Method and system for single-action personalized recommendation and display of internet content

• US 8,078,615 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2003
• Issued: 12/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stumbleupon Incorporated (eBay Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Stumbleupon Incorporated (eBay Inc.)
• Inventors: Camp, Garrett, Boyd, Eric, LaFrance, Justin, Smith, Geoff
• Primary Examiner(s): DWIVEDI, MAHESH H
• Application Number:
  US10/411,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20030195884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,168 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/202, 707/203, 707/832, 700/200, 700/202, 700/203, 715/835, 715/810
• US Class Current: 707/732
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A method and system for single-action personalized recommendation and display of content via the Internet. The recommendation is given by a server system and received by a client system. The content itself has been previously recommended to the server system by the users of the client system. Client system recommendations to the server system are also invoked with a single-action. Recommended content is referred to by a URL. Users can rate content to the server system using a single-action. The server system performs recommendation calculations using user-specific information such as user preferences, demographic data, content rating history, and content-specific information. The content rating history of other users may also influence these calculations. Client systems display recommended content directly to the user in response to only a single-action.

Claims

1. A method to present content retrievable using a distributed network having a plurality of users, the method comprising:

presenting a toolbar at a client computer to a user of the plurality of users, the toolbar including a toolbar button selectable to retrieve, from one of a local cache or a network, a recommendation for content from a uniform resource locator (URL) of a plurality of previously stored URLs, each URL corresponding to a previous recommendation for content at that URL;

transmitting, in response to a first single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a first request to retrieve a first recommendation for content, the first recommendation triggered by the first single-action input;

receiving a content from a first URL from the plurality of previously stored URLs, the first URL corresponding to the first recommendation for content;

presenting the content from the first URL at the client computer;

transmitting, after presenting the content from the first URL and in response to a second single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a second request to retrieve a second recommendation for content, the second recommendation triggered by the second single-action input;

receiving a content from a second URL corresponding to the second recommendation of content, the second URL retrieved from the plurality of previously stored URLs, wherein the second recommendation for the content from the second URL is based on preferences of the user rather than the content from the first URL; and

presenting the content from the second URL at the client computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a rating initiator using the toolbar;

receiving a third single-action input using the rating initiator, the third single-action input indicative of a preference of the user with respect to a content for display to the user from a third URL; and

transmitting, in response to the third single-action input, user information including an identifier of the user, the third URL, and a rating value indicative of the preference.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user information includes demographic information of the user and wherein

the first recommendation is determined based on the demographic information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, the first recommendation is retrieved from a server computer storing a plurality of recommendations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on a rating value indicative of a preference of one of the plurality of users with respect to the content from the first URL.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on indexing information of the content from the first URL, the indexing information stored at the server computer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on user information including an identifier of the user, a third URL retrievable using the distributed network, and a rating value indicative of a preference of the user with respect to a content from the third URL.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on the user information stored at the client computer.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on the user information stored at the server computer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the content from the first URL comprises providing for display, the content from the first URL.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting the content from the second URL comprises providing for display, the content from the second URL.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation for content from a URL is across any website, for any http accessible content.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the content from the second URL is unrelated to the content from the first URL.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the content from the second URL is random with respect to the content from the first URL.

12. A system to present content retrievable using a distributed network having a plurality of users, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program modules configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program modules including instructions to;

present a toolbar to a user of the plurality of users, the toolbar including a toolbar button selectable to retrieve, from one of a local cache or a network, a recommendation for content from a uniform resource locator (URL) of a plurality of previously stored URLs, each URL corresponding to a previous recommendation for content at that URL;

transmit, in response to a first single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a first request to retrieve a first recommendation for content, the first recommendation triggered by the first single-action input;

receive a content from a first URL from the plurality of previously stored URLs, the first URL corresponding to the first recommendation for content;

present the content from the first URL;

transmit, after presenting the content from the first URL and in response to a second single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a second request to retrieve a second recommendation for content, the second recommendation triggered by the second single-action input;

receive a content from a second URL corresponding to the second recommendation of content, the second URL retrieved from the plurality of previously stored URLs, wherein the second recommendation for the content from the second URL is based on preferences of the user rather than the content from the first URL; and

present the content from the second URL.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer program modules further include instructions to:

present a rating initiator using the toolbar;

receive a single-action input using the rating initiator, the single-action input indicative of a preference of the user with respect to content for display to the user from a URL; and

transmit, in response to the single-action input, user information including an identifier of the user, the URL, and a rating value indicative of the preference, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on the rating value.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user information includes demographic information of the user and wherein the first recommendation is determined based on the demographic information.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on a rating value indicative of a preference of one of the plurality of users with respect to content from the first URL.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on indexing information of content from the first URL, the indexing information stored at the server computer.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the content from the second URL is unrelated to the content from the first URL.

21. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code for presenting content retrievable using a distributed network having a plurality of users, the computer-executable code comprising instructions to:

present a toolbar to a user of the plurality of users, the toolbar including a toolbar button selectable to retrieve, from one of a local cache or a network, a recommendation for content from a uniform resource locator (URL) of a plurality of previously stored URLs, each URL corresponding to a previous recommendation for content at that URL;

transmit, in response to a first single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a first request to retrieve a first recommendation for content, the first recommendation triggered by the first single-action input;

receive a content from a first URL from the plurality of previously stored URLs, the first URL corresponding to the first recommendation for content;

present the content from the first URL;

transmit, after presenting the content from the first URL and in response to a second single-action input through selection of the toolbar button, a second request to retrieve a second recommendation for content, the second recommendation triggered by the second single-action input;

receive a content from a second URL corresponding to the second recommendation of content, the second URL retrieved from the plurality of previously stored URLs, wherein the second recommendation for the content from the second URL is based on preferences of the user rather than the content from the first URL; and

present the content from the second URL.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the computer-executable code further comprises instructions to:

present a rating initiator using the toolbar;

receive a single-action input using the rating initiator, the single-action input indicative of a preference of the user with respect to content for display to the user from a URL; and

transmit, in response to the single-action input, user information including an identifier of the user, the URL, and a rating value indicative of the preference, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on the rating value.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the first recommendation is determined based on a rating value indicative of a preference of one of the plurality of users with respect to content from the first URL.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the content from the second URL is unrelated to the content from the first URL.