Search system and methods with integration of user annotations from a trust network

A method for responding to a user query, the method comprising:

• receiving a query submitted by a querying one of a plurality of users;
• building a trust network for the querying user, the trust network having as members a subset of the plurality of users including at least one user other than the querying user explicitly identified by the querying user as a friend, wherein the members of the trust network are members of a selected community of users, the selected community being selected by the querying user;
• providing a trust network interface operable by the plurality of users to identify others of the plurality of users as friends;
• receiving identifications of friends from a plurality of inputting users, including the querying user, via the trust network interface;
• storing a list of identified friends for each inputting user;
• accessing a store of annotations created by the plurality of users, each annotation being associated with a subject one of a plurality of documents belonging to a corpus and with a creating one of the plurality of users, each annotation further including user-specific metadata related to the subject document, wherein the user-specific metadata included in each annotation includes a rating of the subject document;
• identifying one or more hits, wherein each hit is a document in the corpus that is determined to be relevant to the query and wherein each hit further is the subject document of at least one matching annotation, wherein the creating user of each matching annotation is one of the trust network members, and obtaining an annotation rating from each matching annotation, the annotation rating being a rating of the annotation, and computing an average annotation rating based at least in part on a degree of separation of the creating user in the trust network relative to the querying user;
• generating a search report including a listing of the hits, wherein the hits in the listing are placed in an order determined based at least in part on the average annotation ratings of the hits;
• providing in the search report, for a given hit, a control element operable by the querying user to request a display of the user-specific metadata of at least one of the matching annotations;
• and
• transmitting the search report and the user-specific metadata of the at least one matching annotation to the querying user.

A computer system for responding to user queries from a plurality of users, the system comprising:

• an index data store configured to store a searchable representation of a plurality of documents belonging to a corpus;
• a personalization data store configured to store annotations, each annotation being associated with a subject one of the documents in the corpus and with a creating one of the plurality of users, each annotation including user-specific metadata related to the subject document, wherein the user-specific metadata included in each annotation includes a rating;
• and
• a search server communicably coupled to the index data store and the personalization data store,
• the search server including:
• input control logic configured to receive a query from a querying one of the plurality of users;
• search control logic configured to search the index data store to identify one or more hits, wherein each hit is a document in the corpus that is determined to be relevant to the received query;
• trust network control logic configured to:
• (a) build a trust network for the querying user, the trust network having as members a subset of the plurality of users including at least one user other than the querying user explicitly identified by the querying user as a friend, wherein the members of the trust network are members of a selected community of users, the selected community being selected by the querying user;
• (b) provide a trust network interface operable by the plurality of users to identify others of the plurality of users as friends;
• (c) receive identifications of friends from a plurality of inputting users, including the querying user, via the trust network interface;
• and
• (d) store a list of identified friends for each inputting user;
• personalization control logic configured to identify, as an annotated hit, each of the hits that is the subject document of at least one matching annotation, wherein the creating user of each matching annotation is one of the members of the trust network, the personalization control logic being further configured to obtain an annotation rating from each matching annotation, the annotation rating being a rating of the annotation and compute an average annotation rating based at least in part on a degree of separation of the creating user in the trust network relative to the querying user;
• and
• reporting control logic configured to generate search report including a listing of the hits, the search report further including, for each annotated hit, information about at least one of the matching annotations, wherein an order for the listing of the hits is determined based at least in part on the average ratings of the annotated hits, the reporting control logic being further configured to provide in the search report, for a given annotated hit, a control element operable by the querying user to request a display of the user-specific metadata of at least one of the matching annotations, the reporting control logic being further configured to transmit the search report along with the user-specific metadata for display to the querying user.

A computer system for responding to user queries from a plurality of users, the system comprising:

• an index data store configured to store a searchable representation of a plurality of documents belonging to a corpus;
• a personalization data store configured to store annotations, each annotation being associated with a subject one of the documents in the corpus and with a creating one of the plurality of users, each annotation including user-specific metadata related to the subject document, wherein the user-specific metadata included in each annotation includes a rating;
• and
• a search server communicably coupled to the index data store and the personalization data store,
• the search server including:
• input control logic configured to receive a query from a querying one of the plurality of users;
• trust network control logic configured to build a trust network for the querying user, the trust network having as members a subset of the plurality of users including at least one user other than the querying user explicitly identified by the querying user as a friend, wherein the members of the trust network are members of a selected community of users, the selected community being selected by the querying user, the trust network control logic further configured to provide a trust network interface operable by the plurality of users to identify others of the plurality of users as friends the trust network, to receive identifications of friends from a plurality of inputting users, including the querying user, via the trust network interface, and store a list of identified friends for each inputting user;
• search control logic configured to identify, as a hit, one or more of the documents from the corpus, wherein each hit is determined to be relevant to the query and wherein each hit further is the subject document of at least one matching annotation, wherein the creating user of each matching annotation is one of the trust network members and obtaining an annotation rating from each matching annotation, the annotation rating being a rating of the annotation, and computing an average annotation rating based at least in part on a degree of separation of the creating user in the trust network relative to the querying user;
• and
• reporting control logic configured to generate a search report including a listing of the hits, wherein the hits in the listing are placed in an order determined based at least in part on the ratings of the hits, the reporting control logic being further configured to provide in the search report, for a given hit, a control element operable by the querying user to request a display of the user-specific metadata of at least one of the matching annotations, the reporting control logic being further configured to transmit the search report along with the user-specific metadata for display to the user.