Forum search with time-dependent activity weighting

Abstract

A search engine index measures and tracks one or more numeric indicators of activity at different times, including a most current time, in on-line forums and social networking sites. Such indicators may include, for example, a current volume per unit time of messages or data posted to the site, a moving average of such volume, a moving average of current participants over time, a count of current participants, other indication of site activity, or any combination of such indicators. The search engine is responsive to queries seeking forums ranked by activity for a defined time period, including a most current time. The search engine prioritizes search results to identify the specified sites or locations in order of activity (among other possible criteria) relative to a defined time.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system, comprising:
 a server comprising a computer processor and a memory, the server receiving and responding to search requests;   the server receiving data regarding an activity level within a plurality of identified locations at different times;   the server utilizing indicators of activity to determine an activity level for at least two of the plurality of identified locations;   the server utilizing a search algorithm to generate search results, where the search results are weighted such that search results related to higher activity locations are given a different weight than search results related to lower activity locations and to locations without activity information.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of identified locations is a computer-hosted forum. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the computer-hosted forum is located within a virtual world environment. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , where the indicators of activity include at least a current volume per unit time of messages posted. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , where the indicators of activity include at least a current volume per unit time of data posted. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 2 , where the indicators of activity include at least a moving average of current participants over time. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 2 , where the indicators of activity include at least a count of current participants. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , where the indicators of activity include at least indicia of site activity. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 2 , where known forum objects are scheduled for more frequent indexing. 
     
     
         10 . A method for determining forum activity, comprising:
 monitoring, using a computer, forum activity in one or more online forum objects accessible over a computer network;   measuring, in the one or more online forum objects, one or more datapoints of:
 (a) the number of clients requesting access to or viewing the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period; 
 (b) the rate at which participant contribution data is being received for posting in the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period; 
 (c) a rate of change of the number of clients requesting access to or viewing the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period; 
 (d) a rate of change of the rate at which participant contribution data is being received for posting in the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period; and 
 (e) a quality of data measurement generated by user feedback related to the one or more online forum objects and received within a designated time period; and 
   determining, using the one or more datapoints, an activity level of the one or more online forum objects.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , where determining the activity level of the one or more online forum objects is done by putting data into a user-determined formula. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , where one of the one or more datapoints used is the number of clients requesting access to or viewing the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , where one of the one or more datapoints used is the rate at which participant contribution data is being received for posting in the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , where one of the one or more datapoints used is the rate of change of the number of clients requesting access to or viewing the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , where one of the one or more datapoints used is the rate of change of the rate at which participant contribution data is being received for posting in the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , where one of the one or more datapoints used is the quality of data measurement generated by user feedback and received for the one or more online forum objects within a designated time period. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10 , where at least one of the one or more online forum objects is comprised of linked network objects. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , where at least one of the one or more online forum objects is comprised of multiple linked web pages. 
     
     
         19 . A method for generating real time search results, comprising:
 receiving, at a computer, a search request, which search request may be generated by an internal search query or remote client request;   searching, in response to the search request, for relevant forums;   determining for at least one relevant forum, one or more activity indicators in response to requirements from an internal search query or remote client request, where the determining may be one or both of searching an activity index database and generating an activity indicator on demand; and   ranking forums as search results, where the ranking is determined at least in part by the activity indicator.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , where the at least one relevant forum is hosted within a virtual world.