Service for accepting and selectively exposing user-generated lists

• US 8,892,506 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2013
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bezos, Jeffrey P., Snodgrass, Ryan Justin, York, Jeremy Charles, Dicker, Russell A., Power, Joanna L., Round, Matthew James
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US13/764,029
• Publication Number:
  US 20130151370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609, 707/705, 707/709, 707/758, 707/769, 707/944, 705/14.45, 705/26.7
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

An interactive system enables users to generate and submit lists of items (e.g., products selected from an electronic catalog) for viewing by other users. The user-generated lists are selectively suggested to users of the system based (or based in part) on ratings of the user-generated lists. These ratings may, for example, be based on explicit ratings of the lists by users, and/or measures of how effective the respective lists are at driving purchases of items. In some contexts, the system may select one or more user-generated lists to present to a user based on a set of items purchased, viewed, or otherwise selected by the user, or based on the results of a search query submitted by the user.

Claims

1. A method of accepting and exposing user-generated lists of items, comprising:

providing, in association with an electronic catalog of items, a user interface that includes functionality for users to interactively generate lists of items selected from the electronic catalog, and to submit the lists for viewing by other users, said user interface enabling each user to specify, on an item-by-item basis, a plurality of catalog items to include on a list, and to submit the list to a server;

receiving user-generated lists of items, said user-generated lists generated and submitted by users via the user interface, said user-generated lists generated by respective users and identifying items selected from the electronic catalog by such users;

exposing the user-generated lists to users of the electronic catalog, and monitoring associated user actions of users who access the exposed user-generated lists;

generating list ratings of particular user-generated lists based at least partly on the monitored user actions of users who access the corresponding user-generated lists; and

selecting, from the received user-generated lists, particular user-generated lists to recommend to users based at least partly on the list ratings, said selecting comprising selecting a user-generated list to present to a user based on the list rating of the user-generated list and based additionally on monitored user activity that evidences an interest of said user;

said method performed by a computing system that comprises one or more physical servers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to recommend to users comprises implementing a plurality of list selection algorithms to select user-generated lists to recommend to users, each list selection algorithm corresponding to a different respective list recommendation context.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the list ratings are based at least partly on explicit ratings by users of particular user-generated lists.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the list ratings are based at least partly on a measure of an effectiveness of particular user-generated lists at driving purchases by users of items represented in the electronic catalog.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user actions comprises monitoring purchases that are attributable to particular user-generated lists, and wherein generating the list ratings comprises generating, for a user-generated list of items, a list rating that depends upon purchases that are attributable to the user-generated list.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing the user-generated lists comprises exposing at least some of the lists in conjunction with information regarding the users who authored the respective lists.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes at least one field for an author of a list to submit comments regarding the list, and wherein exposing the user-generated lists comprises exposing said comments with the corresponding lists.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to recommend to users comprises:

receiving a search query submitted by a user;

identifying a set of catalog items that are responsive to the search query; and

selecting one or more user-generated lists to present to the user in response to the search query based on at least (1) the set of catalog items that are responsive to the search query, and (2) the list ratings of the user-generated lists.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating, in response to the search query, a search results page that lists the set of responsive catalog items and the one or more selected user-generated lists.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to recommend to users comprises selecting a user-generated list that is related to a particular catalog item that has an item detail page in the electronic catalog, and incorporating into the item detail page a description of, and link to, the selected user-generated list.

10. A method of accepting and exposing user-generated lists of items, comprising:

providing, in association with an electronic catalog of items, a user interface that includes functionality for users to interactively generate lists of items selected from the electronic catalog, and to submit the lists for viewing by other users;

receiving user-generated lists of items, said user-generated lists generated and submitted by users via the user interface, said user-generated lists generated by respective users and identifying items selected from the electronic catalog by such users;

exposing the user-generated lists to users of the electronic catalog, and monitoring associated user actions of users who access the exposed user-generated lists;

generating list ratings of particular user-generated lists based at least partly on the monitored user actions of users who access the corresponding user-generated lists; and

selecting, from the received user-generated lists, particular user-generated lists to recommend to users based at least partly on the list ratings, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to recommend to users comprises;

identifying a plurality of items associated with an interest of a user, the plurality of items identified based on one or more actions performed by the user in connection with items represented in the electronic catalog; and

selecting, from the received user-generated lists, a set of one or more user-generated lists that are related to at least some of the plurality of items associated with the interest of the user;

said method performed by a computing system that comprises one or more physical servers.

