U.S. patent application number 15/292048 was filed with the patent office on 2017-02-02 for forum search with time-dependent activity weighting.
The applicant listed for this patent is Gary Stephen SHUSTER. Invention is credited to Gary Stephen SHUSTER.
Application Number | 20170034032 15/292048 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 41401210 |
Filed Date | 2017-02-02 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170034032 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
SHUSTER; Gary Stephen |
February 2, 2017 |
FORUM SEARCH WITH TIME-DEPENDENT ACTIVITY WEIGHTING
Abstract
A search engine index measures and tracks one or more numeric
indicators of activity at different times, including a most current
time, in on-line forums and social networking sites. Such
indicators may include, for example, a current volume per unit time
of messages or data posted to the site, a moving average of such
volume, a moving average of current participants over time, a count
of current participants, other indication of site activity, or any
combination of such indicators. The search engine is responsive to
queries seeking forums ranked by activity for a defined time
period, including a most current time. The search engine
prioritizes search results to identify the specified sites or
locations in order of activity (among other possible criteria)
relative to a defined time.
Inventors: |
SHUSTER; Gary Stephen;
(Fresno, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
SHUSTER; Gary Stephen |
Fresno |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
41401210 |
Appl. No.: |
15/292048 |
Filed: |
October 12, 2016 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14680008 |
Apr 6, 2015 |
9473377 |
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15292048 |
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12479171 |
Jun 5, 2009 |
9002820 |
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14680008 |
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61059210 |
Jun 5, 2008 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/9537 20190101;
H04L 67/42 20130101; G06F 16/951 20190101; H04L 43/10 20130101;
H04L 67/02 20130101; H04L 67/22 20130101; G06F 16/9535
20190101 |
International
Class: |
H04L 12/26 20060101
H04L012/26; H04L 29/08 20060101 H04L029/08; H04L 29/06 20060101
H04L029/06; G06F 17/30 20060101 G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. A system comprising: a server comprising a computer processor
and memory, configured for serving a virtual reality process to a
plurality of clients; the server modeling a virtual physical
environment through which at least one client of the plurality of
clients may navigate via an associated avatar; the virtual reality
process including locations that each serve as a forum within which
the at least one client's associated avatar may participate; the
server measuring a level of activity within at least one forum; and
the server providing the level of activity within the at least one
forum to the at least one client of the plurality of clients.
2. The system of claim 1, where movement of an avatar associated
with the at least one of the plurality of clients to one of the
forums is based at least in part on the level of activity within
that forum.
3. The system of claim 2, where the movement of the avatar is to a
forum where a desired level of activity is taking place.
4. The system of claim 1, where the level of activity is a number
of clients requesting access within a designated limited time
period.
5. The system of claim 1, where the level of activity is a number
of clients with designated characteristics requesting access within
a designated limited time period.
6. The system of claim 1, where the level of activity is a rate at
which participant contribution data is being received for posting
within a designated time period.
7. The system of claim 1, where the level of activity is a number
of posts per minute.
8. The system of claim 1, where the level of activity is the
quality of data received within a designated time period.
9. The system of claim 1, where the server provides the level of
activity over a prescribed period.
10. The system of claim 9, where the prescribed period is
daily.
11. The system of claim 1, where the server records an activity
index for the at least one forum over time.
12. The system of claim 11, where index data associated with the
activity index is plotted against time to reveal one or more
activity patterns in the at least one forum.
13. A system comprising: a server comprising a computer processor
and memory, configured for serving a virtual reality process to a
plurality of clients; the server modeling a virtual physical
environment through which at least one client of the plurality of
clients may navigate via an associated avatar; the virtual reality
process including locations that each serve as a forum within which
the at least one client's associated avatar may participate; the
server offering a forum search function accessible to the at least
one client; the server receiving a search request; the server
returning data comprising forums in response to the search request
based, at least in part, on a number of clients active in at least
one of the forums.
14. The system of claim 13, whether the number of clients active is
based, at least in part, on a rate at which the at least one client
posts to the at least one of the forums.
15. The system of claim 13, where the virtual physical environment
comprises a modeled city street and one or more modeled
buildings.
16. The system of claim 15, where the one of the one or more
modeled buildings is a singles bar.
17. The system of claim 16, where the at least one of the plurality
of clients may enter the singles bar and automatically participate
in a chat session with other clients.
