Patent ID: 7024404

Claim:
A computer implemented method to rank a data object, wherein the data object is a member of a plurality of groups, the method comprising: obtaining a group-value for each of the plurality of groups in which the data object is a member, the group-value representing a first relationship between a respective group with a respect to a remainder of the plurality of groups; obtaining an object-value associated with the data object for each group in which the data object is a member, the object-value representing a second relationship between the data object with respect to a remainder of the data objects within each group; obtaining a weighting factor value associated with the data object; combining the group-values and the object-values and the weighting factor in a group-by-group fashion to assign a scalar strength score to the data object, wherein the act of combining the group-values, the object-values and the weighing factor comprising generating a scalar strength as ∑ i = 1 n ⁢  gi  w ×  oi  , where “g” represents a group-value, “o” represents an object value, “w” represents the weighting factor, and “i” represent a value that runs from 1 to “n” where “n” is the number of groups in which the data object is a member; and processing the data object according to the strength score.