Patent ID: 8140541

Claim:
A method implemented on a computer for maintaining an ordered list of entity identifiers, the method comprising: defining in the computer a score updating routine comprising steps a-h: a. obtaining a scoring event indicator associated with a entity identifier, said scoring event indicator comprising an event score value (“Q”) and an event time indicator (“t EVENT ”) relative to a base time indicator (“t 0 ”); b. obtaining a first temporally-globalized score value (“LogS 1 ”) associated with said entity identifier, wherein LogS 1 is relative to t 0 and a first predetermined exponential scaling period constant (“h 1 ”); c. obtaining a first temporally-localized score value (“S 1 ”) associated with said entity identifier, wherein S 1 is relative to h 1 and a last time value (“t LAST ”), t LAST indicating a number of time units relative to t 0 at which LogS 1 was previously updated; d. computing a first exponential scaling factor in accordance with h 1 and a time offset magnitude corresponding to t EVENT and t LAST ; e. computing an updated first temporally-localized score (“S NEW1 ”) in accordance with said first exponential scaling factor, Q, and S 1 ; and f. determining an updated last time value (“t NEW ”) corresponding to the later of t EVENT and t LAST ; g. computing an updated first temporally-globalized score (“LogS NEW1 ”) in accordance with: i) a log value corresponding to S NEW1 ; and ii) a time-inflation addend corresponding to t NEW and h 1 ; and h. associating LogS NEW1 and t NEW with said entity identifier within a first list of entity identifiers, each member of said first list having: i) an associated last time value relative to t 0 ; and ii) an associated first temporally-globalized score value relative to h 1 and t 0 , and wherein said first list is ordered according to said first temporally-globalized score values respectively associated with each member of said first list; performing by the computer said score updating routine, providing as input to said score updating routine a first scoring event indicator associated with a first entity identifier, said first event indicator comprising a first event score value and a first event time indicator relative to t 0 ; obtaining, at an observation time value (“t OBSERVE ”), a plurality of highest-scoring entity identifiers by retrieving a plurality of entity identifiers from the top of said first list; and for each of said plurality of highest-scoring entity identifiers: obtaining LogS 1 associated with said entity identifier, LogS 1 being relative to t 0 and h 1 ; normalizing LogS 1 relative to t OBSERVE and h 1 (“S OBSERVE ”); and providing S OBSERVE for display to an output device; wherein normalizing LogS 1 relative to t OBSERVE and h 1 comprises performing said score updating routine, providing as input to said score updating routine a normalization scoring event indicator comprising an event score value corresponding to zero and a event time indicator corresponding to t OBSERVE .