Identifying and providing targeted content to users having common interests
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- tracking referrals of users from each of a plurality of referring web sites to a target web site that hosts an electronic catalog of items, said referrals resulting from user selections of links provided on the referring web sites;
identifying a group of users referred to the target web site by a selected subset of said plurality of referring web sites, said group of users comprising a plurality of users, and representing a subpopulation of a general user population of the target web site;
collecting user activity data reflective of preferences of particular users for particular items represented in the electronic catalog of items, said user activity data encompassing actions of both members and non-members of said group of users;
identifying a set of items that correspond to group preferences of said group of users, wherein the set of items is identified based on the collected user activity data of both the members and the non-members of said group of users; and
causing the set of items to be displayed (a) on the target web site to users who are referred thereto from a referring web site in said subset of referring web sites, and/or (b) on a referring web site in said subset of referring web sites.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer process is disclosed for selecting items to present or recommend to users based on the referring sites accessed by such users. The process includes tracking referrals of users from referring sites to a target site, and recording the item selections of the referred users from an electronic catalog of the target site. The process may also include analyzing the recorded item selections of the users to identify, for a particular subset of the referring sites, a set of items that correspond to group preferences of users referred to the target site by the subset of referring sites. These identified items may thereafter be presented to users who access a site that is a member of the subset of referring sites.
192 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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tracking referrals of users from each of a plurality of referring web sites to a target web site that hosts an electronic catalog of items, said referrals resulting from user selections of links provided on the referring web sites; identifying a group of users referred to the target web site by a selected subset of said plurality of referring web sites, said group of users comprising a plurality of users, and representing a subpopulation of a general user population of the target web site; collecting user activity data reflective of preferences of particular users for particular items represented in the electronic catalog of items, said user activity data encompassing actions of both members and non-members of said group of users; identifying a set of items that correspond to group preferences of said group of users, wherein the set of items is identified based on the collected user activity data of both the members and the non-members of said group of users; and causing the set of items to be displayed (a) on the target web site to users who are referred thereto from a referring web site in said subset of referring web sites, and/or (b) on a referring web site in said subset of referring web sites. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer system, comprising:
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a referral tracking system that tracks referrals of users from a plurality of referring sites to a target site, said target site including an electronic catalog of items; a data repository that stores user activity data reflective of user actions performed with respect to items represented in the electronic catalog, said user activity data reflective of user preferences for particular items; and a recommendations service configured to (a) identify a group of users that have been referred to the target site by a selected subset of the referring sites, (b) analyze the user activity data of both members and non-members of said group to identify a set of items that are significantly more popular in the group than in a general user population of the target site, and (c) cause the identified set of items to be suggested to users that visit a referring site in said subset of referring sites. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification