SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RECOMMENDATIONS WITH A LOCATION-BASED SERVICE

• US 20130073422A1
• Filed: 03/08/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Foursquare Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Foursquare Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Moore, Justin, Weiss, Noah, Lee, Benjamin N., Sklar, Max Elliot, Shaw, Blake
• Application Number:
  US13/415,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073422A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A mobile application is provided that provides intelligent recommendations based on the knowledge of where the user has been, and what venues the user would like to visit. Further, such an application may be capable of determining where people in a user'"'"'s social network have been and what venue locations these related users would like to visit. Also, in another implementation, the application may be capable of determining where people with similar tastes have been, and where they would like to go. Some or all of this information may be used by a mobile application that provides recommendations to a user. For instance, in one implementation, a user having a mobile device such as a cell phone wishes to locate a venue to based on one or more parameters, and some or all of this information may be used to order or rank recommendations within the interface.

Claims

1. A method for providing recommendations by a location-based service, the method comprising acts of:

receiving, within an interface of a mobile device associated with a user, an input defining a query for a recommendation of one or more venue locations by the location-based service;

determining, by the location-based service, a location of the mobile device;

determining, a result set of venue locations based on the provided query;

ordering, within the interface of the mobile device, a plurality of the venue locations of the result set based on at least one or more of a group of venue information comprising;

personal information associated with the user, the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations;

social network information relating to the one or more of the plurality of venue locations; and

popularity information that identifies a popularity of the one or more of the plurality of venue locations as determined by a set of users defined in the location-based service.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining, for each of the venue locations in the result set, a respective score based on at least one or more of the group of venue information.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of presenting, to the user in a display of the mobile device associated with the user, an input control in which the user provides one or more keywords.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of presenting, to the user in a display of the mobile device associated with the user, an input control that permits the user to select a category of venues.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of providing the user a control that permits the user to select a limitation of a distance from a current location of the user where recommendations will be provided.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues already visited by the user.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues not yet visited by the user.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the social network information relating to the one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues already visited by one or more users in the social network.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a popularity measure of the one or more of the plurality of venue locations as determined by the set of users defined in the location-based service.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the act of determining, for each of the venue locations in the result set, the respective score based on the at least one or more of the group of venue information further comprises acts of determining respective scores for each venue location in the result set based on more than one of the personal information, the social network information, and the popularity information.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising determining scores for each venue location based on the personal information, the social network information, and the popularity information and combining the scores to produce a total score for each venue location.

12. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of using a collaborative filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

13. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of using a user-user filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

14. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of using a k-nearest neighbors filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

15. The method according to claim 2, further comprising an act of adjusting the respective score for at least one of the venue locations in the result set responsive to one or more factors relating to the at least one of the venue locations.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the one of more factors includes at least one of a probability that the at least one of the venue locations is currently open and information identifying that the at least one of the venue locations is currently being frequented.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of ordering the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a determination of popularity of each of the plurality of venue locations, the determination of popularity for a respective one of the plurality of venue locations being based on whether the respective one venue appears on a list of venues.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of ordering the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a determination of popularity of each of the plurality of venue locations, the determination of popularity for a respective one of the plurality of venue locations being based on how popular the respective one venue is with one or more experts.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising an act of determining the one or more experts based on their activity within the location-based service.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the act of ordering the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a determination of sentiment of each of the plurality of venue locations.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the determination of sentiment comprises an act of determining, for at least one venue of the plurality of venue locations, an indication of sentiment based on review information provided by users for the at least one venue to the location-based service.

22. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of limiting the result set of venue locations responsive to a determination of densities of venues in a particular area.

23. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an act of limiting the result set of venue locations responsive to a determination of a distance between subsequent check-ins in a particular area.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising an act of determining the distance between subsequent check-ins for a plurality of users within the particular area.

25. A system for providing recommendations in a distributed communications network, the system comprising:

a location-based service including a distributed computer system having at least one processor and a memory;

an interface adapted to receive an input from a mobile device defining a query for a recommendation of one or more venue locations by the location-based service;

a component for determining, by the location-based service, a location of the mobile device;

a component adapted to determine a result set of venue locations based on the provided query;

a component adapted to order, within the interface of the mobile device, a plurality of the venue locations of the result set based on at least one or more of a group of venue information comprising;

personal information associated with the user, the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations;

social network information relating to the one or more of the plurality of venue locations; and

popularity information that identifies a popularity of the one or more of the plurality of venue locations as determined by a set of users defined in the location-based service.

26. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to determine, for each of the venue locations in the result set, a respective score based on at least one or more of the group of venue information.

27. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to present, to the user in a display of the mobile device associated with the user, an input control in which the user provides one or more keywords.

28. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to present, to the user in a display of the mobile device associated with the user, an input control that permits the user to select a category of venues.

29. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a control that permits the user to select a limitation of a distance from a current location of the user where recommendations will be provided.

30. The system according to claim 25, wherein the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues already visited by the user.

31. The system according to claim 25, wherein the personal information relating to one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues not yet visited by the user.

32. The system according to claim 25, wherein the social network information relating to the one or more of the plurality of venue locations comprises preference information for venues already visited by one or more users in the social network.

33. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to determine a popularity measure of the one or more of the plurality of venue locations as determined by the set of users defined in the location-based service.

34. The system according to claim 26, wherein the component that is adapted to determine, for each of the venue locations in the result set, the respective score based on the at least one or more of the group of venue information further comprises a component adapted to determine respective scores for each venue location in the result set based on more than one of the personal information, the social network information, and the popularity information.

35. The system according to claim 34, further comprising a component adapted to determine scores for each venue location based on the personal information, the social network information, and the popularity information and combining the scores to produce a total score for each venue location.

36. The system according to claim 26, further comprising a component adapted to perform a collaborative filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

37. The system according to claim 26, further comprising a component adapted to perform a user-user filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

38. The system according to claim 26, further comprising a component adapted to perform a k-nearest neighbors filtering function for determining the score of each venue locations in the result set using at least one or more of the group of venue information.

39. The system according to claim 26, further comprising a component adapted to adjust the respective score for at least one of the venue locations in the result set responsive to one or more factors relating to the at least one of the venue locations.

40. The system according to claim 39, wherein the one of more factors includes at least one of a probability that the at least one of the venue locations is currently open and information identifying that the at least one of the venue locations is currently being frequented.

41. The system according to claim 25, wherein the component adapted to order the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a component adapted to determine a popularity of each of the plurality of venue locations, the popularity for a respective one of the plurality of venue locations being based on whether the respective one venue appears on a list of venues.

42. The system according to claim 25, wherein the component adapted to order the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a component adapted to determine a popularity of each of the plurality of venue locations, the popularity for a respective one of the plurality of venue locations being based on how popular the respective one venue is with one or more experts.

43. The system according to claim 42, further comprising a component adapted to determine the one or more experts based on their activity within the location-based service.

44. The system according to claim 25, wherein the component adapted to order the plurality of venue locations is responsive to a component adapted to determine sentiment of at least one of the plurality of venue locations.

45. The system according to claim 44, wherein the component adapted to determine sentiment comprises a component adapted to determine, for at least one venue of the plurality of venue locations, an indication of sentiment based on review information provided by users for the at least one venue to the location-based service.

46. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to limit the result set of venue locations responsive to a determination of densities of venues in a particular area.

47. The system according to claim 25, further comprising a component adapted to limit the result set of venue locations responsive to a determination of a distance between subsequent check-ins in a particular area.

48. The system according to claim 47, further comprising a component adapted to determine the distance between subsequent check-ins for a plurality of users within the particular area.