Patent ID: 8185544

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a server system having one or more processors and memory, respectively accessing historical query information for queries having search results that correspond to first information items and second information items, wherein the first information items are initially classified and the second information items are initially unclassified; accessing classification data of the first information items; generating classification data for the initially unclassified information items based on the classification data of the first information items and the historical query information; storing the generated classification data in the server system; and providing customized services associated with the second information items to a plurality of client devices using the corresponding classification data stored in the server system; wherein generating classification data for an initially unclassified information item includes: identifying a set of queries in the historical query information, wherein at least a subset of the queries each has an associated search result corresponding to the initially unclassified information item; generating classification data for the set of queries based on the classification data of the first information items and the historical query information for the set of queries; and generating classification data for the initially unclassified information item by combining the generated classification data of the subset of the queries, each of which has an associated search result corresponding to the initially unclassified information item; and wherein generating classification data for the set of queries includes: for each of at least a subset of the queries, identifying a set of search results corresponding to the query and a set of the first information items corresponding to the set of search results; weighting the classification data of the identified first information items in accordance with at least one of: their respective predefined information retrieval scores, their corresponding search results' positions in the set of search results, and user interaction with the corresponding search results; and aggregating the weighted classification data of the identified first information items as the query's classification data.