Location-centric recommendation service for users

• US 8,751,427 B1
• Filed: 01/05/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mysen, Clarence C., Chen, Johnny
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): PELLETT, DANIEL T
• Application Number:
  US12/984,861
• Time in Patent Office: 1,252 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for location centric user profiling and services. In one aspect, a method includes accessing historical location data specifying physical locations at which user devices were detected; accessing network data for each of the users of the user devices, the network data for each user indicative of subjective preferences of the user; for each of the users, determining physical locations specified by the location data, determining entities from the physical locations and visited by the user, determining for each entity a satisfaction measure that is indicative of a satisfaction of the user with the entity, and generating a user profile for the user specifying topics that are of interest to the user, the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user, and the satisfaction measures of the entities.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a data processing apparatus;

a memory storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and that upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

accessing historical location data specifying physical locations at which user devices were detected, each user device being associated with a corresponding user of the user device;

accessing network data for each of the users, the network data for each user being from a network presence of the user and indicative of subjective preferences of the user;

for each of the users;

determining physical locations specified by the location data associated with the user device corresponding to the user;

determining entities from the physical locations, each of the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user;

determining, for each of the entities, a satisfaction measure that is indicative of a satisfaction of the user with the entity; and

generating from the satisfaction measures and the network data a user profile for the user, the user profile specifying topics that are of interest to the user, the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user, and the satisfaction measures of the entities;

receiving an entity recommendation request from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user;

identifying entities at which user devices associated with the other users are currently located; and

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user based on the profile of the user and the profile of the other users.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an entity recommendation request from a user;

determine the location of the user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user and that are or were in the location of the user;

identifying entities near the location of the user;

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user based on the profile of the user and the profile of the other users.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an entity trend request from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user;

identifying entities at which a minimum number of user devices associated with the other users are determined to have visited within a recent time period; and

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a question regarding an entity from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user; and

facilitating a communication between the user and at least one of the identified other users.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an entity recommendation request specifying two or more users;

accessing the profiles of each of the two or more users in response to the request;

identifying a set of group topics from the topics specified by the profiles of the two or more users;

recommending, based on the set of group topics, one or more of the identified entities in response to the entity recommendation request.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying a set of group topics from the topics specified by the profiles of the two or more users comprises identifying topics that are commonly specified by each user profile.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request for a gift recommendation from a friend of the user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

providing a gift recommendation based on the topics and the entities specified by the user profile.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein determining, for each of the entities, a satisfaction measure that is indicative of a satisfaction of the user with the entity comprises:

obtaining a payment for a service provided by the entity;

identifying a tip percentage from the payment;

comparing the tip percentage to a tip threshold;

determining a positive satisfaction measure if the tip percentage is above the tip threshold;

determining a negative satisfaction measure if the tip percentage is below the tip threshold.

9. A method performed by a data processing apparatus, comprising:

accessing historical location data specifying physical locations at which user devices were detected, each user device being associated with a corresponding user of the user device;

accessing network data for each of the users, the network data for each user being from a network presence of the user and indicative of subjective preferences of the user;

for each of the users;

determining physical locations specified by the location data associated with the user device corresponding to the user;

determining entities from the physical locations, each of the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user;

determining, for each of the entities, a satisfaction measure that is indicative of a satisfaction of the user with the entity; and

generating from the satisfaction measures and the network data a user profile for the user, the user profile specifying topics that are of interest to the user, the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user, and the satisfaction measures of the entities;

receiving an entity recommendation request from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user;

identifying entities at which user devices associated with the other users are currently located; and

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an entity trend request from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user;

identifying entities at which a minimum number user devices associated with the other users are determined to have visited within a recent time period; and

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a question regarding an entity from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user; and

facilitating a communication between the user and at least one of the identified other users.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the instructions upon execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an entity recommendation request specifying two or more users;

accessing the profiles of each of the two or more users in response to the request;

identifying a set of group topics from the topics specified by the profiles of the two or more users;

recommending, based on the set of group topics, one or more of the identified entities in response to the entity recommendation request.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein identifying a set of group topics from the topics specified by the profiles of the two or more users comprises identifying topics that are commonly specified by each user profile.

14. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

accessing historical location data specifying physical locations at which user devices were detected, each user device being associated with a corresponding user of the user device;

accessing network data for each of the users, the network data for each user being from a network presence of the user and indicative of subjective preferences of the user;

for each of the users;

determining physical locations specified by the location data associated with the user device corresponding to the user;

determining entities from the physical locations, each of the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user;

determining, for each of the entities, a satisfaction measure that is indicative of a satisfaction of the user with the entity; and

generating from the satisfaction measures and the network data a user profile for the user, the user profile specifying topics that are of interest to the user, the entities having been determined to have been visited by the user device corresponding to the user, and the satisfaction measures of the entities;

receiving an entity recommendation request from a user;

accessing the profile of the user in response to the request;

identifying other users that have similar topic interests as the user;

identifying entities at which user devices associated with the other users are currently located; and

recommending at least one of the identified entities to the user.