Patent ID: 8280861

Claim:
A system comprising: one or more computers having one or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are executed by the one or more computers to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: generating a first hash value based on first metadata associated with a first item of electronic content using a hashing algorithm; generating a second hash value based on second metadata associated with a second item of electronic content using the hashing algorithm; comparing the first hash value with the second hash value; determining, based on comparing the first hash value with the second hash value, that the first hash value matches the second hash value, then comparing the first metadata associated with the first item of electronic content to the second metadata associated with the second item of electronic content; generating a score based on the comparison of the first metadata with the second metadata; establishing that the first and second items of electronic content comprise potentially duplicate content if the score is greater than a predetermined threshold value; upon establishing that the first and second items of electronic content comprise potentially duplicate content, providing data for displaying a representation of the first item of electronic content adjacent to a representation of the second item of electronic content, and for identifying the second item of electronic content as a potential duplicate; providing data for displaying a control for a user to confirm whether the first and second items of electronic content actually comprise duplicate content; receiving information, from the user, confirming whether the first and second items of electronic content actually comprise duplicate content; and adjusting the predetermined threshold value based on the received information, wherein the adjusting the predetermined threshold value comprises increasing the predetermined threshold value when the user indicates that the first and second items of electronic content do not comprise duplicate content, or decreasing the predetermined threshold value when the user indicates that the first and second items of electronic content comprise duplicate content.