Patent ID: 7415465

Claim:
A method of sorting objects includes the steps of: calculating an interest priority value for each object in a collection of objects responsive to at least one attribute of the associated object, wherein each interest priority value indicates a relative importance of the corresponding object to an accessing individual compared to other objects in the collection, wherein the interest priority value of a given object in the collection to the accessing individual is automatically calculated based on similarity of the given object to other objects in the collection previously read by the accessing individual, such that the interest priority value of the given object is automatically decreased as the similarity of the given object to other objects in the collection previously accessed by the accessing individual increases, the number of other individuals in a group to which the accessing individual belongs that have accessed the given object, such that the interest priority value of the given object is automatically decreased as the number of other individuals in the group to which the accessing individual belongs that have read the given object increases, wherein membership in the group to which the accessing individual belongs is automatically determined from a group membership database, and the number of individuals in a group to which the accessing individual does not belong that have accessed the given object, such that the interest priority value of the given object is automatically increased as the number of individuals in the group to which the accessing individual does not belong that have read the given object increases, wherein membership in the group to which the accessing individual does not belong is automatically determined from the group membership database; and storing each interest priority value in a database.