Patent ID: 8478768

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a user-ratings snapshot, wherein the user-ratings snapshot comprises a first group identifier for a first end-user and a first ratings vector for the first end-user, and wherein the ratings vector indicates a rating value for each of a plurality of rated items; associating the first ratings vector to a ratings group identified by the first group identifier; receiving a recommendation request indicating a second group identifier for a second end-user, wherein the second group identifier identifies the ratings group; determining a plurality of ratings vectors associated with the ratings group; and generating, by a computing device, a recommendation based on the plurality of ratings vectors, wherein generating the recommendation involves: determining, from the plurality of ratings vectors, a corresponding plurality of standardized ratings for a rated item of one or more rated items, wherein a standardized rating from a respective end-user is standardized based on a rating average for the respective end-user; computing a standardized average rating for the rated item by computing the average for the plurality of standardized ratings; computing an average rating for the rated item by adding the second end-user's average rating to the standardized average rating; and selecting an item that has the highest average rating among the one or more rated items.