Patent ID: 7457768

Claim:
A computer readable medium including computer readable code that facilitates collaborative filtering when implemented on a computer comprising: a personality type generator that analyzes known attributes relating to a user and calculates probabilities that the user has a personality type substantially similar to personality types of a plurality of disparate users, wherein the personality types of the plurality of disparate users are based at least in part upon attributes related to such users; an attribute value predictor that predicts unknown attributes relating to the user based at least in part upon the calculated probability for each personality type, the attribute value predictor determining a set of values for each unknown attribute; a query cost-benefit analyzer that employs the determined set of values to minimize the number of explicit queries to the user while maximizing accuracy of a calculated personality probability, the query cost-benefit analyzer weighs a cost of disturbing the user against a benefit of providing the user with the recommendation prior to providing the user with the recommendations; and a database manager that employs the determined set of values to determine an entry of a database to prune such that the entry when removed has minimal effect on accuracy of prediction.