Patent ID: 8626740

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining the relevance of a page to a topic in a hierarchy comprising: receiving a seed set of nodes, wherein the seed set of nodes includes a first seed node and a second seed node, and wherein the first seed node and the second seed node are both associated with the topic in the hierarchy; determining a plurality of paths of a plurality of surfers that include arrivals at the page; determining the relevance for each of the plurality of surfers as either being relevant or irrelevant based at least in part on the surfers' behaviors corresponding to the plurality of paths; and determining the relevance of the page to the topic in the hierarchy, at least in part by determining a ratio of (1) a measure of paths included in the plurality that include visiting at least one of either the first seed node or the second seed node prior to visiting the page and (2) a measure of the plurality of paths and (3) the relevance of the surfers corresponding to the plurality of paths.