Patent ID: 7376643

Claim:
A method in a computer system for generating measurements of similarity between objects, each object having one of a plurality of types, a type having an intra-type relationship, a pair of types having an inter-type relationship, the method comprising: for each type, when the similarity of that type is based on an intra-type relationship, providing an intra-type similarity function for each such relationship that measures the similarity between objects of that type; when the similarity of that type is based on an inter-type relationship, providing an inter-type similarity function for each such relationship that measures the similarity between objects of that type based on the similarity of objects of another type, wherein the inter-type similarity function generates a similarity for first and second objects of that type that is a weighted average of the similarity between pairs of objects of the other type with one object of the pair having a relationship with the first object and the other object of the pair having a relationship with the second object; and providing a similarity function that measures the similarity between objects of that type based on any intra-type similarity functions and any inter-type similarity functions for that type; and for each relationship, providing data that defines that relationship between objects associated with that relationship; simultaneously solving the provided similarity functions based on the relationships defined by the provided data; and storing similarities based on simultaneous solving of the provided similarity functions.