Merchandising items of topical interest

• US 8,554,641 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2012
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Mohan, Sunil
• Primary Examiner(s): STOPP, COURTNEY L
• Application Number:
  US13/347,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20120109788A1
• Time in Patent Office: 637 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1, 705/26.7, 705/14.5
• US Class Current: 705/26.7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Various embodiments are described herein that provide one or more of a systems, methods, software, and data structures within an Internet marketplace context that are useful to promote products that may be associated with an event occurrence. Some embodiments further utilize collaborative filtering to augment event-based product recommendations.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a remote source, indications of public event occurrences and storing, in an event database, event records representing each public event occurrence for which an indication has been received;

receiving, from a requestor, a product merchandising service request;

in response to the product merchandising service request, identifying one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database as a function of at least one event record in the event database, each of the at least one event records related to the identified product listings and product categories; and

returning, to the requestor, data representative of the identified one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying relationships between entity records stored in an entity database and event records of the event database, each entity record including data representative of a person, place, or thing; and

storing data representative of the identified relationships from which the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database are made.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving input creating relationships between an event record of the event database and one or both of products and product categories; and

storing a data representation of the received input creating the relationships to facilitate the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within the product database are made.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving product listings and categories of product listings from the product database and through event-product merchandising module in response to a user level request, the event-product merchandising module performing the identifying of one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories within the product database; and

retrieving event data from event records of the event database as a function of one or more retrieved product listings and categories of product listings.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the retrieved event data includes at least a headline of a news story and a hyperlink to a full-text version of the news story.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium, with instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause a computer to:

receive, from a remote source, indications of public event occurrences and store, in an event database, event records representing each public event occurrence for which an indication has been received;

receive, from a requestor, a product merchandising service request;

in response to the product merchandising service request, identify one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database as a function of at least one event record in the event database, each of the at least one event records related to the identified product listings and product categories; and

return, to the requestor, data representative of the identified one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, with further instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause the computer to:

identify relationships between entity records stored in an entity database and event records of the event database, each entity record including data representative of a person, place, or thing; and

store data representative of the identified relationships from which the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database are made.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, with further instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause the computer to:

receive input creating relationships between an event record of the event database and one or both of products and product categories; and

store a date representation of the received input creating the relationships to facilitate the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within the product database are made.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, with further instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause the computer to:

retrieve product listings and categories of product listings from the product database and through event-product merchandising module in response to a user level request, the event-product merchandising module performing the identifying of one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories within the product database; and

retrieve event data from event records of the event database as a function of one or more retrieved product listings and categories of product listings.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the retrieved event data includes at least a headline of a news story and a hyperlink to a full-text version of the news story.

11. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory device;

at least one network interface device;

instructions stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to;

receive, from a remote source via the at least one network interface device, indications of public event occurrences and store, in an event database, event records representing each public event occurrence for which an indication has been received;

receive, from a requestor via the at least one network interface device, a product merchandising service request;

in response to the product merchandising service request, identify one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database as a function of at least one event record in the event database, each of the at least one event records related to the identified product listings and product categories; and

return, to the requestor via the at least one network interface device, data representative of the identified one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising instructions stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to:

identify relationships between entity records stored in an entity database and event records of the event database, each entity record including data representative of a person, place, or thing; and

store data representative of the identified relationships from which the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within a product database are made.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising instructions stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to:

receive input creating relationships between an event record of the event database and one or both of products and product categories; and

store a data representation of the received input creating the relationships to facilitate the identifying of the one or both of one or more product listings and product categories within the product database are made.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising instructions stored in the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to cause the system to:

retrieve product listings and categories of product listings from the product database and through event-product merchandising module in response to a user level request, the event-product merchandising module performing the identifying of one or both of the one or more product listings and product categories within the product database; and

retrieve event data from event records of the event database as a function of one or more retrieved product listings and categories of product listings.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the retrieved event data includes at least a headline of a news story and a hyperlink to a full-text version of the news story.