Method and system for ranking objects of different object types

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to calculate weights for relationships between object types, by a method comprising:

• for each object type, receiving an expert ranking of objects of that object type;
• selecting a combination of weights for the relationships;
• determining a popularity for each object based on the selected combination of weights;
• and
• evaluating closeness between popularity rankings based on how the determined popularities correspond to the received expert rankings
• wherein the selecting, determining, and evaluating are repeated until the popularity rankings are within a threshold closeness of expert rankings.

A method in a computer system for identifying a subset of objects with relationships to training objects, the method comprising:

• providing objects of different types with relationships between the objects;
• for each object type, receiving an expert ranking of training objects of that object type;
• selecting a subset of objects that includes the training objects;
• determining the popularities of the objects in the selected subset objects based on the relationships between objects in the selected subset of objects;
• and
• comparing popularity rankings of the training objects derived from the determined popularity of the objects to the expert rankings
• wherein the selecting, determining, and comparing are repeated for subsets that include increasingly more objects until the comparison indicates the popularity rankings are close to the expert rankings.