Patent ID: 7685200

Claim:
A method of ranking and suggesting tags implemented by a processor executing computer-executable instructions contained in one or more computer-readable storage media, the method comprising: proposing, by the processor, a set of suggested tags to a user; receiving, by the processor, data identifying a tag selected by a user; and updating, by the processor, said set of suggested tags on the basis of at least whether said selected tag is a member of said set of suggested tags; wherein updating said set of suggested tags on the basis of at least whether said selected tag is a member of said set of suggested tags comprises: determining if said selected tag is a member of said set of suggested tags; if said selected tag is a member of said set, maintaining said set of suggested tags unchanged; and if said selected tag is not a member of said set, updating said set of suggested tags, wherein updating said set of suggested tags comprises: increasing a ranking parameter associated with said selected tag and decreasing a ranking parameter associated with each of said plurality of tags which is neither said selected tag nor a member of said set of suggested tags; and updating said set of suggested tags based on said ranking parameters; wherein the updating said set of suggested tags on the basis of at least whether said selected tag is a member of said set of suggested tags further comprises: updating said set of suggested tags on the basis of whether said selected tag is a member of said set of suggested tags and whether a randomly generated variable exceeds a defined threshold; and wherein the randomly-generated variable is generated when data identifying a tag selected by the user is received, wherein the updating occurs only when the value of the variable exceeds the threshold, wherein tag reinforcement resulting from suggesting tags in the suggestion set is mitigated.