Identifying an answer to a question in an electronic forum

• US 8,769,417 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robinson, James G., King, Joseph, Farrell, Brandon W., Dicker, Russell A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LEGGETT, ANDREA C.
• Application Number:
  US12/873,000
• Time in Patent Office: 1,400 Days
• Field of Search: 715/780, 715/764, 715/751, 715/708, 715/714
• US Class Current: 715/751
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for identifying an answer to a question in an electronic discussion forum. In some embodiments, text from a discussion forum that includes a question may be retrieved. One or more responses to the question from the discussion forum may be determined. An answer to the question may then be determined from the one or more responses to the question. In some embodiments, an answer may be determined based, at least in part, on at least one of a context of the text from the discussion forum, a context of a location in which the answer to the question may be further presented, and user behavior related to the one or more responses to the question.

Claims

1. A system for identifying a good answer to a question left unanswered in a discussion forum, the system comprising:

a data store that stores text from a first discussion forum that includes at least one question; and

a computing device in communication with the data store and that is operative to;

identify, in the text from the first discussion forum, a question that has not received a good answer in the first discussion forum;

identify one or more responses to the question from at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum;

determine good answer criteria for each of the one or more responses to the question identified from the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum, wherein the good answer criteria for each of the one or more responses is based at least in part on a relevance of a context in which the question was included in the first discussion forum to a context in which the identified one or more responses were included in the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum; and

determine a good answer to the question from the one or more responses to the question identified from the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum, wherein the good answer is determined based at least in part on whether the good answer criteria is satisfied for the good answer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising applying weights to the good answer criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein good answer criteria for each of the one or more responses further includes a user vote for the one of the one or more responses, wherein the user vote comprises a vote that a given user considers the one of the one or more responses to be the best answer to the question.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein good answer criteria further includes a vote indicating that a user that originally asked the question considers one of the one or more responses to be the best answer to the question.

5. A computer-implemented method for identifying a good answer to a question left unanswered in a discussion forum, the computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,

retrieving text from a first discussion forum;

identifying, in the text of the first discussion forum, a question that has not received a good answer in the first discussion forum;

identifying one or more responses to the question from at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum; and

determining a good answer to the question from the one or more responses to the question identified from the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum, wherein the good answer is determined based, at least in part, on a relevance of a context in which the question was included in the first discussion forum to a context of the at least one discussion forum in which the one or more responses were identified, and user behavior related to the one or more responses to the question.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on user votes for the one of the one or more responses.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein a user vote for the one of the one or more responses comprises a vote that the one of the one or more responses was helpful to a given user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein a user vote for the one of the one or more responses comprises a vote that a given user considers the one of the one or more responses to be the best answer to the question.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising applying weights to the user votes for the one of the one or more responses based, at least in part, on a context in which the user votes were received.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on at least one of:

situational analysis of the one or more responses, semantic analysis of the one or more responses, and sentiment analysis of the one or more responses.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein user behavior related to one of the one or more responses to the question comprises whether a user selected to view the one of the one or more responses.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein user behavior related to one of the one or more responses to the question comprises whether a user selected an item referenced in the one of the one or more responses.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein user behavior related to one of the one or more responses to the question comprises whether a user purchased an item referenced in the one of the one or more responses.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on a selection of the good answer by a user that asked the question.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on a location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented, wherein the location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented comprises a discussion forum other than the first discussion forum and the at least one discussion forum in which the one or more responses were identified.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the first discussion forum and the at least one discussion forum comprising the one or more responses are each associated with at least one of an item, a category, a sub-category, a community, and a tag.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising determining whether a context of the at least one discussion forum comprising the one or more responses is similar to a context of a location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for identifying a good answer to a question in a discussion forum, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

retrieving text from a first discussion forum;

identifying, in the text of the first discussion forum, a question that has not received a good answer in the first discussion forum;

identifying one or more responses to the question from at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum; and

determining a good answer to the question from the one or more responses to the question, wherein the good answer is determined based, at least in part, on a comparison between a context of the text from the first discussion forum and a context of the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on user votes for one of the one or more responses.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the context of the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum is determined based at least in part on one or more user interfaces generated prior to the question being included in the discussion forum.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on a location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented, wherein the location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented comprises a user interface that displays information associated with an item.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on a location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented, wherein the location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented comprises a user interface that displays search results.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the good answer is further determined based at least in part on a location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented, wherein the location in which the good answer to the question may be further presented comprises a discussion forum other than the discussion forum that includes the question.

24. A system for identifying an answer to a question left unanswered in a discussion forum, the system comprising:

a data store that stores text from a first discussion forum that includes a question; and

a computing device in communication with the data store and that is operative to;

identify one or more responses to the question from at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum; and

determine an answer to the question from the one or more responses to the question from the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum, wherein the answer is determined based, at least in part, on a relevancy of a context of the text from the first discussion forum to a context of text from the at least one discussion forum other than the first discussion forum.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the answer is further determined based at least in part on user votes for one of the one or more responses.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the answer is further determined based at least in part on at least one of:

situational analysis of the one or more responses, semantic analysis of the one or more responses, and sentiment analysis of the one or more responses.