Collaborative bookmarking

Abstract

A method and system for collaborating tags in a bookmarking system wherein the bookmarking system includes a plurality of tags applied to content items by a plurality of users, the method and system including, examining all the tags that are applied to all the content items, determining whether two tags have been assigned to the same content item, if two tags have been assigned to the same content item, computing the relative strength of each of the two tags with respect to each other.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of collaborating tags in a bookmarking system wherein the bookmarking system comprises a plurality of tags applied to a plurality of content items by a plurality of users comprising:
 examining, by a processor, all the tags that are applied to all the content items;   determining, by the processor, whether two tags have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items;   if two tags have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items, computing, by the processor, a relative strength of each of the two tags with respect to each other; and   providing a representation of the relative strength between the tags in the bookmarking system.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the relative strength is computed by counting a number of occurrences of each of the two tags on all the commonly assigned content items within the bookmarking system, and dividing by the sum total of the number of occurrences of each of the two tags in the entire bookmarking system. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising determining the relative strength between all the tags in the bookmarking system that have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the relative strength is computed by counting the number of occurrences of each of two tags on all the commonly assigned content items within the bookmarking system and dividing by the sum total of the number of occurrences of each of the two tags in the entire bookmarking system. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the representation comprises tags having varied size, weight, style, color, or face of font dependent on relative strength of the tags. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the representation comprises tags having lines disposed between tags of common assignment, wherein the lines have varying width or color to indicate a direction of relationships between tags of common assignment. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the representation comprises tags having relationships whose relative strength is above a system or user-defined threshold. 
     
     
         8 . A system for collaborating tags in a bookmarking system wherein the bookmarking system comprises a plurality of tags applied to a plurality of content items by a plurality of users comprising:
 a computer, said computer comprising a one or more user computer interface;   a collaborative bookmarking database linked to the one or more user computer interface, wherein users utilize the one or more user computer interface to apply tags to said plurality of content items;   a relationship database linked to the collaborative bookmarking database, wherein the relationship database computes a relative strength of each tag applied to one of said plurality of content items, and further wherein the relationship database provides a representation of the relative strength between the tags in the bookmarking system.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the relative strength is computed by counting a number of occurrences of each of two tags on all the commonly assigned content items within the bookmarking system, and dividing by the sum total of the number of occurrences of each of the two tags in the entire bookmarking system. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  9 , wherein the system determines the relative strength between all the tags in the bookmarking system that have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the representation comprises tags having varied size, weight, style, color, or face of font dependent on relative strength of the tags. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the representation comprises tags having lines disposed between tags of common assignment, wherein the lines have varying width or color to indicate a direction of relationships between tags of common assignment. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the representation comprises tags having relationships whose relative strength is above a system or user-defined threshold. 
     
     
         14 . A computer program product comprising program code encoded in a non-transitory computer readable medium for instructing a system to relate tags in a collaborative bookmarking system wherein the bookmarking system comprises a plurality of tags applied to a plurality of content items by a plurality of users, the program code configured to cause a computer to perform the method comprising:
 examining all the tags that are applied to all the content items;   determining whether two tags have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items;   if two tags have been assigned to the same content item, computing a relative strength of each of the two tags with respect to each other; and   providing a representation of the relative strength between the tags in the bookmarking system.   
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the relative strength is computed by counting a number of occurrences of each of the two tags on all the commonly assigned content items within the bookmarking system, and dividing by the sum total of the number of occurrences of each of the two tags in the entire bookmarking system. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product method of  claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises determining the relative strength between all the tags in the bookmarking system that have been assigned to one of said plurality of content items. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 16 , wherein the relative strength is computed by counting the number of occurrences of each of two tags on all the commonly assigned content items within the bookmarking system and dividing by the sum total of the number of occurrences of each of the two tags in the entire bookmarking system. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises providing a representation of the relative strength between the tags in a bookmarking system, wherein the representation comprises (a) tags having varied size, weight, style, color, or face of font dependent on relative strength of the tags; (b) tags having lines disposed between tags of common assignment, wherein the lines have varying width or color to indicate a direction of relationships between tags of common assignment; or (c) tags having relationships whose relative strength is above a system or user-defined threshold.