Attribute-based-categorical-popularity-assignment apparatus and method

A system for ranking elements within a category by attribute popularity comprising:

• a categorized data store having categorized data structured to indicate that multiple elements, each with an attribute of interest, pertain to a category;
• an additional data store having additional data collected from an external source, the additional data recording words employed by users of a service provided by the external source;
• a popularity-score assignment module operable to communicate with the categorized data store and the additional data store to assign a popularity score to the attribute of interest of each of the multiple elements;
• a key-word module operable to assign a key-word set to the attribute of interest of individual elements of the multiple elements, a key-word set suggesting inclusion of a related element in the category;
• a popularity extrapolation module operable to apply at least one key word from a key-word set to the recorded words of the additional data to determine a number of qualifying indicators of references to the attribute of interest of an element in a context directed to the category for each of the multiple elements, the references indicative of a popularity of an attribute of interest, so that the popularity-score assignment module may assign popularity scores.

A method for ranking products in a product category by brand popularity comprising:

• selecting a particular product category from categorized data;
• provisioning one of multiple key-word sets to a brand for each of multiple brands with corresponding products in the particular product category, a key-word set comprising at least one key word indicating that a brand to which it is provisioned has at least one product in the particular product category;
• applying at least one key-word from a key-word set for each of the multiple brands to additional data;
• retrieving one of multiple numbers of qualifying indicators from the additional data for each of the multiple brands, a number of qualifying indicators quantifying key-word based references to a brand in terms of a product of the brand in the particular product category, the qualifying indicators indicative of relative popularities of the multiple brands;
• assigning a reference based popularity score to each of the multiple brands;
• and
• ranking multiple products in the particular product category according to popularity scores of each brand of the multiple brands.