Enabling recommendations and community by massively-distributed nearest-neighbor searching

Abstract

The computer associated with each of a potentially large number of end users is harnessed to provide a massively-distributed mechanism for finding the nearest neighbors of each user, according to tastes and/or interests. Once these nearest neighbors are determined, there taste or and/or interest profiles are leveraged for highly accurate recommendations, and their online addresses are leveraged for community purposes.

1 . A networked computer system for supplying recommendations and taste-based community to a target user, comprising: 
 networked means for providing representations of nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles and associated user identifiers in an order such that said nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles tend to be at least as similar to a taste profile of the target user according to a predetermined similarity metric as are subsequently retrieved ones of said nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles,    means to receive said representations of nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles and associated user identifiers on at least one neighbor-finding user node,    said neighbor-finding user nodes each having at least one similarity metric calculator calculating said predetermined similarity metric based upon said representations of nearest neighbor candidate taste,    at least one selector residing on at least one of said neighbor-finding user nodes using the output of said at least one similarity metric calculator for building a list representing the nearest-neighbor users,    said list representing said nearest-neighbor users providing access to associated ones of said candidate profiles,    a nearest-neighbor based recommender which uses said associated ones of said candidate profiles to recommend items,    a display for viewing identifiers of recommended items,    a display for viewing identifiers of a plurality of nearest neighbor users,    means to select at least one of said nearest neighbor users from said display of identifiers of a plurality of nearest neighbor users,    a display of information relating to at least one of the items in said nearest neighbor user's collection,    whereby massively distributed processing is harnessed in a bandwidth-conserving way for finding the best neighbors out of the entire population of users, and the same neighborhood is leveraged to provide recommendations as well as highly focused taste-based community for sharing the enjoyment of items including recommended items    
   
   
       2 . The networked computer system of  claim 1 , further including means to facilitate communication with at least said nearest neighbor users where the type of communication comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of online chat, email, online discussion boards, voice, and video.  
   
   
       3 . A networked computer system for supplying recommendations and taste-based community to a target user, comprising 
 an ordered plurality of nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles and associated user identifiers such that said nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles tend to be at least as similar to a taste profile of the target user according to a predetermined similarity metric as are subsequently positioned ones of said nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles,    networked means to receive said nearest neighbor candidate taste profiles and associated user identifiers on at least one neighbor-finding user node,    said neighbor-finding user nodes each having at least one similarity metric calculator calculating said predetermined similarity metric,    at least one selector residing on at least one of said neighbor-finding user nodes using the output of said at least one similarity metric calculator for building a list representing the nearest-neighbor users,    said list representing said nearest-neighbor users providing access to associated ones of said candidate profiles,    a nearest-neighbor based recommender which uses said associated ones of said a nearest-neighbor based recommender which uses said associated ones of said candidate profiles to recommend items,    a display for viewing identifiers of recommended items,    a display for viewing identifiers of a plurality of nearest neighbor users,    means to select at least one of said nearest neighbor users from said display of identifiers of a plurality of nearest neighbor users,    a display of information relating to at least one of the items in said nearest neighbor user's collection,    whereby massively distributed processing is harnessed in a bandwidth-conserving way for finding the best neighbors out of the entire population of users, and the same neighborhood is leveraged to provide recommendations as well as highly focused taste-based community for sharing the enjoyment of items including recommended items    
   
   
       4 . The networked computer system  claim 1 , further including a single downloadable file that contains software that executes all necessary non-server computer instructions.