Patent ID: 8745074

Claim:
A computer implemented method of evaluating information via a computer network, comprising: identifying, by a data processing system, a first content group comprising one or more content items, each content item of the first content group having an interest category vector indicating at least one user interest category of users exposed to the content item; evaluating, by the data processing system, the interest category vector of a content item of the first content group in conjunction with an interest category vector of a content item of each of a plurality of other content groups to calculate a plurality of first distance metrics, each first distance metric indicating a similarity between the first content group and one of the other content groups; generating, by the data processing system, a first nearest neighbor list of the first content group, the first nearest neighbor list comprising a ranking of the other content groups based on the calculated first distance metrics; comparing the first nearest neighbor list of the first content group with a second nearest neighbor list of a second content group to calculate a second distance metric indicating a similarity between the first nearest neighbor list and the second nearest neighbor list; and based on the calculated second distance metric, combining the first content group with the second content group in a cluster that replaces the first and second content groups.