Patent ID: 7574422

Claim:
A method for implementing a collaborative-filtering based recommendation system for recommending one or more items among a plurality of items to a current user of a network, an item representing a product, service, webpage, audio, or document, the method comprising: providing computer system hardware for performing: producing a model comprising a plurality of similarity measurements, each similarity measurement reflecting a level of similarity between two items in the plurality of items, wherein the model is produced using ratings of the plurality of items from a plurality of previous network users, the ratings comprising a plurality of different rating types, the model being optimized for maximizing a click-through-rate or conversion rate of the one or more recommended items by using an overall rating equation for determining an overall rating of each item in the plurality of items by each previous network user, wherein the overall rating equation comprises a predetermined weight value for each rating type, the weight values for the plurality of different rating types being predetermined so as to maximize the click-through-rate or conversion rate of the one or more recommended items, a rating type that is more predictive of click-through-rate or conversion rate having a higher predetermined weight value than a rating type that is less predictive of click-through-rate or conversion rate, the overall rating of an item comprising a weighted sum of a plurality of different rating types; receiving a first rating of a first item from the current user; and determining the one or more recommended items by producing a predicated rating for each item in the plurality of items, the predicated rating of an item being produced using the received first rating and a similarity measurement, retrieved from the model, that reflects a level of similarity between the item and the first item.