Behavior-based selection of items to present on affiliate sites

• US 8,271,878 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kane, Francis J., Hicks, Cory
• Primary Examiner(s): ABDUL-ALI, OMAR R
• Application Number:
  US11/966,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20090172551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 715/744, 715/745, 715/733, 705/14.16
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A content provider system interacts with a network of web sites to provide behavior-based content to users. Operators of the web sites add widgets to selected web pages of their sites. The widgets, when executed on the computing devices of users who view the selected web pages, report user-generated events to the content provider system. The content provider system analyzes the reported events to detect behavioral associations between particular web sites, web pages, products, and/or other types of items. The widgets may also retrieve and display behavior-based content that is based on these item-to-item behavioral associations. For example, when a user views a particular web page, a widget on that page may request and display descriptions of, and links to, other sites or pages that are (a) behaviorally related to the page being viewed or an item represented thereon, and/or (b) behaviorally related to the past browsing activities of the particular user.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an e-commerce web site that hosts an electronic catalog of items, said e-commerce web site configured to at least partially implement an affiliates program in which affiliates that operate affiliate web sites are paid commissions for user referrals that result in purchases from the electronic catalog;

an event recording system that records events associated with user actions performed across a plurality of web sites, including said e-commerce site and said affiliate web sites,

an association mining system that uses the recorded events to detect behavioral associations that associate particular web sites of said plurality of web sites, and/or particular pages of said web sites, with particular catalog items in the electronic catalog; and

a content generation system configured to receive, from a user computing device that has loaded a web page of an affiliate web site, a request for content to display on said web page, and to respond to the request by at least (1) selecting, based at least partly on a behavioral association detected by the association mining system, at least one catalog item to present on said page, and (2) transmitting, from a server of the content generation system to the user computing device, a content object that includes a description of said catalog item and a link to a corresponding catalog page of said electronic catalog of the e-commerce web site, said link encoded with affiliate identification information for tracking a resulting user referral, said content generation system being separate from the affiliate web site.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content generation system is configured to interact with widget code included in the web page of the affiliate web site to cause said web page, as loaded on the user computing device, to display said link.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the event recording system is configured to record item selection events reported via execution by user computing devices of said widget code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the content generation system is capable of using said behavioral associations to cause the web page of the affiliate web site to display recommendations of catalog items that are behaviorally related to the affiliate web site, said recommendations based on recorded behaviors of a plurality of users.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the content generation system is capable of using said behavioral associations to cause the web page of the affiliate web site to display recommendations of catalog items that, based on recorded behaviors of a plurality of users, are behaviorally related to said web page.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the content generation system is capable of using said behavioral associations, in combination with a prior event history of a target user, to generate personalized catalog-item recommendations to present to the target user on a page of an affiliate web site.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the content generation system is capable of using recorded event data descriptive of an event performed by a target user on a first web site, in combination with behavioral association data generated by the association mining system, to select one or more items to recommend to the target user on an affiliate web site that is separate from the first web site.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said behavioral association data includes a mapping of web sites to related catalog items.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining event data descriptive of at least (1) items selected by users from a target web site, and (2) accesses by said users to a plurality of web sites other than said target web site;

detecting a behavioral association between a first web site of said plurality of web sites and a particular item represented on the target web site, said behavioral association detected, at least in part, by performing an aggregated analysis of said event data over multiple users;

receiving, from a user computing device that has loaded a page of an affiliate web site, a request for content to display on said page of the affiliate web site;

in response to said request, and based at least partly on the detected behavioral association, transmitting to the user computing device, from a server that is not part of the affiliate web site, a content object for display on the page of the affiliate web site, said content object including a description of the item and a link for accessing a corresponding page of the target web site, said affiliate web site being separate from the target web site; and

causing an operator of the affiliate web site to be compensated in response to the user selecting said link and completing a transaction on the target web site.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the item is a catalog item represented in an electronic catalog of the target web site.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the target web site is an e-commerce web site.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the method comprises interacting over a network with widget code included in the page of the affiliate web site to cause said catalog item to be presented on said page.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein maintaining said event data comprises recording events reported over a network by user computing devices via browser execution of said widget code.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first web site and the affiliate web site are the same web site.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the first web site and the affiliate web site are separate, and the method comprises causing said item to be recommended to a user on the page of the affiliate site based on a prior access by the user to said first web site.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the method comprises causing one or more pages of the affiliate web site to display items determined from said aggregated analysis to be behaviorally related to the affiliate web site.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the method comprises causing one or more pages of the affiliate web site to display personalized catalog-item recommendations to a user.

18. A content provider system, comprising:

an event recording system configured receive event data reported over a network by user computing devices, said event data reflecting browsing behaviors of a plurality of users across a plurality of sites, including a shopping site that provides an affiliate program and an affiliate site that is a participant in the affiliate program;

an association mining system configured to detect behavioral associations based on said event data, including behavioral associations between the affiliate site and particular catalog items represented on the shopping site; and

a content server system comprising computer hardware, said content server system configured to receive, from a user computing device that has loaded a page of the affiliate site, a request for content to display on said page, and to respond to the request at least partly by transmitting to the user computing device, for display on the page, a content object that includes catalog-item-specific links to pages of the shopping site that correspond to said particular catalog items, said content object based at least partly on said behavioral associations between the affiliate site and the particular catalog items, said item-specific links encoded with information for tracking user referrals to the shopping site.

19. The content provider system of claim 18, wherein the association mining system is configured to detect the behavioral associations between the affiliate site and particular catalog items based on recorded events of a plurality of visitors to the affiliate site.

20. The content provider system of claim 18, wherein the content server system is additionally configured to personalize the content object based on an event history associated with the user computing device.

21. The content provider system of claim 18, in combination with the affiliate site, wherein said page of the affiliate site includes browser-executable widget code configured to cause user computing devices to interact over a network with the content provider system.

22. A content provider system, comprising:

an event recording system configured receive event data reported over a network by user computing devices, said event data reflecting browsing behaviors of a plurality of users across a plurality of sites, including a shopping site that provides an affiliate program and an affiliate site that is a participant in the affiliate program;

an association mining system configured to detect behavioral associations based on said event data, including behavioral associations between the affiliate site and particular catalog items represented on the shopping site;

a content server system comprising computer hardware, said content server system configured to receive, from a user computing device that has loaded a page of the affiliate site, a request for content to display on said page, and to respond to the request at least partly by transmitting to the user computing device, for display on the page, a content object that includes catalog-item-specific links to pages of the shopping site that correspond to said particular catalog items, said content object based at least partly on said behavioral associations between the affiliate site and the particular catalog items, said item-specific links encoded with information for tracking user referrals to the shopping site; and

a widget configuration portal configured to generate, based on preferences specified by an affiliate, browser-executable widget code that is configured to be added to one or more pages of the affiliate site, said widget code configured to cause a user computing device to report events to, and to request content from, the content provider system.