18. A system comprising: a server comprising a computer processor
and memory, configured for serving a virtual reality process to a
plurality of clients; the server modeling a virtual physical
environment through which at least one client of the plurality of
clients may navigate via an associated avatar; the virtual reality
process including locations that each serve as a forum within which
the at least one client's associated avatar may participate; the
server measuring a population of each one of virtual buildings; the
server offering a search function accessible to the at least one
client of the plurality of clients; the server receiving a search
request; the server returning data comprising one or more virtual
buildings in response to the search request based, at least in
part, on a number of clients present in at least one of the virtual
buildings.
19. The system of claim 18, where a first building is a singles'
bar and the search request is the number of clients in the singles
bar.
20. The system of claim 18 where the at least one client of the
plurality of clients may enter the singles bar and automatically
participate in a chat session with other clients.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This patent application is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 14/680,008, filed Apr. 6, 2015, now U.S. Pat.
No. 9,473,377, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.
12/479,171, filed Jun. 5, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,002,820, which
claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) to U.S.
provisional application Ser. No. 61/059,210, filed Jun. 5, 2008,
which applications are incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Field
[0003] The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for
locating information contained in disparate online forums.
[0004] 2. Description of Related Art
[0005] Online forums are an increasingly popular tool for
exchanging current news and opinions, and for social networking. As
used herein, an "online forum" is a computer-implemented system or
object that receives data input transmitted from multiple clients
operated by individual users, aggregates the incoming data into a
forum data object having an organized display format showing the
input data optionally associated with an identifier for the
contributing user, and posts or transmits the forum data object in
response to newly received incoming data so that the forum data
object is accessible to the multiple participating clients and is
continually updated with new submissions. In the forum context, to
"post" means to publish in the forum. Examples of online forums
include computer bulletin boards, online chat rooms, and web blogs
such as are implemented using Internet technology and IP-addressed
forum data objects. Further examples include proprietary technology
systems that utilize dedicated client software in combination with
a network host to create a social networking environment as a form
of on-line game, such as, for example, SECOND LIFE.TM.,
UTHERVERSE.TM., XBOX LIVE.TM. and others.
[0006] When selecting an online forum to participate in out of many
possible forums of interest, users may employ a search engine to
identify forums that match specified criteria. However, existing
search engine technology cannot directly identify forums in which
activity is currently highest, or in which activity is highest at
particular times of day in a repeated pattern. Such activity
information may be of interest to many users, for use in selecting
forums to participate in, for use in scheduling activities to take
place in forums, or both. However, present search engines do not
capture or display activity information for use in comparing and
selecting forums of interest. Such information is not readily
apparent to existing search methods, despite its potential value.
Technology to bridge this gap would be desirable.
SUMMARY
[0007] Time-dependent activity indicia for online forum activity
may be collected using an indexing server in cooperation with one
or more (typically many) servers hosting various online forums. The
online forum hosts are configured to receive and publish
time-stamped messages or other content from numerous clients. These
contributions may be may be organized by message thread or topic.
Characteristically for forums, the time of contribution is an
important organizing parameter. In many online forums, the
client-contributed content is organized primarily or exclusively
chronologically in the forum publications. These publications,
comprising web pages or similar objects, comprise the online forums
or forum objects that are of interest to the end user. Activity in
such forums may be defined in various different ways, but may
generally be understood as a quantity of user-contributed content
to the forum, per unit time. A time-dependent activity indicia
refers to a measurement of activity that varies as a function of
time.
[0008] The indexing server monitors activity in target forums.
Target forums are selected using any suitable filter, for example
average page views per day or frequency with which a forum is
located using a topical search. The indexing server may use any of
various methods, or a combination of such methods, to monitor and
obtain relevant activity indicia for each forum. For example, the
indexing server may analyze forum objects using a web crawler or
similar technique, or receive activity reports from the forum host
servers. The indexing server may categorize activity indicia into
designated categories, for example, page views per unit time,
submissions per unit time, words per unit time, and store in a
database or other data structure in associate with an identifier
for the each respective forum to which the activity indicia
relates. The indexing server may also compute parameters such as
running averages, cumulative totals, and cyclical maxima and minima
for the activity data, which is also stored in the database.
