Iconic representation of linked site characteristics
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsDwip N. Banerjee, Michael A. Paolini, Kumar Ravi, Eduardo N. Spring
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Search results for linked sources of information are associated with one or more predefined symbols or icons that indicate characteristics of the linked sites' contents. Site content ratings services and databases are co-opted to obtain additional site characteristic opinion, review results, and indicators. A search engine creates a set of characteristic factors associated with its index of web sites, and when providing a site reference as a result of a search operation, includes icons and symbols to indicate the characteristics to a user. Further sorting, filtering and searching according to the user's preferences may be performed.
Claims22
A method for indicating characteristics of a plurality of linked sources of information comprising the steps of:
- establishing characteristic factors for each linked source of information according to analysis of said information;
- amending said established characteristic factors by consulting with one or more ratings services;
- providing a plurality of iconic symbols, each iconic symbol representing a characteristic factor;
- and
- responsive to a query, producing a list of said linked sources, said list comprising one or more iconic symbols associated with each reference to said linked sources.
A computer readable medium encoded with software for indicating characteristics of a plurality of linked sources of information, said software when executed by a networked server performing the steps of:
- establishing characteristic factors for each linked source of information according to analysis of said information;
- amending said established characteristic factors by consulting with one or more ratings services;
- providing a plurality of iconic symbols, each iconic symbol representing a characteristic factor;
- and
- responsive to a query, producing a list of said linked sources, said list comprising one or more iconic symbols associated with each reference to said linked sources.
A system for providing icon characteristic representations of content provided by linked servers, said system comprising:
- a first interface to one or more linked servers for retrieving content from said linked servers;
- a second interface to one or more co-opted ratings servers for retrieving ratings regarding content of said linked servers;
- a set of icons, each of which represents a content characteristic;
- and
- a linked server reference list generator adapted to analyze said linked server content via said first interface, to collect ratings from said co-opted ratings server via said second interface, and to produce a linked server reference list having one or more icons associated with each reference in said list.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.