Content recommendation based on collections of entities

A method in a content recommendation computer system for determining and presenting collections of entities and related content, comprising:

• receiving via a user interface control of the content recommendation computer system, user identification of a plurality of named entities;
• creating or modifying an entity collection to include the user identified plurality of named entities, the entity collection presentable on a display of the content recommendation computer system and sharable with other users on separate displays of other computer systems, the entity collection including multiple named entities each referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share semantic characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• and
• presenting via a user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to recommend content, by performing a method comprising:

• receiving via a first user interface control indications of a plurality of named entities:
• creating or modifying an entity collection, the entity collection including indications of multiple named entities including the user identified plurality of named entities, each of the multiple named entities in the entity collection referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• presenting via a second user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection;
• automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection;
• and
• presenting via a third user interface control the automatically recommended one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection.

A computing system configured to recommend content, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a user interface code module stored on the memory that is configured, when executed, to:
• receive via a first user interface control indications of a plurality of named entities:
• create or modify an entity collection, the entity collection including indications of multiple named entities including the user identified plurality of named entities, each of the multiple named entities in the entity collection referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• automatically process the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;
• present via a second user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection;
• automatically process the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection;
• and
• present via a third user interface control the automatically recommended one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection.