Electronic publication system

• US 8,051,040 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2007
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Johnson, Brian Scott, Bolivar, Alvaro
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby; Frantz
• Application Number:
  US11/869,290
• Publication Number:
  US 20080306938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,484 Days
• Field of Search: 707/608, 707/736, 707/748, 707/769, 707/913, 707/928, 707/627, 709/206, 709/207
• US Class Current: 707/627
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/928 Electronic submission

Abstract

A system and method for modifying publication data in a publication system are described. An example embodiment includes receiving proposed publication data and accessing a success measurement associated with past publications within a publication system. The success measurement may indicate a measurement of success associated with the past publications. An example system and method may generate modification data to be used to modify the proposed publication data. The modification data may be based on the success measurement and proposed publication data.

Claims

1. A publication system comprising:

one or more processors;

a storage module to store, using the one or more processors, first publication data and first demand data,

the first publication data describing a first item, and being included in a first publication published by the publication system, and

the first demand data including a demand measurement registering a first interaction associated with the first publication data, between a first publication originator and a first publication querier; and

a modification module,

to access the first publication data and the first demand data from the storage module,

to receive second publication data from a second publication originator, the second publication data being proposed publication data describing a second item, the second publication data to be published as a second publication,

to generate first modification data recommended to be used to modify a description of the second item of the second publication data, the first modification data being generated based on the first publication data, the first demand data, and the second publication data, and

to assign a proportional weight to the first publication and the first demand data, the proportional weight controlling a corresponding level of effect of the first modification data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the modification module:

relates the first modification data to the second publication data as at least one of a recommended replacement, a recommended supplement, a compulsory replacement and a compulsory supplement; and

is to generate the first modification data to at least one of,

associate the first modification data with the second publication data as metadata that is descriptive of subject matter of the second publication data or of the second publication data itself, and

include the first modification data within the second publication data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the modification module:

is to detect a level of correspondence between the second publication data and the first publication data, the level of correspondence correlating with a probability that the second publication data will be associated with a second interaction between the second publication originator and a second publication querier after modifying the second publication data with the first modification data; and

is to generate a plurality of instances of the first modification data and provide the instances according to the probability that the second publication data will be associated with the second interaction after modifying the second publication data with the each instance.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more interface,

to receive the second publication data and to provide the first modification data, and

to receive a query from a third publication querier and to forward the query to the modification module, the query to locate subject matter associated with the first and second items, the modification module to generate second modification data based on the query, the second publication data modified with the first modification data and second demand data, the second demand data including the first demand data, and is to include a second demand measurement registering the second interaction, if the second interaction has occurred.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the storage module stores a plurality of instances of publication data and the first and second demand data include a plurality of demand measurements registering at least one interaction associated with at least one of the plurality of instances of publication data;

the modification module uses the plurality of instances of publication data and the plurality of demand measurements to generate at least one of the first and second modification data; and

wherein the at least one interaction includes one or more successful transaction and the plurality of demand measurements register at least one of a search, a browse path, a view, an assignment to a monitoring list, and a financial transaction.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the modification module:

relates the second modification data to the query as at least one of a recommended replacement, a recommended supplement, a compulsory replacement and a compulsory supplement; and

generates the second modification data to at least one of,

associate the second modification data with the query as metadata that is descriptive of subject matter of the query or of the query itself, and

include the second modification data within the second publication data to generate modified publication data.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the modification module:

detects a level of correspondence between the query and the second publication data modified with the first modification data, the level of correspondence correlating with a probability that the second publication data modified with the first modification data will be associated with a third interaction between the second publication originator and the third publication querier after the query is modified with the second modification data; and

generates a plurality of instances of the second modification data and provide the instances according to a probability that the second publication data modified with the first modification data will be associated with the third interaction after the query is modified with each instance.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the modification module:

assigns proportional weight to at least one of the plurality of instances of publication data and to at least one of,

the first demand data, to control a first corresponding level of effect on the first modification data, and

the second demand data, to control a second corresponding level of effect on the second modification data.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the modification module

accesses flag information stored within the storage module, the flag information being from a participant of the publication system and indicating an erroneous description of the first or second published item;

and

generates the first or the second modification data further based on the flag information.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the first modification data includes at least one of an attribute name, an attribute value, a keyword, or a category; and

the second modification data includes at least one of a search term or a browse path.

11. A method comprising:

accessing first publication data, the first publication data describing a first item included in a first publication published by the publication system;

accessing first demand data, the first demand data including a demand measurement registering a first interaction associated with the first publication data, between a first publication originator and a first publication querier; and

receiving second publication data, from a second publication originator, the second publication data being proposed publication data describing a second item, the second publication data to be published as a second publication;

generating first modification data recommended to be used to modify a description of the second item of the second publication data, the first modification data being generated based on the first publication data, the first demand data, and the second publication data; and

assigning a proportional weight to the first publication and the first demand data, the proportional weight controlling a corresponding level of effect of the first modification data.

12. The method if claim 11, further comprising:

relating the first modification data to the second publication data as at least one of a recommended replacement, a recommended supplement, a compulsory replacement and a compulsory supplement; and

wherein the relating of the first modification data to the second publication data includes generating the first modification data for at least one of,

associating the first modification data with the second publication data as metadata, the metadata being descriptive of subject matter of the second publication data or descriptive of the second publication data itself, and

including the first modification data within the second publication data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the generating of the first modification data further comprises:

detecting a level of correspondence between the second publication data and the first publication data, the level of correspondence correlating with a probability that the second publication data will be associated with a second interaction between the second publication originator and a second publication querier after modifying the second publication data with the first modification data;

generating a plurality of instances of the first modification data; and

providing the instances according to the probability that the second publication data will be associated with the second interaction after modifying the second publication data with each instance.

14. The method of claim 11, including:

providing the first modification data to the second publication originator;

receiving a query to locate subject matter associated with the first and second items, from a third publication querier; and

generating second modification data based on the query, the second publication data modified with the first modification data and second demand data, the second demand data including the first demand data, and is to include a second demand measurement registering the second interaction, if the interaction has occurred.

15. The method of claim 14 including:

accessing a plurality of instances of publication data describing one or more item;

in one or more publication;

accessing a plurality of demand measurements registering at least one interaction associated with at least one of the plurality of instances of publication data;

generating at least one of the first and second modification data based on the plurality of instances of publication data and the plurality of demand measurements;

the first modification data including at least one of,

a title, a category, a category identifier, an attribute name or an attribute value, a search term or a browse path;

the second modification data including at least one of,

a search term and a browse path; and

the registering of the at least one interaction includes registering at least one of,

a successful transaction, a search term, a browse path, a bid, a first number of times the at least one of the plurality of instances has been viewed and a second number of times the at least one of the plurality of instances has been assigned to a monitoring list.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

relating the second modification data to the query as at least one of a recommended replacement, a recommended supplement, a compulsory replacement and a compulsory supplement; and

wherein the relating of the second modification data to the query includes generating the second modification data for at least one of,

associating the second modification data with the query as metadata, the metadata being descriptive of subject matter of the query or descriptive of the query itself, and including the second modification data within the second publication data.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the generating of the second modification data further comprises:

detecting a level of correspondence between the query and the second publication data modified with the first modification data, the level of correspondence correlating with a probability that the second publication data modified with the first modification data will be associated with a third interaction between the second publication originator and the third publication querier after modifying the query with the second modification data;

generating a plurality of instances of the second modification data; and

providing the instances according to the probability that the second publication data modified with the first modification data will be associated with the third interaction after modifying the query with the each instance.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

assigning proportional weight to at least one of the plurality of instances of publication data and to at least one of,

the first demand data, to control a first corresponding level of effect on the first modification data, and

the second demand data, to control a second corresponding level of effect on the second modification data.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

accessing flag information, the flag information being from a participant of the publication system and indicating an erroneous description of the first or the second published item; and

generating the first or the second modification data further based on the flag information.

20. A machine-readable storage medium containing instructions which, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

accessing first publication data, the first publication data describing a first item included in a first publication published by the publication system;

accessing first demand data, the first demand data including a demand measurement registering a first interaction associated with the first publication data, between a first publication originator and a first publication querier;

receiving second publication data, from a second publication originator, the second publication data being proposed publication data describing a second item, the second publication data to be published as a second publication;

generating first modification data recommended to be used to modify a description of the second item of the second publication data, the first modification data being generated based on the first publication data, the first demand data, and the second publication data; and

assigning a proportional weight to the first publication and the first demand data, the proportional weight controlling a corresponding level of effect of the first modification data.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a query to locate subject matter associated with the first and second items, from a third publication querier;

generating second modification data based on the query, the second publication data modified with the first modification data and second demand data, the second demand data including the first demand data, and is to include a second demand measurement registering the second interaction, if the interaction has occurred.

22. A method comprising:

receiving proposed publication data for an item;

accessing an at least one success measurement associated with a plurality of past publications published within a publication system, the at least one success measurement indicating a measurement of success of each of the plurality of past publications;

generating modification data recommended to be used to modify a description of the item of the proposed publication data, the modification data being based on the at least one success measurement and the proposed publication data; and

assigning a proportional weigh to each of the plurality of past publications and the at least one success measurement, the proportional weight controlling a corresponding level of effect of the modification data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the generating of the modification data includes using the at least one success measurement, wherein the at least one success measurement indicates a sale of an item that is the subject of at least one of the plurality of past publications.

24. A method of making a recommendation to a seller comprising:

receiving a first title and category to describe a first item, the first item to be described in a seller listing within an online marketplace;

determining whether a second item within the online marketplace corresponds to the first item;

selecting a description describing the second item based on one or more of a frequency that the second item has been viewed, bid on, and added to a monitoring list; and

recommending the description to be published as part of a publication used to describe the first item.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining of whether the second item corresponds to the first item includes measuring a level of similarity between the first title and category description and a second title and category description, and the selecting of the description is further based on a frequency that the second item has been at least one of, viewed, bid on, or added to a monitoring list.