Patent ID: 8209338

Claim:
A method allowing users of an information system to identify other users having similar interests comprising: storing keyword lists representing user interests in a hierarchical database containing a plurality of stored keyword lists, the database comprising nodes corresponding to the keywords of the stored keyword lists; adding a new keyword list to the hierarchical database by inserting the new keyword list at a point of the new keyword list's closest match to an existing keyword list by: comparing a first keyword of the new list to the nodes at a first level of the database to determine whether the first keyword is close enough to an existing node at the first level for the new list to be placed within the existing node; if the first keyword is close enough to fall within an existing node at the first level, repeating the comparison for the next keyword to the nodes at a level under the existing node; repeating the comparison for each subsequent keyword at each subsequent level until a keyword is not close enough to be placed within an existing node; and when a keyword is not close enough to fall within an existing node at the level at which it is compared, creating a new node corresponding to the keyword under the last node for which a keyword was close enough to be placed within the node.