Method 200, at step 230, next includes identifying a set of edits relative to the set of common temporal subsequences that describe a difference between the temporally sequenced content of the first media data object and the temporally sequenced content of the second media data object. The systems described herein may identify the set of edits in any suitable manner. For example, these systems may take as input strings (one representing the first media data object and one representing the second media data object) composed of contiguous subsequences of segments (either common subsequences or subsequences of differing segments) and identify a series of edits that would transform the string representing the first media data object into the string representing the second media data object. Thus, in these examples, the systems described herein may apply any algorithm for determining an edit distance between two strings (e.g., Levenshtein distance) and identify the set of edits as those that produce the edit distance (e.g., the minimum required edits to transform one string to the other). The edits used to define the set of edits may include any suitable combination of potential edits. For example, available edits may include addition and deletion; addition, deletion, and substitution; addition, deletion, substitution, and swapping adjacent units; etc.

In some examples, the set of edits may indicate a change in relative temporal position between a first subsequence within the set of common temporal subsequences and a second subsequence within the set of common temporal subsequences. For example, an insertion of content may place two common temporal subsequences further apart than before. Likewise, a deletion of content may result in two common temporal subsequences being nearer together than before.