Using cross-site relationships to generate recommendations

• US 7,788,358 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aggregate Knowledge Incorporated (Neustar Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Aggregate Knowledge
• Inventors: Martino, Paul J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thieu; Benjamin M
• Application Number:
  US11/369,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20070208729A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-227, 709200-203, 709/217, 709/232, 705 26- 27, 705 7- 10, 705/14, 370/468, 370/252, 370/455
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

A relationship server tracks end-user interactions across multiple web sites and generates recommendations. The web sites observe relationships established by end-user interactions. If end-users provide the same personally identifiable information to multiple web sites, the sites generate the same unique identifier for those end-users. The web sites send messages to the relationship server that reference the end-users using the identifiers and describe the relationships observed for the end-users. The relationship server receives messages from multiple web sites and canonicalizes them to produce an efficient representation of the relationships. Upon receiving a message requesting a recommendation based on an item, the relationship server performs collaborative filtering using the relationship data to identify a list of items to recommend. The relationship server sends the recommendations to the requesting entity and the recommendations are presented to the end-user.

Claims

1. A system for generating recommendations, comprising:

a processor to execute modules, including;

a communications module to receive a message requesting recommendations via a network, the message specifying a label identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and at least one constraint on one or more items to be returned as recommendations;

a canonicalization module to generate canonicalized representations of relationships by associating each component of the relationship data with a unique identifier (ID), the relationship data including a label component identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and an intent describing an action that established the relationship;

a relationship storage module for storing the canonicalized representations in a memory; and

a recommendation generation module for generating recommendations based on the canonicalized representations of the relationships stored in the memory by performing collaborative filtering to identify a set of items related to the items identified in the message requesting recommendations and satisfying the at least one constraint.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a normalization module for normalizing the messages describing relationships received from the plurality of computers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the canonicalization module generates the canonicalized representations of the messages optimized for efficient storage in the memory.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the canonicalization module substitutes integer values for the item and predicate to form the canonicalized representation.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein generates a canonicalized representation of the item and predicate that fits into a single memory word of a computer.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommendation generation module performs collaborative filtering using the canonicalized representations of the relationships to generate the recommendations.

7. A system for providing recommendations of items to an end-user comprising:

a processor to execute modules, including;

a relationship observation module for observing relationships established by the end-user through interactions with a web site;

a communications module for sending messages having relationship data describing the observed relationships to a relationship server via a computer network and to receive a message requesting recommendations for the end-user based at least in part on observed relationships described by messages sent by a plurality of web sites, the message specifying a label identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and at least one constraint on one or more items to be returned as recommendations; and

a recommendations module to perform collaborative filtering to identify a set of items related to the items identified in the message requesting recommendations and satisfying the at least one constraint.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

an interaction module for providing web pages via the computer network to a client utilized by the end-user to enable the end-user to interact with the web site.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

an identification module for identifying the end-user and associating the end-user'"'"'s interactions.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the identification module stores a cookie containing a value identifying the end-user at a client used by the end-user to access the web site.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the value contained by the cookie is derived from personally identifiable information provided by the end-user, the plurality of web sites use the value to identify the end-user, and the value is included with messages describing observed relationships sent to the relationship server.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the communications module sends a message describing a relationship that includes a first label identifying a first item, a first predicate describing a type of the first item, a second label identifying a second item, and a second predicate describing a type of the second item, and wherein the message indicates that the first and second items are related.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the message describing the relationship indicates that the first and second labels identify a same item.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the communications module sends a message describing a relationship that includes an intent describing an action that established the relationship.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the communications module sends a message requesting recommendations to the relationship server via the computer network, the message requesting recommendations including a label identifying an item and a predicate describing a type of the item, and wherein the recommendations received from the relationship server are based at least in part on the label and predicate.

16. A computer generated method of providing recommendations, comprising:

receiving a message requesting recommendations, the message specifying a label identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and at least one constraint on one or more items to be returned as recommendations;

establishing a set of relationships by associating each component of relationship data with a unique identifier (ID), the relationship data including a label component identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and an intent describing an action that established the relationship;

generating recommendations of items by performing collaborative filtering to identify a set of items related to the items identified in the message requesting recommendations and satisfying the at least one constraint; and

providing the recommendations to the an end-user.

17. The computer generated method of claim 16, further comprising tracking end-user interactions across a plurality of unrelated web sites by:

receiving personally identifiable information from the end-user;

generating a unique identifier for the end-user responsive to the personally identifiable information, wherein the plurality of unrelated web sites generate the same unique identifier responsive to the same personally identifiable information; and

associating the unique identifier with the end-user interactions.

18. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer program instructions embodied therein for providing recommendations of items to an end-user, comprising:

a communications module for sending messages having relationship data describing the observed relationships to a relationship server via a computer network and to receive a message requesting recommendations for the end-user based at least in part on observed relationships described by messages sent by a plurality of web sites, the message specifying a label identifying an item, a predicate describing a type of the item and at least one constraint on one or more items to be returned as recommendations; and

a recommendations module to perform collaborative filtering to identify a set of items related to the items identified in the message requesting recommendations and satisfying the at least one constraint.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

a relationship observation module for observing relationships established by the end-user through interactions with the web site.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the recommendations module is further adapted to provide recommendations to a plurality of end-users of a plurality of remote clients via the computer network.

21. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

an interaction module for providing web pages via the computer network to a client utilized by the end-user to enable the end-user to interact with the web site.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

an identification module for identifying the end-user and associating the end-user'"'"'s interactions.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the identification module stores a cookie containing a value identifying the end-user at a client used by the end-user to access the web site.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the value contained by the cookie is derived from personally identifiable information provided by the end-user, the plurality of web sites use the value to identify the end-user, and the value is included with messages describing observed relationships sent to the relationship server.

25. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the communications module is adapted to send a message requesting recommendations to the relationship server via the computer network, the message requesting recommendations including a label identifying an item and a predicate describing a type of the item, and wherein the recommendations received from the relationship server are based at least in part on the label and predicate.