Patent ID: 6493702
Filing Date: 2002-12-10
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of adding a content pointer to a collection of shared content pointers contributed by a plurality of users, wherein each shared content pointer is associated with a content source, the content pointers organized into a plurality of categories, comprising the steps of:receiving a data item identifying a content source; determining a category of the collection of shared content pointers in which to store the data item comprising the substeps of; identifying a topic corresponding to the content source; comparing the topic to a first list of topics in a user-specific hierarchy of categories; if the topic is in the first list, identifying the category within the user-specific hierarchy corresponding to the topic; if the topic is not in the first list, comparing the topic to a second list of topics in a global hierarchy of categories; if the topic is in the second list, identifying the category within the global hierarchy corresponding to the topic; and establishing a category within the user-specific hierarchy corresponding to the topic; if the topic is not in the second list, establishing a category within the global hierarchy corresponding to the topic; and establishing a category within the user-specific hierarchy corresponding to the topic; wherein the global hierarchy of categories is initially determined by the steps of: for each content pointer in the collection of shared document content pointers, identifying a content vector corresponding to the content pointer; clustering the content vectors into a plurality of clusters; and recursively repeating the clustering step on each cluster in the plurality of clusters to derive a hierarchy of clusters; and storing the hierarchy of clusters as the global hierarchy of categories; and storing the data item as a content pointer in the determined category of the collection.