Creating attachments and ranking users and attachments for conducting a search directed by a hierarchy-free set of topics

1 . A computer implemented method of directing a search aided by a set of topics, the topics not necessarily having a hierarchy, each topic having at least one attachment to at least one information item of a plurality of information items, the method comprising:

identifying for a first searcher one or more information items of the plurality of information items according to search request information provided by the first searcher, the search request information including at least one of the group consisting of a search phrase and a subset of one or more search topics of the set of topics; and

determining one or more suggested topics from the set of topics, the suggested topics being determined according to the attachments of the suggested topics to the one or more identified information items; and

providing search results to the first searcher, the search results including at least some of the identified information items and at least one of the suggested topics,

wherein the suggested topics include one or more refinement topics determined from the set of topics according to a refinement topic criterion using a refinement selection method,

wherein at least some of the attachments between the topics and the information items are defined by users, a user being a searcher who has provided registration information, and

wherein each attachment between a topic and a information item has an attachment quality measure determined from ratings provided by users, each attachment initially assigned an initial quality measure that may change as more users rate the attachment,

such that the first searcher selecting one of the suggested topics generates a new set of suggested topics, and such that a hierarchy of topics is formed on the fly for a particular search for the first searcher.

2 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the refinement selection method takes into account the attachment quality measures of the attachments between any potential refinement topic and the identified information items.

3 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein a potential refinement topic according to the refinement topic selection method is a topic that has an attachment to at least one of the identified items, and wherein the refinement topics are selected from the potential refinement topics.

4 . A method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the refinement topic selection method includes a refinement topic ranking method to rank potential refinement topics to determine an ordering for the refinement topics.

5 . A method as recited in claim 4 , wherein the refinement topic ranking method determines a refinement measure, that, for each potential refinement topic, determines a refinement measure dependent on the number of identified information items that are in attachments to the potential refinement topic in relation to the number of identified information items.

6 . A method as recited in claim 4 ,

wherein each attachment between a topic and a information item has an attachment quality measure determined from ratings provided by users, each attachment initially assigned an initial quality measure that may change as more users rate the attachment,

wherein the refinement topic ranking method takes into account the attachment quality measures of the attachments between any potential refinement topic and the identified information items, and wherein the refinement topic ranking method determines a refinement measure, that, for each potential refinement topic, is dependent on the sum of the quality measures of the attachments from any identified information item to the potential refinement topic in relation to the sum of the quality measures of the attachments from any identified information item.

7 . A method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure as the sum of overall qualities of all attachments of the potential topic and any of the identified information items as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of the identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is closest to 50% expressed as a percentage, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next closest to 50% expressed as a percentage.

8 . A method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure according to the sum of the squares of:

the sum of overall qualities of all attachments of the potential refinement topic and any of the identified information items as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of the identified information items, and

the sum of overall qualities of all attachments between any of the identified information items to any topic other than the potential refinement topic as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of any identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is the smallest, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next smallest.

9 . A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein each information item is a Web page.

10 . A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

accepting from a user a new attachment between one of the plurality of information items and one of the set of topics.

11 . A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

accepting from a user a new topic to add to the set of topics and a new attachment between one of the plurality of information items and the new topic.

12 . A carrier medium carrying one or more computer-readable code segments to instruct a processor of a processing system to execute a method of directing a search aided by a set of topics, the topics not necessarily having a hierarchy, each topic having at least one attachment to at least one information item of a plurality of information items, the method comprising:

identifying for a first searcher one or more information items of the plurality of information items according to search request information provided by the first searcher, the search request information including at least one of the group consisting of a search phrase and a subset of one or more search topics of the set of topics; and

determining one or more suggested topics from the set of topics, the suggested topics being determined according to the attachments of the suggested topics to the one or more identified information items; and

providing search results to the first searcher, the search results including at least some of the identified information items and at least one of the suggested topics,

wherein the suggested topics include one or more refinement topics determined from the set of topics according to a refinement topic criterion using a refinement selection method,

wherein at least some of the attachments between the topics and the information items are defined by users, a user being a searcher who has provided registration information, and

wherein each attachment between a topic and a information item has an attachment quality measure determined from ratings provided by users, each attachment initially assigned an initial quality measure that may change as more users rate the attachment, such that the first searcher selecting one of the suggested topics generates a new set of suggested topics, and such that a hierarchy of topics is formed on the fly for a particular search for the first searcher.

