Content recommendation based on collections of entities

Abstract

Techniques for content recommendation are described. Some embodiments provide a content recommendation system (“CRS”) configured to recommend content items that are related to a collection of entities. A content item may be considered related to a collection of entities based on various factors, including whether and how often the article references or otherwise covers the entities of the collection, the size of the article, other entities that are covered by the article but that are not in the collection, article recency, or article credibility. Recommending content items may also or instead include determining entities that are related to a collection. An entity can be considered related to a collection based on various factors, such as whether the entity is of the same or similar type to entities of the collection, or whether the entity appears in some article in a relationship with one or more entities of the collection.

1 .- 36 . (canceled) 
     
     
         37 . A method in a content recommendation computer system for determining and presenting collections of entities and related content, comprising:
 receiving via a user interface control of the content recommendation computer system, user identification of a plurality of named entities;   creating or modifying an entity collection to include the user identified plurality of named entities, the entity collection presentable on a display of the content recommendation computer system and sharable with other users on separate displays of other computer systems, the entity collection including multiple named entities each referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;   automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share semantic characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system; and   presenting via a user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the user interface control for receiving the user identification of the plurality of named entities is separate from the user interface control for presenting the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection further comprises:
 automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities appear in semantic context with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, appearing in context determined as appearing within a specified number of surrounding paragraphs, sentences, words, and/or characters. 
 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 37 , further comprising:
 automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection; and   presenting on the computer system the determined one or more documents as related documents to the entity collection.   
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 40  wherein the automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection is determined based at least in part upon one or more of: whether and how often an indexed article refers to one or more of the multiple named entities, recency of an indexed article, or a measure of credibility of an indexed article. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 40  automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection includes recommending one or more of: an article, a news story, a Web page, or a blog post. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 40  further comprising:
 ordering the determined one or more recommended documents before presenting the one or more recommended documents based at least in part upon document recency and/or document relevance. 
 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 40 , further comprising:
 ordering the determined one or more recommended documents before presenting the one or more recommended documents based at least in part on source credibility, wherein source credibility is determined by automatically determining a credibility score based upon properties of a source of the content item.   
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the plurality of named entities and the multiple named entities are each electronically represented in the content recommendation system in a data repository. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the user interface control for receiving user identification of the plurality of named entities is a control on a website page 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 37  wherein user indication is provided by specifying a collection name and an indication of the plurality of the named entities. 
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share semantic characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities is determined based at least in part upon whether the one or more additional named entities share a facet value with at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 37 , further comprising:
 ordering the determined one or more additional named entities before presenting the one or more additional named entities via the user interface control based at least in part upon a frequency each additional named entity appears in the indexed documents and based at least in part upon whether the determined one or more additional named entities share a facet value with at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection.   
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 37 , further comprising:
 receiving an indication of at least one of the one or more additional named entities for inclusion in the entity collection; and   modifying the entity collection to include the indicated one or more additional named entities.   
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 37  wherein the user interface for receiving user identification of a plurality of named entities is provided via a code module configured to perform the method in a third-party application context. 
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 37  wherein automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection includes determining one or more additional named entities that each appear in a subject-verb-object relationship described in an document indexed by the content recommendation system and that includes one of the multiple named entities. 
     
     
         53 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to recommend content, by performing a method comprising:
 receiving via a first user interface control indications of a plurality of named entities:   creating or modifying an entity collection, the entity collection including indications of multiple named entities including the user identified plurality of named entities, each of the multiple named entities in the entity collection referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;   automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system;   presenting via a second user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection;   automatically processing the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection; and   presenting via a third user interface control the automatically recommended one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection.   
     
     
         54 . A computing system configured to recommend content, comprising:
 a memory; and   a user interface code module stored on the memory that is configured, when executed, to:
 receive via a first user interface control indications of a plurality of named entities: 
 create or modify an entity collection, the entity collection including indications of multiple named entities including the user identified plurality of named entities, each of the multiple named entities in the entity collection referenced by one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system, the created or modified entity collection being separate and distinct from the multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system; 
 automatically process the created or modified entity collection to automatically determine one or more additional named entities not already included in the entity collection that are related to the multiple named entities of the entity collection by determining whether the one or more additional named entities share characteristics with one or more of the multiple named entities or appear in semantic relationships with one or more of the multiple named entities in one or more of multiple documents indexed by the content recommendation system; 
 present via a second user interface control the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection; 
 automatically process the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection; and 
 present via a third user interface control the automatically recommended one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system that are related to at least one of the multiple named entities of the entity collection. 
   
     
     
         55 . The computing system of  claim 54  wherein the module is configured to automatically process the created or modified entity collection to automatically recommend at least one of an article, image, advertisement, audio, video, and/or Web page. 
     
     
         56 . The computing system of  claim 54  wherein the module is configured to present the determined one or more additional named entities for possible inclusion in the entity collection and the automatically recommended one or more documents indexed by the content recommendation system to at least one of a desktop computing system, a personal digital assistant, a smart phone, a mobile application, a laptop computer, and/or a third-party application.