is available for presentation via the second subscription service.

Abstract: A system and method are directed towards managing a display of initial impression attributes to bring the most relevant information into quick view. The view can be customized by the user. Within a search context, a search may be performed based on a set of search criteria. The user may establish a set of initial impression attributes to be displayed, or employ a default set of initial impression attributes. The default set may be determined based on statistical analysis. When a result of the search is displayed, the initial impression attributes may also be displayed such that the user may review the initial impression attributes and make a decision based, in part, on the initial impression attributes. Initial impression attributes may also be employed within threaded online conversations or browsing through inventory. The search or browse contexts may include online dating searches, merchandises searches, groups, real estate, even employment searches.

Abstract: A method and system for sorting out a keyword showing a difference between two groups is provided. The method includes the steps of: defining a tuple with respect to an N number of keywords and defining a data group including a group of the tuple; creating a keyword value for each of the N number of keywords by using the data group; and creating a keyword group associated with the keyword value, and creating an output group including the keyword group, wherein the two groups includes a first group and a second group.

Abstract: A method for content recommendation for a user, wherein a song or a video is recommended to the user and a confidence measure is determined for the recommended song. The confidence measure is displayed to the user, so the user may get more confidence into the recommendation of the system.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for ranking resources. One or more signals reporting one or more actions by the plurality of users related to a respective resource are received, where a reported action is a presentation of the respective resource, an addition of the respective resource, or a deletion of the respective resource. The reported actions include one or more short deletions of the respective resource. A respective long-addition click-through rate (LACTR) is determined for the respective resource based on a number of reported presentations of the respective resource and a difference between a number of reported additions of the respective resource and a number of short deletions of the respective resource. The plurality of resources are ranked based on the respective LACTRs for the plurality of resources. The ranking of the plurality of resources are provided.

Abstract: A recommendations system is provided in various embodiments for selecting items to recommend to a user. The system includes a recommendation engine with a plurality of recommenders, and each recommender identifies a different type of reason for recommending items. In one embodiment, each recommender retrieves item preference data and generates candidate recommendations responsive to a subset of that data. The recommenders also score the candidate recommendations. In certain embodiments, a normalization engine normalizes the scores of the candidate recommendations provided by each recommender. A candidate selector selects at least a portion of the candidate recommendations based on the normalized scores to provide as recommendations to the user. The candidate selector also outputs the recommendations with associated reasons for recommending the items.

Abstract: A method and system for utilizing user information to provide a network address. The method collects user information about a user from at least one electronic device that is associated with the user. In addition, a network address activity pattern is identified based on a combination of a network browsing activity and the user information. A list of network addresses that have been viewed in context of the activity pattern is then accessed. At least one network address on the list of network addresses is scored. Then, the at least one network address having a highest score is provided to the user.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for measuring web site satisfaction of information needs are provided. The method includes: selecting a page for analysis; generating a page profile in the form of a list of keywords representing the page; generating a page traffic profile in the form of lists of keywords representing information needs of users, wherein the page traffic profile is generated from keywords used by users to visit the page; determining the success of users' visits to the page; and analyzing whether a page satisfies users' information needs by applying a distance measure between the keywords of the page profile and the keywords of the page traffic profile and combining the distance measure result with a success rate of the keywords.

Abstract: A method of presenting data regarding products is described. Feature categories are assigned to each a product category based on available data. Feature categories may be expanded to display further information about a category and specific attributes within that category. A weighted importance is assigned to each attribute of each feature category based on the available data. Attributes are ranked according to their weighted importance.

Abstract: Context-based user behavior data is collected from a search mechanism. This data includes, for a given query, user feedback (implicit and explicit) on the query and context information on the query. A predictive pattern is applied to the context-based user behavior data in order to produce predicted user satisfaction data. Data mining techniques may be used to create and improve one or more predictive patterns. Predicted user satisfaction data can be used to monitor or improve search mechanism performance, via a display reporting the performance or identification of any queries with a shared characteristic and sub-par user satisfaction. A dynamically-improving search mechanism uses the predicted user satisfaction data to improve the performance of the search mechanism.

Abstract: A user can refine a search over structured data by specifying that a label or an attribute value be used to further filter the results of a query.

Abstract: A search of an index database or another search method is conducted to identify preliminary results listing one or more selected computer objects having selected identifying information stored in an index database. In addition, one or more selected computer objects of the preliminary search results are correlated with one or more other computer objects that have associations with the selected computer objects of the preliminary search results. Integrated search results are then returned and include the preliminary search results and one or more other computer objects that have associations with the selected computer objects of the preliminary search results. The associations may be determined by a association system and represent relationships between computer files based upon user or other interactions between the objects. The associations between the objects may include similarities between them and their importance.

Abstract: This invention concerns a web-based system comprising a server, computer storage and web-portal to provide an integrated management feedback system for the assessment of educational services. The system particularly comprises an interface to input definitions of graduate attributes related to levels of complexity; and input definitions of learning outcomes related to teaching theory which defines levels for outcomes. A database to map relationships between graduate attributes at particular levels of complexity and their related teaching methods and assessment items; and learning outcomes at particular levels and their related teaching methods and assessment items. A processor to automatically respond to the assessment results for a particular student and determine and record both the graduate attribute levels of complexity, and learning outcomes levels, achieved by that student.

Abstract: Both search criteria and a friends list associated with a user are obtained. One or more data items that satisfy the search criteria are identified as search results. An order of the search results is adjusted based at least in part on multiple additional friends lists, each of which is associated with a data item of the one or more data items. Each of the multiple additional friends lists can also be updated to reflect changes in the friends lists made by users associated with the friends lists.