Recommending Video Programs

• US 20100186041A1
• Filed: 01/22/2009
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Baluja, Shumeet, Chu, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,396,258 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for recommending video programs to a user comprising determining a first video program that is of interest to a user and then determining a second video program to recommend to the user, the second video program being determined from a recommendation database assembled by analyzing access logs from one or more search engines or online video content providers.

Claims

1. A method for recommending a video program to a user comprising:

storing a database of video program information including the information identifying related video programs, wherein related video programs are determined based upon analysis of interactions of users with an internet search engine or online video content provider;

receiving on behalf of the user, an indication of a first video program;

determining from the database of video program information a second video program related to the first video program;

providing the user with a recommendation for the second video program.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein interactions of users with an internet search engine or online video content provider comprises search queries.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing an identifier of the first video program in a user profile of the user.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing an identifier of the second video program in a user profile of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of the first video program comprises accessing a user profile to obtain an identifier of the video program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of the first video program comprises receiving information about a video program currently being presented to the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of the first video program comprises receiving information about a video program from a client device of the user coupled to a network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with a recommendation for the second video program comprises providing the user with the content of the video program.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving an indication of a first video program comprises receiving an indication of a first video program from a client coupled to a network; and

providing the user with a recommendation comprises providing a recommendation to the client coupled to the network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving an indication of a first video program comprises accessing a user profile of the user; and

providing the user with a recommendation comprises providing a recommendation to a client coupled to a network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving an indication of a first video program comprises receiving an indication of a first video program from a first client coupled to a network; and

providing the user with a recommendation comprises providing a recommendation to a second client coupled to the network.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the second video program having a current broadcast time in the near future on the user'"'"'s broadcast system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user'"'"'s broadcast system is determined from a user profile.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the second video program having a current broadcast time in the near future in the user'"'"'s location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user'"'"'s location is determined from a user profile.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the user'"'"'s location is determined from the user'"'"'s IP address.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation comprises a broadcast date, broadcast time, and broadcast channel on the user'"'"'s broadcast system for the second video program.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with a recommendation for the second video program comprises using information from a user profile to rank the recommendations.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein information from a user profile comprises search queries for video programs or attributes of video programs and wherein ranking the recommendations comprises giving extra weight to recommendations that have attributes in common with the search queries.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein information from a user a profile comprises titles of video programs that have been downloaded or streamed and wherein ranking the recommendations comprises giving extra weight to recommendations that have attributes in common with the downloaded or streamed video programs.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising a second database configured to store user profiles.

24. The system of claim 20 wherein the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program comprises the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program from a client device of the user coupled to a network.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein:

the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program comprises the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program from a client device of the user coupled to a network; and

the third module configured to provide to the user a recommendation for the second video program comprises the third module configured to provide the recommendation to the client device of the user coupled to the network.

26. The system of claim 20 wherein:

the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program comprises the first module configured to access a user profile of the user; and

the third module configured to provide to the user a recommendation for the second video program comprises the third module configured to provide the recommendation to a client device of the user coupled to the network.

27. The system of claim 20 wherein:

the first module configured to receive an indication of a first video program comprises the first module configured to receive the indication of the first video program from a first client device of the user coupled to a network; and

the third module configured to provide to the user a recommendation for the second video program comprises the third module configured to provide the recommendation to a second client device of the user coupled to the network.

21. A computer implemented system, including a processor and memory, for recommending a video program to a user, comprising:

a database of video program information including the information identifying related video programs, wherein related video programs are determined based upon analysis of interactions of users with an internet search engine or online video content provider;

a first module configured to receive on behalf of a user an indication of a first video program;

a second module configured to determine from the database of video program information a second video program related to the first video program; and

a third module communicatively coupled to the second module configured to provide to the user a recommendation for the second video program.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the first module is further configured to receive the indication of the first video program from a user profile of the user in the second database.

28. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein to recommend a video program to a user, the computer readable program code in the computer program product including;

computer readable program code to store a database of video program information including the information identifying related video programs, wherein related video programs are determined based upon analysis of interactions of users with an internet search engine or online video content provider;

computer readable program code to receive on behalf of the user an indication of a first video program;

computer readable program code to determine from the database of video program information a second video program related to the first video program;

computer readable program code to provide the user with a recommendation for the second video program.

29. A method for building a database of related video programs, based on interactions with a web service, the method comprising:

identifying interactions with the web service that are related to video programs;

determining at least two interactions related to video programs that have a statistically significant relationship;

identifying the video programs related to the at least two interactions as related; and

storing information associating the related video programs.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the web service is an internet search engine.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the web service is an online video content provider.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein identifying interactions related to video programs comprises applying metadata of the interaction to a database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve video programs responsive to the search queries.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the interactions related to video programs are search queries for titles of video programs.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein the interactions related to video programs are search queries for attributes of video programs.

35. The method of claim 29, wherein the interactions related to video programs comprise downloading a video program.

36. The method of claim 29, wherein the interactions related to video programs comprise viewing a video program.

37. The method of claim 29, wherein the interactions related to video programs are requests for a video program on physical media.

38. The method of claim 29, wherein determining that at least two interactions related to video programs have a statistically significant relationship comprises the degree of correlation between two search queries.

39. The method of claim 29, wherein determining that at least two interactions related to video programs have a statistically significant relationship comprises determining co-occurrence frequency between two interactions.

40. The method of claim 29 further comprising:

applying the title of a first video program as a query to a database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve attributes responsive to the query;

applying at least one of the retrieved attributes as a query to the database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve titles of video programs, in addition to the first video program, responsive to the query; and

identifying the retrieved video programs as related to the first video program.

41. A computer implemented system, including a processor and memory, for building a database of related video programs, based on interactions with a web service, comprising:

a database of access logs comprising interactions with a web service;

a log processing engine configured to;

determine at least two interactions with the web service that are related to video programs and have a statistically significant relationship, and

determine video programs related to the interactions; and

a database for storing related video programs.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the web service is an internet search engine.

43. The system of claim 41 wherein the web service is an online video content provider.

44. The system of claim 41 further comprising a database of titles and attributes of a video programs.

45. The system of claim 41 wherein the log processing engine is further configured to apply metadata of the interaction to a database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve video programs responsive to the search queries.

46. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein to build a database of related video programs based on interactions with a web service, the computer readable program code in the computer program product including;

computer readable program code to identify interactions with the web service that are related to video programs;

computer readable program code to determine at least two interactions related to video programs that have a statistically significant relationship;

computer readable program code to identify the video programs related to the interactions as related; and

computer readable program code to store information associating the related video programs.

47. The computer program product of claim 46 wherein the computer readable program code to identify interactions with the web service that are related to video programs comprises computer readable program code to apply metadata of the interaction to a database of titles and attributes of video programs responsive to the search queries.

48. The computer program product of claim 46 further comprising:

computer readable program code to apply the title of a first video program as a query to a database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve attributes responsive to the query;

computer readable program code to apply at least one of the retrieved attributes as a query to the database of titles and attributes of video programs to retrieve titles of video programs, in addition to the first video program, responsive to the query; and

computer readable program code to identify the retrieved video programs as related to the first video program.