Content Recommendation System

• US 20110288912A1
• Filed: 05/12/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Kennedy, Christopher, Lester, Peter, Zada, Nida, Li, Jason, McCrea, John, King, Ryan, Connolly, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 10,805,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0218 based on score
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A content recommendation system is disclosed that allows users to identify friends, recommend content to friends, and receive awards for influencing friends. Interfaces can be used to display rankings of recommended programs, user profiles and their awards, and dynamic chats relating to specific content.

Claims

1. A content recommendation method, comprising:

maintaining, by a computing device, a content recommendation system interface;

receiving, via the interface, an indication that a first user is consuming a piece of content;

identifying friends of the first user;

transmitting information to the friends, that the first user is consuming the piece of content;

receiving responses from one or more of the friends, indicating that the one or more of the friends are also consuming the piece of content; and

determining an award for the first user based on the responses from the one or more friends.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the computing device, a user profile for the first user, wherein the user profile for the first user includes a graphic identifying the reward received by the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by the computing device, award profile information identifying video content recommendation criteria and corresponding awards to be granted to users whose program recommendations satisfy the criteria.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a plurality of users deserve credit for a response from one of the friends; and

adjusting recommendation credit among the plurality of users.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the adjusting further comprises adjusting recommendation credit for a user based on a determination of whether the user is still consuming the content when the one of the friends responded.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the adjusting further comprises determining a time window during which a user will receive credit for a recommendation.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the time window further comprises:

determining a time remaining in a piece of content at a time at a time that a user sends a recommendation; and

using the time remaining to identify a time of expiration for the user'"'"'s time window.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the adjusting further comprises giving different amounts of recommendation credit to users who used a direct message to send a recommendation to the one or more responding friends, and users who used a multicast message to send a recommendation to the one or more responding friends.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the adjusting further comprises giving different amounts of recommendation credit to users based on their respective geographic proximity to the one or more responding friends.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising assigning a recommendation ranking level to each user, and wherein the adjusting further comprises adjusting recommendation credit based on the user'"'"'s recommendation ranking level.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a recommendation ranking level to each user based on how influential that user is over the user'"'"'s friends.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising assigning a user different recommendation ranking levels for different types of recommended content.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an Internet display page with a trending panel listing content ranked based on the number of users accessing the content, and animating the trending panel to dynamically rearrange the listing as the rankings are updated.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an upload request for a user-generated award from one of the friends, the user-generated award including at least one criterion selected by the friend.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one criterion identifies a plurality of programs to be viewed as a requirement for receiving the award.

16. A content recommendation system, comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable medium, storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the server to perform the following;

maintaining, by a computing device, a content recommendation system interface;

receiving an indication that a first user is viewing an identified piece of content;

identifying friends of the first user;

transmitting information to the friends, that the first user is viewing the piece of content;

receiving responses from one or more of the friends, indicating that the one or more of the friends are also viewing the piece of content; and

determining an award for the first user based on the responses from the one or more friends.

17. The server of claim 16, the medium further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, case the server to perform the following:

determining that a plurality of users deserve credit for a response from one of the friends; and

adjusting recommendation credit among the plurality of users.

18. The server of claim 16, the medium further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, case the server to perform the following:

generate a dynamic trending panel listing recommended content for a given user.

19. The server of claim 18, the medium further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, case the server to perform the following:

track a social velocity for a piece of content, the social velocity reflecting a rate at which the piece of content is successfully recommended using friends lists; and

use the social velocity of the piece of content to rank the content listed in the dynamic trending panel.

20. A social network method, comprising:

maintaining, by a computing device, a friends list for a first user;

receiving, by the device, an indication that the first user is viewing a first piece of video content;

generating a message for a second user, indicating that the first user is viewing the first piece of video content;

receiving a message from the second user, indicating that the second user is also watching the first piece of video content; and

updating a recommendation profile for the first user to indicate that the first user has successfully recommended the first piece of video content to the second user.