Patent ID: 7493322

Claim:
A method for computing a measure of similarity between a first (or input) document and one or more disparate (or search results) documents, comprising: (a) receiving a first document and identifying the best keywords in the text by recognizing rare and uncommon keywords, including keywords that belong to one or more domain specific or subject matter specific dictionary; (b) identifying documents similar to the first document using a query by formulating wrappers using the list of the best keywords identified in the first document that also appear in a DS dictionary; (c) receiving a first list of rated keywords extracted from the first document and a list of rated keywords extracted from each of the one or more disparate documents; (d) comparing the first list of rated keywords to the list of rated keywords from each of the one or more disparate documents to determine whether the first document forms part of the one or more disparate documents using a first computed percentage indicating what percentage of keyword ratings in the first list also exist in the list of at least one of the one or more disparate documents; (e) verifying inclusion of the first document in the one or more disparate documents by computing a second percentage for each of the one or more disparate documents indicating what percentage of keyword ratings along with a set of their neighboring keyword ratings in the first list also exist in the list for at least one of the one or more disparate documents when the first computed percentage indicates that the first document is included in at least one of the one or more disparate documents; (f) using the first computed percentage to specify the measure of similarity when the computed second percentage for at least one of the one or more disparate documents is greater than the first computed percentage; (g) ranking the one or more disparate documents based on the percentage computed indicating what percentage of keyword ratings along with a set of their neighboring keyword ratings in the first list also exist in the list for at least one of the one or more disparate documents; (h) if the first computed percentage does not indicate that the first document is included in the second document, computing a third percentage using the Jaccard similarity distance measure, wherein if said Jaccard similarity distance measure is greater than about 90 percent, the second document is identified as a revision of the first document, and if the Jaccard similarity distance measure is less than about 90 percent, said measure is a similarity measure between said first and second document; and (i) if the third computed percentage indicates that the first document is a revision of the second document, computing a fourth percentage indicating what percentage of keyword ratings along with a set of their neighboring keyword ratings in the second list also exist in the first list.