[0009] The indexing server maintains the activity indicia database
in a current state and provides the indicia in response to requests
from search engines. The search engine may then use the activity to
organize or filter search results. For example, the search engine
may locate a list of forums relevant to a query search topic,
request activity indicia for the listed forums from the indexing
server, then rank the listed forums in order of current activity or
other desired activity indicia. An end user will thereby be able to
determine which forums have the greatest activity at designated
times.
[0010] A more complete understanding of systems and methods for
collecting and using time-dependent activity indicia of online
forum activity will be afforded to those skilled in the art, as
well as a realization of additional advantages and objects thereof,
by a consideration of the following detailed description. Reference
will be made to the appended sheets of drawings which will first be
described briefly.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an example of a networked
computer system in which time-dependent activity indicia for use in
forum selection may be implemented.
[0012] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a
system for time-dependent activity indicia for use in forum
searching or selection.
[0013] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an alternative system for
providing multiple forums to a plurality of clients via a
proprietary interface.
[0014] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a partial modeled
physical environment such as may be used in a virtual reality
online forum.
[0015] FIG. 5 is a chart showing cyclical patterns in online
activity as may be measured for online forums.
[0016] FIG. 6 is a simplified screenshot showing an example such as
may be used to present forum search results ranked by order of
forum activity measures.
[0017] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for
providing time-dependent activity indicia for use in forum
searching or selection.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] The present technology provides a computer-implemented
method or system for providing time-dependent activity indicia for
use in forum searching or selection, that overcomes the
deficiencies of the prior art. The method or system may be
implemented in a networked computing environment 100, as shown in
FIG. 1. An exemplary networked environment may comprise, for
example, a plurality of clients 102, 104 (two of many shown) in
communication via wide area network components such as Internet 106
with at least one indexing server 108. Each client 102, 104 may
comprise a processor, a input device, for example, a keyboard,
pointing device, touchscreen, or microphone configured to receive
input from a human user and to translate the input usable signals
for the processor, and an output device, for example a display
screen or speaker, to provide human-perceptible output in response
to processor control. The indexing server 108 may operate one or
more application to perform forum activity indexing and data output
as described herein. The application may be encoded on a
computer-readable media (not shown) operably associated with the
server 108. Environment 100 may further include other servers,
including but not limited to content servers, forum servers, and
search engine servers (not shown), which may cooperate with the
indexing server 108 to receive input from the client, develop
indexing information, and output indexing information to clients
102, 104. Various arrangements and uses of such services will
become apparent to one of ordinary skill in view of the present
disclosure.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows one exemplary arrangement 200 including a
plurality of independent clients 202, 204, 206 communicating with a
search/indexing server 208 and two independent forum servers 210,
212 via a wide area network 214. In the illustrated example, the
search/indexing server is configured to perform forum searching and
indexing, receiving search requests directly from clients 202, 204,
206, and providing activity indexing and search results directly to
the clients. In an alternative embodiment, the indexing and
searching functions may be distributed among two or more
cooperating servers. For example, a search engine ("first") server
may provide a search engine interface and handle search requests
from the independent clients. An indexing ("second") server may
perform activity indexing and provide activity indexing data to the
first server in response to a data request. The first server may
incorporate the index data in a search results list provided to a
requesting client.
[0020] Forum servers 210, 212 (two of many shown) exemplify hosts
for various independent Internet-compatible forums, for example,
computer bulletin boards, web blogs, user comment pages,
newsgroups, chat rooms, and so forth. Each host may receive
participant contribution data from the remote clients 202.
"Participant contribution data" as used herein refers to text,
image, video, and/or audio data originating from a client
participating in a online forum and designated for publication as a
user posting/contribution in that forum. The forum host organizes
the incoming participant contribution data according to the forum's
organizing principles and publishes a forum web page 214, 216 or
other object that provides access to the participant contribution
data to forum members or participants. Optionally, the forum host
filters, edits, or removes defective or objectionable participant
contribution data before or after it is published in the forum. The
forum page or other published object may be refreshed in response
to participant contribution data as it is newly received by each
respective forum server, at periodic intervals, in response to
requests for the forum data, or any combination of the foregoing.
In the alternative, the participant contribution data may be placed
in a forum database as it is received and processed by the forum
server, where it becomes available via a database interface page.
Other suitable methods of hosting an online forum may also be
known. Whatever method is used, the hosted forum objects (for
example, forum pages 214, 216) have the characteristic of
continuously changing in response to the addition of new
participant contribution data. The more active the forum, the more
quickly the forum object may change.
