Patent ID: 6895406
Filing Date: 2005-05-17
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of creating a personalized user profile implemented on a computer for searching a database comprising: (a) displaying to the user an index of choices representing content items stored in the database, wherein each choice of the index is associated with a set of related keywords representing categories for the content items stored in the database; (b) establishing a personal profile for the user comprising a Personal Word Map of keywords compiled from selections made by the user from the displayed index and from those entered as user input on the computer; (c) receiving a first user input of a selection of a choice from the displayed index, and retrieving the associated keywords related to the selected choice, and selecting one or more pairs of different keywords as Boolean operators in order to generate a corresponding set of one or more search phrases using the associated keywords; (d) conducting a search of the database using the set of search phrases as search queries to the database, and returning one or more objects from the database in response to the search queries; (e) displaying to the user a new index of choices representing the objects returned from the database, wherein each choice on the displayed index is associated with the pair of keywords used as Boolean operators in the search phrase that returned the object represented; (f) receiving a subsequent user input of a selection of a choice from the displayed index, and updating the Personal Word Map of the user's personal profile with the pair of keywords used in the search phrase that returned the selected object, wherein said Personal Word Map is comprised of senarate line entries for each different keyword used in a search phrase followed by its associated keyword, and each keyword in the Personalized Word Map is tracked with a weight value for the number of times that keyword has been used in search phrases that returned objects selected by the user; (g) retrieving associated keywords related to each of the pair of keywords used in the search phrase that returned the selected object, and selecting one or more pairs of different keywords from the associated keywords as Boolean operators in order to generate a subsequent set of search phrases using the associated keywords; (h) conducting a subsequent search of the database using the subsequent set of search phrases as further search queries to the database, and returning one or more objects from the database in response to the search queries; (i) displaying to the user a new index of choices representing the objects returned from the database, wherein each choice on the displayed index is associated with the pair of keywords used in the search phrase that returned the object represented; and (j) for each user selection of a choice from the displayed index, updating the Personal Word Map of the user's personal profile by entering each keyword of each pair of keywords for a user selection as a separate line entry if it is not already listed as a separate line entry, or if it is already listed as a separate line entry then incrementing the weight value of the listed keyword by one, and also entering its associated keyword as a following entry if it is not already listed as a following entry, and if the associated keyword is already listed as a following entry then incrementing its weight value by one; whereby, by iteratively continuing the cycle of user input by selection from the displayed index of choices, updating the user's personal profile with keywords used in the search phrase that returned the object selected by the user, using associated keywords related to the selected keywords to generate a subsequent set of search phrases, and conducting a further search of the database with the subsequent set of search phrases, the depth of the personal profile is continuously refined by user selections over time adding to the weight value of keywords and those associated therewith for objects selected by the user and allowing it to be used to uniquely characterize the particular interests of the user in computerized applications that are to be personalized to the user.