Patent ID: 7577650

Claim:
A method in a computer system for ranking objects, each object having an object type, the method comprising: providing an indication of relationship types between objects having different object types, each relationship type having a popularity propagation factor; calculating the popularity propagation factors for each relationship type by: providing training objects of the different object types along with an indication of relationships between the training objects; for each object type, receiving an expert ranking of training objects of that object; and determining popularity propagation factors for the relationship types so that the determining of the popularity of the training objects using the popularity propagation factors results in a popularity ranking of the training objects that approximates the received expert ranking; providing an indication of objects of different object types along with an indication of the relationships between the objects; and determining the popularity of the objects based on the indicated relationships between objects of the different object types and the calculated popularity propagation factors of the relationship types between objects having different object types wherein the ranking of the objects is based on the determined popularities.