[0021] Rapidly changing data objects present a challenge to
traditional search engines in that frequent refreshing of the
search index is required to maintain search accuracy. This may be
dealt with in various ways, such as by identifying data objects
that change frequent as candidates for being considered forum
objects, and scheduling known forum objects for more frequent
indexing. Such solutions, however, are merely ancillary to the
objectives and methods of the present disclosure. A different
problem is faced by a user that seeks to optimize a forum selection
process, or the timing of a forum event. One such problem is to
identify, out of any given set of forums, which forums have the
greatest relative activity. Another such problem is to determine,
again for any given selection of forums, what relative level of
activity may be expected in each forum at a particular time, or
when a desired relative level of activity is most likely to occur.
For example, a prospective forum participant may desire to select,
out of a group of forums identified with the topic of "U.S.
National Politics," that forum or forums with the highest current
level of activity. For further example, a forum participant may
desire to know what time of day a certain designated forum has
historically experienced the greatest average level of
activity.
[0022] Forum "activity" as used herein should be distinguished from
inherent external characteristics of the forum data object, such as
the most recent refresh time or a number of refreshes in a
particular time period. Activity does not refer to such
characteristics that are mere consequences of forum management by a
forum host. Instead, forum activity refers to any one or
combination of the following factors (a) the number of clients (or
of clients having designated characteristics) requesting access to
or viewing the forum object at a particular instant of time or
within a designated limited time period (for example, the most
recent second, minute, hour, day, etc.); (b) the rate at which
participant contribution data (however measured) is being received
for posting or is posted in a forum, again within any useful
designated time period, for example, new posts per minute or words
per minute; (c) a rate of change of (a) or (b); or (d) a quality of
data received per unit time, for example, the number of 5-star
rated postings received in the last 24 hours, wherein star ratings
are published by the forum in response to user feedback.
[0023] As defined above, activity constitutes a machine-measurable
state directly associated with the computer-implemented forum
object, attributable to data submissions from participating
clients. Generally, forum activity may be most easily measured
directly at each forum host, for example at hosts 210, 212,
although the technology is not limited to this. Each forum host may
execute, as part of its hosting process, an application or object
that measures and records forum activity on a time-indexed basis.
In the alternative, or in addition, the forum page or other object
may be periodically processed by an application that is external to
the forum host to measure forum activity that is discernable from
information published in the forum object. It should be appreciated
that "forum object" may include multiple linked Web pages or
similar linked network objects that as a group make up a discrete
forum.
[0024] Search/indexing server 208 may therefore receive forum
activity data from various forum servers or hosts by any suitable
method. For example, server 208 may maintain a database that is
updated in response to receiving periodic data updates from remote
forum hosts, according to a predetermined data sharing arrangement.
In the alternative, or in addition, the server 208 may query one or
more particular forum hosts for an update of forum activity data at
periodic intervals, or in response to a search request from a
system client. In yet another alternative or addition, the server
208 may access the forum data object (for example, pages 214, 216)
and measure the forum activity such as can be discerned from the
object itself Some types of activity, for example the number of
clients requesting access to the object, may not be discernable
from inspection of the published forum object. Other activity, for
example the number of postings in a defined time period, may be
discernable from such inspection.
[0025] The search indexing server 208 may process activity data to
develop one or more numerical indicators of forum activity level.
The server 208 may store the indicators in a database or data table
in association with an identifier for each forum and each time, or
time period, to which the indicators pertain. In the alternative,
or in addition, server 208 may calculate relevant activity
indicators on the fly, in response to a data request. Server 208
may provide requested activity indicators in response to
requirements from an internal search query or remote client
request. For example, server 208 may receive a query from client
202, requesting "top five most currently active forums concerning
baseball." In response, server 208 may first perform a search to
identify all forums concerning baseball. Then, the server may query
an activity index database to determine a most current activity
indicator for each baseball forum. The server may then rank all the
baseball forums in order of the returned activity indicator, and
return a list of the top five most active baseball forums, rank
ordered by activity indicator, to the requesting client 202.
[0026] FIG. 3 shows an alternative system 300 for providing
multiple forums to a plurality of clients 302 (one of many shown)
via a proprietary interface, for example, in a massively multi-user
online virtual reality system for social networking or gaming.
