Importance

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Abstract

A system generates user interest profiles by monitoring and analyzing a user's access to a variety of hierarchical levels within a set of structured documents, e.g., documents available at a web site. Each information document has parts associated with it and the documents are classified into categories using a known taxonomy. The user interest profiles are automatically generated based on the type of content viewed by the user. The type of content is determined by the text within the parts of the documents viewed and the classifications of the documents viewed. In addition, the profiles also are generated based on other factors including the frequency and currency of visits to documents having a given classification, and/or the hierarchical depth of the levels or parts of the documents viewed. User profiles include an interest category code and an interest score to indicate a level of interest in a particular category. The profiles are updated automatically to accurately reflect the current interests of an individual, as well as past interests. A time-dependent decay factor is applied to the past interests. The system presents to the user documents or references to documents that match the current profile.

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First Claim