Patent ID: 7734630

Claim:
A data processing apparatus for recommending content to a user; comprising: a memory for storing favorite content lists created by respective users including a first user and received from a plurality of user terminal devices including the user terminal device corresponding to the first user, wherein each of the favorite content lists includes at least one content item; an assigning means for assigning points to the at least one content item in the favorite content list of each of the users other than the first user, wherein the assigning includes, for the favorite content list of each of the users other than the first user, dividing a same predetermined point value by a total number of content items listed in the corresponding favorite content list and assigning a quotient resulting from the dividing as an assigned point value to each of the content items in the corresponding favorite content list; a generating means for generating a content list specific to the first user indicating common content items by comparing the content items listed in the stored favorite content lists; a ranking means for ranking content items in the first user's generated content list based on the points assigned to the content items in the respective favorite content lists of users other than the first user; and recommendation generating means for generating a recommendation content list specific to the first user based on the ranked content items and not including the content items of the first user's favorite content list.