13 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 12 , wherein the refinement selection method takes into account the attachment quality measures of the attachments between any potential refinement topic and the identified information items.

14 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 12 , wherein a potential refinement topic according to the refinement topic selection method is a topic that has an attachment to at least one of the identified items, and wherein the refinement topics are selected from the potential refinement topics.

15 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 14 , wherein the refinement topic selection method includes a refinement topic ranking method to rank potential refinement topics to determine an ordering for the refinement topics.

16 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 15 , wherein the refinement topic ranking method determines a refinement measure, that, for each potential refinement topic, determines a refinement measure dependent on the number of identified information items that are in attachments to the potential refinement topic in relation to the number of identified information items.

17 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 16 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure as the number of identified information items that are in attachments to the potential refinement topic in relation to the number of identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is closest to 50% expressed as a percentage, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next closest to 50% expressed as a percentage,

whereby a refinement topic whose refinement measure is 50% expressed as a percentage would split the identified information items into two equal-size sets of information items.

18 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 16 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure according to the sum of the squares of:

the number identified information items that are in attachments to the potential refinement topic in relation to the number identified information items, and the number identified information items that are not in attachments to the potential refinement topic in relation to the number relation to the number identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is the smallest, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next smallest.

19 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 15 ,

wherein each attachment between a topic and an information item has an attachment quality measure determined from ratings provided by users, each attachment initially assigned an initial quality measure that may change as more users rate the attachment,

wherein the refinement topic ranking method takes into account the attachment quality measures of the attachments between any potential refinement topic and the identified information items, and wherein the refinement topic ranking method determines a refinement measure, that, for each potential refinement topic, is dependent on the sum of the quality measures of the attachments from any identified information item to the potential refinement topic in relation to the sum of the quality measures of the attachments from any identified information item.

20 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 19 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure as the sum of overall qualities of all attachments of the potential topic and any of the identified information items as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of the identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is closest to 50% expressed as a percentage, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next closest to 50% expressed as a percentage.

21 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 19 , wherein the refinement ranking method includes:

for each potential refinement topic, determining a refinement measure according to the sum of the squares of:

the sum of overall qualities of all attachments of the potential refinement topic and any of the identified information items as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of the identified information items, and

the sum of overall qualities of all attachments between any of the identified information items to any topic other than the potential refinement topic as a proportion of the total quality measures of all attachments of any identified information items,

such that the most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is the smallest, and the next to most highly ranked potential refinement topic is that whose refinement measure is next smallest.

22 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 12 , wherein each information item is a Web page.

23 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 12 , wherein the identifying of one or more information items includes:

accepting the search request information from the first searcher; and

searching the plurality of information items according to the accepted search request information and to one or more search criteria to identify the one or more information items, the search criteria including that the identified information items each have an attachment to each topic in the accepted search request information.

24 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 23 , wherein the method further comprises:

displaying the results of the searching to the first searcher.

25 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 12 , wherein the set of topics include topics defined by one or more users.

26 . A computer implemented method of directing a search aided by a set of topics, the topics not necessarily having a hierarchy, each topic of the set of topics having at least one attachment to at least one item of information of a plurality of information items, the method comprising:

defining the attachments, the defining of each attachment being by at least one user, a user being a searcher who has provided registration information, the defining the attachments including:

accepting from at least one user at least one attachment between at least one topic and at least one information item of the plurality of information items, such that each topic of the set of topics has at least one attachment to at least one information item of the plurality of information items;

identifying for a first searcher one or more information items of the plurality of information items according to search request information provided by the first searcher, search request information including at least one of the group consisting of a search phrase and a search topic from the set of topics;

determining one or more suggested topics from the set of topics, the suggested topics being determined according to the attachments of the suggested topics to the one or more identified information items; and

providing search results to the first searcher, the search results including at least some of the identified information items and at least one of the suggested topics,

wherein the suggested topics include one or more refinement topics determined from the set of topics according to a refinement topic criterion using a refinement selection method,

such that selecting one of the suggested topics generates a new set of suggested topics, such that a hierarchy of topics is formed on the fly for a particular search.

