System for customized electronic identification of desirable objects

Abstract

This invention relates to customized electronic identification of desirable objects, such as news articles, in an electronic media environment, and in particular to a system that automatically constructs both a “target profile” for each target object in the electronic media based, for example, on the frequency with which each word appears in an article relative to its overall frequency of use in all articles, as well as a “target profile interest summary” for each user, which target profile interest summary describes the user's interest level in various types of target objects. The system then evaluates the target profiles against the users' target profile interest summaries to generate a user-customized rank ordered listing of target objects most likely to be of interest to each user so that the user can select from among these potentially relevant target objects, which were automatically selected by this system from the plethora of target objects that are profiled on the electronic media. Users' target profile interest summaries can be used to efficiently organize the distribution of information in a large scale system consisting of many users interconnected by means of a communication network. Additionally, a crypto graphically-based pseudonym proxy server is provided to ensure the privacy of a user's target profile interest summary, by giving the user control over the ability of third parties to access this summary and to identify or contact the user.

1 - 34 . (canceled) 
   
   
       35 . A method for providing a user with a list of selected target objects of a plurality of target objects, the method comprising:
 (a) generating profiles of the plurality of target objects using a processor, the profiles comprising a first profile of a first target object of the plurality of target objects, wherein the first profile is generated by processing text included in the first target object and based on links between the first target object and at least one other target object;   (b) generating the list of selected target objects based on the profiles of the plurality of target objects; and   (c) providing the list to the user.   
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the first profile is generated by determining a number of occurrences of at least a portion of a word in the text included in the first target object. 
   
   
       37 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein the first profile is generated based on a frequency of occurrences of the at least a portion of the word in documents other than the first target object. 
   
   
       38 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the first profile is generated based on a location of at least a portion of a word within the first target object. 
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the target objects comprise hypertext documents. 
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein (b) is performed in response to receiving a query from the user, wherein the query comprises at least one term. 
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the first profile is generated based on a number of links leading to the first target object from the at least one other target object. 
   
   
       42 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 (d) generating a user target profile interest summary for the user, the user target profile interest summary being generated from target profiles associated with a plurality of the target objects accessed by the user.   
   
   
       43 . The method of  claim 42 , wherein (b) comprises correlating the user target profile interest summary with the generated target profiles to identify one or more of said plurality of target objects that are likely to be of interest to the user.