Behavior-based selection of items to present on affiliate sites
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A content provider system, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A content provider system, comprising:
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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.
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Specification