System 300 may also include a virtual reality host 304 which may
communicate with the plurality of clients via a wide area network
306. Host 304 may provide state data regarding a multiuser (i.e.,
process in which multiple clients participate simultaneously) to
each participating client, for example client 302. Each client may
cooperatively operate a host interface process 308, a modeling
process 310, and a user interface process 312 within a virtual
reality client application 314. The client application 314 may
receive user input data and provide it to the host process 304. The
host 304 aggregates multiple client input data, which may include
participant contribution data for any forums hosted as part of, or
associated with, the virtual reality process, to continuously
provide state data for a modeled virtual reality process and
associated forums. The host may provide the state data to the
client VR process 314, which provides an output of the modeled
environment as it changes through time and forum data, for example
providing a visual display on monitor 316.
[0027] The virtual reality host may model a virtual physical
environment through which each client may navigate via an
associated avatar. FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a partial
modeled physical environment 400, in plan view. The exemplary model
includes a modeled city street 402, along which are placed various
modeled building 404, 406, 408, 410 and 412. Any number of avatars,
for example avatars 412, 414, may be modeled in response to client
input or system input within the modeled environment 400. One of
the functions of the virtual reality environment is to provide an
intuitive and visually stimulating navigational interface for all
sorts of online activities, including participation in various
forums. For example, environment 400 may include a first building
408 given the appearance of a singles' bar and intended to attract
clients interested in a forum for meeting like-minded singles. To
participate in the singles forum, the client may move a
client-controlled avatar inside the "singles bar" 408. Once
"inside" the bar 408, the client may automatically participate in a
chat session with other clients that also have avatars within the
"bar" or be given an option to do so. Other modeled buildings may
provide access of different sorts of forums.
[0028] Despite a different user interface and architecture, the
virtual reality environment 400 may host essentially the same types
of forums as are executed in World Wide Web environments. One
difference is that, currently, no uniform standard exists for
hosting virtual reality processes. Therefore, all VR activity,
including forum activity, is generally controlled through a unified
proprietary host process. As such, searching for forums, indexing
forum activity, and reporting on forum activity as described for
World Wide Web processes may occur as part of the host process,
instead of via cooperation between external host, search, and
indexing servers. However, user of a VR process does not preclude
external forum hosting or searching, as computing bridges may be
built to link a proprietary VR process with external forum
processes, search engines, or other services. FIGS. 3 and 4 are
merely intended to illustrate how the inventive concepts herein may
be applied in contexts other than the World Wide Web.
[0029] For example, within a virtual reality process with a large
number of subscribing clients it is not unthinkable that dozens or
even hundreds of alternative forums may be available at any given
time. Navigating to numerous ones of these forums to find one in
which suitable activity is occurring, and at which times, may be
tedious for subscribing clients. Therefore, a VR host may offer a
forum search function by which a client may search available forums
to quickly locate one of more forums in which the desired level of
activity is occurring, or reporting on one or more activity
measures over daily/weekly/monthly or other periods. The client may
then navigate an avatar to one of those forums to participate in
the forum activities, or discern activity patterns in the various
forums.
[0030] In general, an indexing host, whether for general or
proprietary forums, may determine and record an activity index over
time, resulting in index data that may be plotted against time to
reveal periodic activity patterns. For example, FIG. 5 shows an
exemplary comparative plot 500 comparing the activity of two
different forums over time. The highest current level of activity
`A` in a first forum is evident from the dashed indicator line 502
for the first forum, although activity is declining. A lower level
of activity `B` in a second forum is evident from the solid
indicator line 504, although activity is increasing. Both the first
and second forums have approximately the same peak level `C` in the
chosen activity index over the past reporting period. The
sinusoidal pattern of the indicator lines may indicate, for
example, a diurnal variation caused by differences in the
geographic location of forum participants. Such patterns may be of
interest, for example, to persons looking for a forum with a
particular geographic predominance in the participants, or for
other reasons.
[0031] FIG. 6 shows an exemplary search result list 600 such as may
be returned by a search/indexing process in response to a client
query, and output on a client display. Each item 602, 604, 606 on
the list may comprise an entry for a forum concerning a topic
specified by the query, for example "baseball." Each entry may
comprise a description of the forum and/or a hyperlink to it, or
other address. To the right of the description, several numeric
activity indicators are listed for each entry, in this example, a
most current activity level relative to the time the query was
received, an average level over the past reporting period (for
example, past day, week, or month), and a peak level over the past
reporting period. Numeric indicator values may, in the alternative
or in addition, be displayed List 600 may further include a link
608 to a chart showing a comparative activity indicator over time,
as shown in FIG. 5.
