Method and system for interactive product merchandizing

• US 7,437,368 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2005
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Chitika, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Chitika, Inc.
• Inventors: DoRosario, Alden, Kolluri, Venkateswarlu
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morrison, Jay A
• Application Number:
  US11/216,962
• Time in Patent Office: 1,140 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method and system for interactive product merchandising for an end user accessing a destination, such as a Web site, over a network, such as the Internet. The method includes extracting information pertaining to the destination and using this information to select a product to promote to the end user. Then heterogeneous information is collected that is related to the product, such as vendors, pricing, vendor ratings, vendor reviews, product ratings, product reviews, other related products, and other information. A unified display unit is composed from the heterogeneous information to provide an interactive user interface for the end user for presentation at the destination (e.g., displayed on the Web site). The method also tracks activity by the end user at the unified display unit to use as input in selecting one or more other products for another promotion to the end user. The method is aimed at encouraging impulsive buying by an end user who is browsing the network without intending to make a purchase. The unified display unit provides an opportunity for interaction by the end user to provide options and information that encourage the end user to complete a purchase.

Claims

1. A method for interactive product merchandizing directed to an end-user engaging in information seeking activity to access a destination having content over a network, the method comprising:

accessing the content of the destination to obtain extracted information pertaining to the destination accessed by the end-user;

selecting a product to promote based on the extracted information; and

gathering evidence related to product selection based on a weighted processing of input votes based on weighted marker propagation across a conceptual network of weighted links; and

the selecting the product to promote comprises generating a keyword corpus based on keywords located in publicly shared destinations and based on weighted links between the keywords based on word occurrence at the publicly shared destinations;

accessing content sources based on a plurality of end-user destinations to determine end-user destination keywords based on the content sources;

generating markers based on extracting words from the end-user destination keywords;

generating a document signature based on the markers;

mapping the document signature to the keyword corpus to assign weightings to each marker based on the keyword corpus;

accumulating the markers in product nodes based on mapping the assigned weightings for each marker; and

selecting the product by selecting at least one product node based on the accumulating the markers;

accessing at least one information source to access at least one image, description, ratings, vendor, price, Web log information, or product review;

collecting heterogeneous information related to the selected product based on the accessing the at least one image, description, rating, vendor, price, Web log information, or product review;

promoting the selected product to the end-user at the destination accessed by the end-user based on composing the heterogeneous information into a unified display unit; and

promoting at least one other product based on tracking activity by the end-user interacting with the unified display unit.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the product to promote comprises selecting the product to promote based on profile information related to the end-user context.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the product to promote comprises selecting at least one of a service, a recommendation, or a referral.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein promoting the selected product comprises composing at least one of a description, a display of vendors, a display of prices, a product review, a vendor review, a product rating, or Web log information components related to the selected product to form the unified display unit.

5. A system for interactive product merchandizing directed to an end-user engaging in information seeking activity to access a destination having content over a network, the system comprising:

at least one information source;

a processor coupled to the information source, the processor executing product merchandizing software instructions, that configure the processor to;

access the content of the destination to obtain extracted information pertaining to the destination accessed by the end-user;

select a product to promote based on the extracted information pertaining to the destination accessed by the end-user based on evidence gathering related to product selection based on a weighted processing of input votes based on weighted marker propagation across a conceptual network of weighted links;

keyword corpus generation based on keywords located in publicly shared destinations and based on weighted links between the keywords based on word occurrence at the publicly shared destinations;

content source access based on a plurality of end-user destinations to determine end-user destination keywords based on content sources;

marker generation based on extracting words from the end-user destination keywords;

document signature generation based on the markers;

document signature mapping to the keyword corpus to assign weightings to each marker based on the keyword corpus;

marker accumulation in product nodes based on mapping the assigned weightings for each marker; and

selection of at least one product node based on the marker accumulation;

collect heterogeneous information related to the selected products the heterogeneous information comprising at least one of images, descriptions, ratings, vendors, prices, product reviews, Web log information, or a set of related products obtained from the at least one information source;

promote the selected product to the end-user at the destination accessed by the end-user based on composing the heterogeneous information into a unified display unit; and

promote at least one other product based on tracking activity by the end-user interacting with the unified display unit.

6. A server for interactive product merchandizing directed to an end-user engaging in information seeking activity to access a destination having content over a network, the server comprising:

a processor coupled to at least one information source, the processor having access to product merchandising software instructions;

means for selecting, when executed by the processor based on the product merchandising software instructions, causing the server to access the content of the destination to obtain extracted information pertaining to the destination accessed by the end-user and to select a product to promote based on the extracted information pertaining to the destination accessed by the end-user;

based on evidence gathering related to product selection based on a weighted processing of input votes based on weighted marker propagation across a conceptual network of weighted links;

keyword corpus generation based on keywords located in publicly shared destinations and based on weighted links between the keywords based on word occurrence at the publicly shared destinations;

content source access based on a plurality of end-user destinations to determine end-user destination keywords based on content sources;

marker generation based on extracting words from the end-user destination keywords;

document signature generation based on the markers;

document signature mapping to the keyword corpus to assign weightings to each marker based on the keyword corpus;

marker accumulation in product nodes based on mapping the assigned weightings for each marker; and

selection of at least one product node based on the marker accumulation;

means for collecting, when executed by the processor based on the product merchandising software instructions causing the server to collect heterogeneous information related to the selected product, the heterogeneous information comprising at least one of images, descriptions, ratings, vendors, prices, Web log information, or product reviews obtained from the at least one information source; and

means for promoting, when executed by the processor based on the product merchandizing software instructions causing the server to promote the selected product to the end-user at the destination accessed by the end-user based on composing the heterogeneous information into a unified display unit; and

to promote at least one other product based on tracking activity by the end-user interacting with the unified display unit.