Granted Patent B2

US 8,892,656 · App. 11/117,403 · Granted Nov 18, 2014

Abstract

Claims (50)

1. A method for providing information to an instant messaging (IM) user, the method comprising:

sending, by an information delivery device, information to the user via an instant message based on interest information provided by the user, the interest information not being restricted to a predetermined set of interest information offered by an information provider; wherein

the information is sent to the user based on the interest information and priority information provided by the user, the interest information being in the form of a text string provided by the user, and the priority information being generated based on the context of the text string, and

the priority information is indicative of a relative importance of the interest information to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the text string, defining at least a portion of the interest information, from the user via the instant message and

using at least a portion of the text string as an interest item; and wherein

the sending step sends the information to the user based on the interest item.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the priority information for one or more interest items; and wherein

the sending step sends the information to the user based on the interest items and the priority information.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the priority information is user defined priority information.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining the relevance of an information item to a user based on the interest items and the priority information; and wherein

the sending step sends the information item to the user based on the determined relevance.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein each interest item includes at least one keyword representing the interest item, and the determining step further comprises:

determining a frequency of each keyword in at least one information item; and

determining the relevance based on the determined frequencies of the interest items and the priority information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the priority information associated with an interest item includes a priority value associated with the keyword included in the interest item, and the determining of the relevance further comprises:

forming a user vector where each position in the vector is associated with a keyword and includes a priority value associated with the keyword; and

forming a source vector for an information item where each position within the source vector is associated with a keyword in the user vector and includes a value equal to the determined frequency of the keyword in the information item; and

determining the relevance as a dot product of the user and source vectors.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sending step further comprises:

sending the information items to the user in order of relevance.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sending step sends the information item based on a comparison of the determined relevance and a relevance threshold.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the sending step further comprises:

sending the information item to the user in order of relevance.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining the relevance of an information item to a user based on the interest information; and

sending the information item to the user based on the determined relevance.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving the priority information for the interest information from the user; and wherein

the determining step determines the relevance of the information item based on the interest information and the priority information.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the sending step sends the information item based on a comparison of the determined relevance and a relevance threshold.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

filtering the information item based on the determined relevance; and wherein

the sending step sends the information item to the user if the information item passes the filtering step.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the priority information for the interest information from the user.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interest information is not from a predetermined set of interest information offered by an information provider.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the interest information is at least one word.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the interest information is in a format.

19. A method for obtaining information via instant messaging (IM) services, the method comprising:

sending, by a user client device, interest information, which is not restricted to a predetermined set of interest information, via a first instant message, wherein the interest information is in the form of a text string;

generating, by an instant messaging system, priority information associated with the interest information based on the context of the text string;

generating, by the instant messaging system, information based on the interest information and priority information; and

receiving, at the user client device, the information, via a second instant message, based on the interest information provided via the first instant message; wherein

the priority information is indicative of a relative importance of the interest information to the user.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the context of the text string refers to contextual language of the interest information and the context is also in the form of a text string.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the context of the text string refers to contextual language of the interest information and the context is also in the form of a text string.

Assignments (12)