27 . A method as recited in claim 26 , wherein different users define different attachments between the same topic and the same information item, such that multiple attachments defined by different users can exist between a particular topic and a particular information item.

28 . A method as recited in claim 27 , wherein each attachment between a particular topic and a particular URL has an attachment quality measure determined from the number of different attachments provided by different users between the particular topic and the particular URL.

29 . A method as recited in claim 27 , wherein each attachment between a particular topic and a particular URL has an attachment quality measure determined from ratings provided by different users, each attachment initially assigned an initial quality measure that may change as more users rate the attachment.

30 . A method as recited in claim 29 , wherein a particular user rating a particular attachment rates the attachment according to a binary-valued rating having a first rating (“positive”) and a second dating (“negative”) less favorable than the first rating.

31 . A computer readable carrier medium carrying a data structure comprising:

a topic data structure configured to store a set of topics, the topic data structure having an element for each topic, the topic data structure further configured such that no topic hierarchy need exist for the set of topics;

a user data structure configured to store a set of users, a user being a searcher who has provided registration information, the user data structure having an element for each topic, each user data structure element including the registration information for the user;

an attachment data structure configured to store a set of attachments, each attachment being between one of the topics of the set of topics and an information item of a set of information items, the attachment data structure having an element for each attachment,

wherein each attachment is defined by a user, such that each attachment data structure element includes a reference to a user; and

the data structure configured for use by a computer implemented method of directing a search aided by the set of topics, the topics not necessarily having a hierarchy, the method comprising:

identifying for a first searcher one or more information items of the plurality of information items according to search request information provided by the first searcher, the search request information including at least one of the group consisting of a search phrase and a subset of one or more search topics of the set of topics;

determining one or more suggested topics from the set of topics, the suggested topics being determined according to the attachments of the suggested topics to the one or more identified information items; and

providing search results to the first searcher, the search results including at least some of the identified information items and at least one of the suggested topics,

wherein the suggested topics include one or more refinement topics determined from the set of topics according to a refinement topic criterion using a refinement selection method, and

such that the first searcher selecting one of the suggested topics generates a new set of suggested topics, such that a hierarchy of topics is formed on the fly for a particular search for the first searcher.

32 . A carrier medium as recited in claim 31 , wherein the data structure is in the form of a set of tables of a relational database, and wherein each of the topic data structure, the user data structure, and attachment data structure is in the form of a table of the relational database.

33 . A method comprising:

defining one or more attachments between each topic of a set of topics, the topics not necessarily having a hierarchy, and corresponding information items of a set of information items, the defining of each attachment being by at least one user, a user being a searcher who has provided registration information, the defining the attachments including:

accepting from at least one user at least one attachment between at least one topic and at least one information item of the plurality of information items,

such that each topic of the set of topics has at least one attachment to at least one information item of the plurality of information items,

wherein the topics are for searching by a particular searcher for one or more information items of the plurality of information items according to search request information provided by the particular searcher, search request information including at least one topic of the set of topics, the searching including identifying at least one or more information items that have attachments of the at least one topic of the search request information.

34 . A method as recited in claim 33 , further comprising:

accepting from a user a new topic to add to the set of topics; and

adding the accepted new topic to the set of topics.

35 . A method as recited in claim 33 , wherein an initial plurality of topics is pre-defined.

36 . A method as recited in claim 33 , wherein the result of a first user defining a first attachment between a first topic and a first information item and a second user defining an attachment between the first topic and the first information item is that at least two attachments exist between the first topic and the first information item.

37 . A method as recited in claim 36 , further comprising:

accepting from a user a rating for a particular attachment between a particular topic of the set of topics and a particular information item, such that a plurality of attachments between the particular topic and the particular information item can have different ratings.

38 . A method as recited in claim 37 , wherein the rating has two values, a first value (“positive”) and a second value (“negative”) less favorable than the first value.

39 . A method as recited in claim 37 , wherein the rating has more than two values.

40 . A method as recited in claim 37 , further including determining an overall attachment quality for the attachment or attachments between the particular topic and the particular information item based on the ratings between the particular topic and the particular information item of the attachments by users.