Implicit profile for use with recommendation engine and/or question router

A system for creating an implicit profile for use by at least one of a recommendation engine or a question router, comprising:

• an electronic communications network used to access the recommendation engine or question router;
• one or more electronic devices for each user in communication with the electronic communications network;
• a software application running on each of the electronic devices for each user for tracking user behavior on the one or more electronic devices and the electronic communications network used to access the recommendation engine or question router, the software application comprising a crawling or searching application running on each of the electronic devices for each user for searching various computer applications or storage locations on the electronic devices for obtaining user-related information relating to the user behavior;
• one or more information databases for storing the user-related information;
• an analyzer associated with the one or more databases and at least one of the recommendation engine or the question router for:
• receiving and analyzing the user-related information relating to the user behavior;
• extracting and deriving key words from the user-related information for use in characterizing user interests, expertise, and skills;
• and
• assigning key word weightings to each of the key words;
• and
• a profiles database associated with at least one of the recommendation engine or the question router for storing the key words and the key word weightings as the implicit profile;
• wherein:
• the key word weightings are assigned based on at least relevancy calculations of the user-related information and recency of the user-related information;
• the relevancy calculations are based on at least a relation of the user-related information to current key words in the implicit profile;
• and
• at least the implicit profile is used by the recommendation engine or question router to provide expert recommendations or expert information to the user in response to a recommendation request or information request from the user;
• and
• access to the recommendation engine or question router is restricted and requires user login.

An automated method for creating an implicit profile for use by at least one of a recommendation engine or a question router, comprising:

• tracking user behavior on one or more electronic devices of a user and on an electronic communications network used to access the recommendation engine or question router;
• analyzing user-related information relating to the user behavior to extract or derive key words therefrom which are used to characterize user interests, expertise, and skills;
• assigning key word weightings to each of the key words;
• storing the key words and the key word weightings in a profiles database as the implicit profile;
• determining whether an explicit profile has been provided by the user, the explicit profile comprising profile data obtained by direct input from the user;
• in the event that an explicit profile has been provided by the user, merging the implicit profile and the explicit profile to create a merged profile for the user and storing the merged profile in the profiles database;
• wherein:
• the key word weightings are assigned based on at least relevancy calculations of the user-related information and recency of the user-related information;
• in the event the explicit profile is not provided, the implicit profile is used by the recommendation engine or question router to provide recommendations or information to the user in response to a recommendation request or information request from the user;
• and
• in the event the explicit profile is provided, the merged profile is used by the recommendation engine or question router to provide the recommendations or information to the user in response to a recommendation request or information request from the user.

A system for creating an implicit profile for use by at least one of a recommendation engine or a question router, comprising:

• an electronic communications network used to access the recommendation engine or question router;
• one or more electronic devices for each user in communication with the electronic communications network;
• a software application running on each of the electronic devices for each user for tracking user behavior on at least one of the one or more electronic devices and the electronic communications network used to access the recommendation engine or question router;
• one or more information databases for storing user-related information relating to the user behavior;
• an analyzer associated with the one or more databases and at least one of the recommendation engine or the question router for:
• receiving and analyzing the user-related information relating to the user behavior;
• extracting or deriving key words from the user-related information for use in characterizing user interests, expertise, and skills;
• and
• assigning key word weightings to each of the key words;
• and
• a profiles database associated with at least one of the recommendation engine or the question router for storing the key words and the key word weightings as the implicit profile;
• wherein:
• it is determined whether an explicit profile has been provided by the user, the explicit profile comprising profile data obtained by direct input from the user;
• in the event that an explicit profile has been provided by the user, merging the implicit profile and the explicit profile to create a merged profile for the user and storing the merged profile in the profiles database;
• the key word weightings are assigned based on at least relevancy calculations of the user-related information and recency of the user-related information;
• in the event the explicit profile is not provided, the implicit profile is used by the recommendation engine or question router to provide recommendations or information to the user in response to a recommendation request or information request from the user;
• and
• in the event the explicit profile is provided, the merged profile is used by the recommendation engine or question router to provide the recommendations or information to the user in response to a recommendation request or information request from the user.