RANKING RELEVANT DISCUSSION GROUPS

摘要

Messages are collected and processed to determine topic identifiers that correspond to discussion groups. Queries are received and multiple discussion groups that are relevant to the query are determined based on the messages that are associated with the discussion groups and the topic identifiers associated with the discussion groups. The relevant discussion groups are ranked using a group preference model that simulates the behavior of a hypothetical seeker that considers discussion groups by selecting a message author who is an authority in a particular group, and exploring the discussion groups that are preferred by the selected author. The behavior of the seeker is simulated using a stationary Markov process and is used to generate a probability distribution that is used to rank the relevant discussion groups. The ranked relevant discussion groups are provided in response to the query.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving a query by a computing device; determining a plurality of discussion groups that are relevant to the query by the computing device, wherein each discussion group is associated with a plurality of messages and each message is associated with an author; for each discussion group of the plurality of discussion groups, determining an authority score for each author associated with a message of the discussion group by the computing device; for each author associated with a message, determining a preference score for the author for each discussion group of the plurality of discussion groups by the computing device; and ranking the discussion groups of the plurality of discussion groups using the preference scores and the authority scores by the computing device.