[0032] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing exemplary steps of a method 700
such as may be performed by an indexing host application or server
to provide time-dependent activity indicia for use in forum
searching or selection. Instructions for performing the illustrated
steps may be encoded in a computer-readable media for causing a
host computer to perform the method, using methods as known in the
art.
[0033] At 702, the host may determine which forums are to be
indexed, that is, identifying the forums for which at least one
activity index will be measured and tracked. In an embodiment, the
host may identify all known forums, wherein known forums are
identified by the host using a web crawler or other software that
scans the Internet to discover published forum objects. In the
alternative, or in addition, the host may identify forums that are
located in response to user search queries. This approach may be
appropriate where the indexing host provides activity index data to
an external search engine operating a client interface. It has the
advantage of limiting the forums that are indexed to forums that
are actually found in response to user queries, therefore
preventing wasting indexing resources on forum in which there is no
apparent user interest. Conversely, because new forums of interest
cannot be predicted, the host will not possess historical activity
index data for forums that are requested for the first time. The
host may cease indexing forums some time after (for example, weeks,
months, or years) the last apparent user interest in the forum.
Another approach is to limit indexed forums to those hosted by the
indexing host, or by one or more specific forum hosts cooperatively
associated with the indexing host. This approach may be suitable
for indexing proprietary forums such as operated via multiuser
online virtual reality hosts. Yet another approach is to develop
activity indexes in response to specific user requests. For
example, forum operators or users may register a particular forum
for indexing by the host. In general, the set of indexed forums
should not be static and should change over time to reflect forums
having a pattern of recent activity or interest. Such forums may be
identified in a list or database maintained by the indexing
host.
[0034] At periodic intervals, the host may monitor forum activity
704 in the identified forums. As previously described, activity may
be tracked by the forum host and reported to the indexing host. For
example, a monitoring application may be distributed from the
indexing host and operate on participating forums to monitor and
report activity data to the indexing host. In the alternative, or
in addition, the indexing host may operating web crawling software
or other means for scanning published forum data to measure levels
of current and past activity. For example, many forums publish
member statistics and current forum viewing statistics on the forum
pages. Web crawling software may be used to collect these
statistics for use in activity indexing. For further example, the
web crawling software may analyze forum objects to quantify past
activity by a number of posted messages and time of posting of each
message on the forum.
[0035] The indexing host may continually collect activity
measurements and prepare activity indexes 706 from the provided
data. As previously described, activity indexes are numerical
indicators of (a) the number of clients (or of clients having
designated characteristics) requesting access to or viewing the
forum object at a particular instant of time or within a designated
limited time period (for example, the most recent second, minute,
hour, day, etc.); (b) the rate at which participant contribution
data (however measured) is being received for posting or is posted
in a forum, again within any useful designated time period, for
example, new posts per minute or words per minute; (c) a rate of
change of (a) or (b); or (d) a quality of data received per unit
time. For example, the number of current viewers may be measured in
five-minute intervals, and this number stored to provide a
historical pattern of activity, including derivative indicators
such as moving averages or the like.
[0036] At 708, the indexing host may receive requests for indexing
data. These may occur, for example, as part of a search engine
process that identifies forums in response to user queries. For
example, a search engine may request specified index data for all
results appearing on a search results list. In general, the
indexing host may operate as a general data service configured to
provide various different indexing data responsive to internal or
external data requests.
[0037] At 710, the indexing host may retrieve and/or generate the
requested indexing data in response to an incoming data request,
configured for eventual output on the requesting client, for
example in a screen as shown in FIG. 6. The responsive indexing
data may be output in a format for display directly by the indexing
host, or formatted by an intermediary client such a search engine
host before transmission to the end user client. The search engine
may use the reported activity indices for each forum to prioritize
or filter search reports reported to a search engine client.
[0038] Method 700 merely exemplifies a method for providing
time-dependent activity indicia for use in forum searching or
selection. The present technology is not limited by this
example.
[0039] Having thus described a preferred embodiment of forum
searching using time-dependent activity weighting, it should be
apparent to those skilled in the art that certain advantages of the
within system have been achieved. It should also be appreciated
that various modifications, adaptations, and alternative
embodiments thereof may be made without departing from the scope
and spirit of the present technology. The following claims define
the scope of what is claimed.
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