Patent ID: 8407230

Claim:
A method for identifying similar media objects comprising: accessing, using one or more computing devices, a datastore of user ratings of media objects including a seed media object, a first media object and a second media object, individual user ratings including a rating value associated with a user identifier and a media object, individual user ratings corresponding to a user and based at least in part on input supplied by the user; receiving, using the one or more computing devices, a user-anonymous request for a media object that is similar to the seed media object; and identifying, using the one or more computing devices, one of a first media object and a second media object as more similar to the seed media object using the user ratings, the identifying comprising: identifying, using the one or more computing devices, a seed set of user ratings associated with the seed media object, a first set of user ratings associated with the first media object and a second set of user ratings associated with the second media object; for respective user identifiers appearing in user ratings in both the seed set and the first set, generating, using the one or more computing devices, a first object user similarity value based at least in part on the rating values of the user ratings of the seed media object and the first media object; calculating, using the one or more computing devices, a first media object total similarity value based on the generated first object user similarity values; for respective user identifiers appearing in user ratings in both the seed set and the second set, generating, using the one or more computing devices, a second object user similarity value based on the rating values of the user ratings of the seed media object and the second media object; calculating, using the one or more computing devices, a second media object total similarity value based at least in part on the generated second object user similarity values; comparing, using the one or more computing devices, the first media object total similarity value with the second media object total similarity value, wherein the comparing comprises characterizing the first media object and the second media object individually as vectors having a plurality of dimensions and magnitudes, wherein individual vectors of the first and second media objects comprise a plurality of magnitudes individually associated with a different dimension in multi-dimensional space, wherein individual dimensions correspond to a respective user identifier and individual magnitudes correspond to a rating value assigned to a respective media object by a user corresponding to the user identifier.