12. An interactive system capable of accepting and exposing user-generated lists of items, said interactive system comprising:

a server system that provides user access to an electronic catalog of items, and provides user access to a user interface for generating and submitting lists of said items for viewing by other users, said user interface including functionality for a user to specify, on an item-by-item basis, a plurality of catalog items to include on a list and to submit the list to the server system, said server system comprising one or more physical servers;

a data repository that stores user-generated lists submitted by users via the user interface, said user-generated lists generated by respective users and identifying catalog items selected from the electronic catalog by such users; and

a list selection system configured to generate ratings of particular user-generated lists stored in the data repository based at least partly on user actions performed by users who access the corresponding user-generated lists, said list selection system further configured to use the ratings, in combination with monitored user activity, to select particular user-generated lists to suggest to users.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the list selection system is configured to use a plurality of list selection algorithms to select user-generated lists to suggest to users, each list selection algorithm corresponding to a different respective list suggestion context.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the list ratings are list effectiveness ratings.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the list effectiveness ratings are based at least partly on a measure of how effective the user-generated lists are at driving purchases of items.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the list ratings are based on explicit ratings by users of the user-generated lists.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the user interface includes at least one field for an author of a user-generated list to submit comments regarding the user-generated list, said comments being viewable by users who access the user-generated list.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the list selection system is configured to select user-generated lists to suggest to users by a process that comprises:

receiving a search query submitted by a user;

identifying a set of catalog items that are responsive to the search query; and

selecting one or more user-generated lists to present to the user in response to the search query based on at least (1) the set of catalog items that are responsive to the search query, and (2) the list ratings of the user-generated lists.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the list selection system is configured to select a user-generated list that is related to a particular catalog item that has an item detail page in the electronic catalog, and the interactive system is configured to incorporate into the item detail page a description of, and link to, the selected user-generated list.

19. An interactive system capable of accepting and exposing user-generated lists of items, said interactive system comprising:

a server system that provides user access to an electronic catalog of items, and provides user access to a user interface for generating and submitting lists of said items for viewing by other users, said server system comprising one or more physical servers;

a data repository that stores user-generated lists submitted by users via the user interface, said user-generated lists generated by respective users and identifying items selected from the electronic catalog by such users; and

a list selection system configured to generate ratings of particular user-generated lists stored in the data repository based at least partly on user actions performed by users who access the corresponding user-generated lists, said list selection system further configured to use the ratings to select particular user-generated lists to suggest to users;

wherein the list selection system is configured to select, from the submitted user-generated lists, particular user-generated lists to suggest to users by a process that comprises;

identifying a plurality of items associated with an interest of a user, the plurality of items identified based on one or more actions performed by the user in connection with items represented in the electronic catalog; and

selecting, from the received user-generated lists, a set of one or more user-generated lists that are related to at least some of the plurality of items associated with the interest of the user.

21. Non-transitory computer storage that stores executable program code that directs a computing system comprising one or more computing devices to perform a process that comprises:

receiving and storing user-generated lists of items selected by users from an electronic catalog, said user-generated lists generated and submitted by users via a user interface that provides functionality for the users to interactively generate the lists, said user interface including functionality for a user to specify, on an item-by-item basis, a plurality of catalog items to include on a list and to submit the list, said user-generated lists generated by respective users and identifying items selected from the electronic catalog by such users;

exposing the user-generated lists to users of the electronic catalog, and monitoring associated user actions of users who access the exposed user-generated lists;

generating list ratings of particular user-generated lists based at least partly on the monitored user actions of users who access the corresponding user-generated lists; and

selecting particular user-generated lists to suggest to users based at least partly on the list ratings and based additionally on monitored user actions.

22. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein the list ratings are list effectiveness ratings.

23. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein the list ratings are based on explicit ratings by users of the user-generated lists.

24. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to suggest comprises using the list ratings, in combination with data regarding catalog items associated with an interest of a user, to select, for recommendation to the user, user-generated lists that are related to the interest of the user.

25. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein selecting particular user-generated lists to suggest to users comprises:

identifying a plurality of items associated with an interest of a user, the plurality of items identified based on one or more actions performed by the user in connection with items represented in the electronic catalog; and

selecting, from the received user-generated lists, a set of one or more user-generated lists that are related to at least some of the plurality of items associated with the interest of the user.

26. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein exposing the user-generated lists comprises exposing list names submitted by the users that authored the respective lists.

27. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 21, wherein exposing the user-generated lists comprises exposing to users, in connection with a user-generated list, information regarding qualifications of a user who submitted the user-generated list.

28. Non-transitory computer storage that stores executable program code that directs a computing system comprising one or more computing devices to perform a process that comprises:

receiving a list submission from a user computing device of a user, said list submission comprising a list of a plurality of catalog items individually selected by the user from an electronic catalog, said list submission additionally including a list name and information regarding the user, said list generated by the user using a list creation user interface that includes functionality for interactively generating and submitting lists of items selected from the electronic catalog;

exposing the list, together with the list name and the information about the user, to a plurality of additional users, and monitoring user actions performed by the users in association with the list;

generating a list rating for the list based at least partly on the monitored user actions; and

controlling subsequent exposure of the list to users based in part on the list rating and based additionally on monitored user activity.

29. The non-transitory storage of claim 28, wherein the list submission further includes, for at least some of the catalog items on the list, respective item-specific comments supplied by the user, and wherein exposing the list comprises exposing the item-specific comments to the plurality of additional users.