Patent ID: 8732104

Claim:
A method of determining a predicted rating, comprising: receiving a plurality of data sets, wherein each data set comprises a user identifier, an item identifier, and a rating, wherein for each data set each user identifier identifies a user of a plurality of users, each item identifier identifies an item of a plurality of items, and each rating is a rating by the user of the plurality of users identified by the user identifier in the data set and of the item of the plurality of items identified by the item identifier in the data set; identifying, via a suitably programmed computer, an identified pair of items of the plurality of items for which a rating for one item in the identified pair of items for any user of the plurality of users can be used to predict a predicted rating for the other item in the identified pair of items for the same user of the plurality of users, based on an analysis of ratings including ratings for the one item in the identified pair of items and ratings for the other item in the identified pair of items, wherein the ratings for the one item in the identified pair of items and the ratings for the other item in the identified pair of items include ratings from users of the plurality of users having ratings for only one item in the identified pair of items; and determining the predicted rating for a given item of the identified pair of items for a given user of the plurality of users based on a given rating of the other item of the identified pair of items for the given user of the plurality of users.