Hi all,

I'm working on an information system (in C#) that (while my users use it) gathers statistical data on what pieces of information (tables & records) each user is requesting the most, and what parts of the interface he/she uses most. I'm using this statistical data to make the application adaptive to the user's needs, both in the way the interface presents itself (eg: tab/pane-ordering) as in the way of using the frequently viewed information to (eg:) show higher in search results/suggestion-lists.

What i'm looking for is an algorithm/formula to determine the current 'hotness'/relevance of these objects for a specific user. A simple 'hitcounter' for each object won't be sufficient because the user might view some information quite frequently for a period of time, and then moving on to the next, making the old information less relevant. So i think my algorithm also needs some sort of sliding/historical principle to account for the changing popularity of the objects in the application over time.

So, the question is: Does anybody have some sort of algorithm that accounts for that 'popularity over time' ?

Preferably with some explanation on the parameters :)

Thanks!

PS I've looked at other posts like http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32397/popularity-algorithm but i could't quite port it to my specific case. Any help is appreciated.