Services for using group preferences to improve item selection decisions

• US 9,123,071 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2006
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: McFarland, Ross W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Taelor
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mitiku, Berhanu
• Application Number:
  US11/277,936
• Time in Patent Office: 3,443 Days
• Field of Search: 705/343, 705/347, 705/27.1, 705/26.1, 705/26.7, 705/26.8, 705/26.81
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

Computer services use group preferences, as partially or wholly specified by preference lists of individual members, to identify items well suited for a designated group of users. In one embodiment, items in the movie/video rental queue (one type of preference list) of a first user are prioritized based, at least partly, on the rental queue of a second, affiliated user, to give priority to items corresponding to the collective preferences of both users. Items may also be recommended to the users based on their collective preferences. In a second embodiment, the suggestion lists of multiple members of a book club are used, optionally in combination with other member preference information, to select or recommend book titles for the club. In a third embodiment, the wish lists of two or more affiliated users are used to assist others in purchasing gifts that correspond to their collective preferences.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining a first queue of a first user in computer storage, said first queue identifying a plurality of items selected by the first user from an electronic catalog of items;

maintaining a second queue of a second user in computer storage, said second queue identifying a plurality of items selected by the second user from the electronic catalog of items;

detecting that the first and second users share a common delivery address;

in response to detecting that the first and second users share a common physical address, generating a user interface having a hyperlink that provides an option to the first user to have the first and second queues used in combination to select items for delivery to the first user, and providing the user interface over a computer network to a computing device of the first user;

creating an association between the first and second queues at least partly in response to acceptance of the option by the first user;

reordering the plurality of items specified in the first queue for the first user based, at least in part, on the plurality of items in the second queue, such that the second queue is taken into consideration in re-ordering the plurality of items for the first user, said reordering comprising increasing a ranking of a first item in the first queue, via execution of program code by physical computer system, based on the association between the first and second queues; and

controlling delivery of the plurality of items to the first user such that the items are delivered in an order that is based on the reordering;

said method performed by a computer system under control of program instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting to the first user a re-ordered listing of the plurality items in the first queue, said re-ordered listing reflecting said preferences of the second user, and specifying a delivery order for delivering items to the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the plurality of items in the first queue comprises increasing the ranking of the first item in the first queue in response to detecting that said first item is also in the second queue.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second queues are rental queues that identify items selected by the first and second users, respectively, to rent.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein reordering the plurality of items specified in the first rental queue comprises additionally taking into consideration a rental history of the second user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the plurality of items in the first queue comprises executing a recommendations process to predict a degree of affinity the second user has for an item that is in the first queue but not in the second queue.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the plurality of items in the first queue comprises, for an item that is in the first queue but not the second queue, calculating a value that represents a degree to which the item is related to the plurality of items in the second queue.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of items specified in the first queue are reordered in accordance with a setting specified by the first user regarding an amount of weight to be given to the second queue.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

selecting the first item from the first queue for delivery to the first user, said first item being an item that is also in the second queue; and

in response to selecting the first item for delivery to the first user, doing one of the following;

(a) automatically removing the first item from the second queue, (b) prompting the second user to indicate whether the first item is to be removed from the second queue.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the first item from the first queue for delivery to the first user;

and causing the first item to be sent to the first user with a return envelope that includes an area for indicating whether the first item should be removed from the second queue.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the items are physical items that are shipped to users.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the items are digital items that are delivered to users over a computer network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, via the user interface, an option for the user to adjust a setting that controls a level of priority given to the second queue in reordering the plurality of items in the first queue.

14. A computer-implemented method of identifying items that correspond to preferences of a group of users, the method, comprising:

maintaining a first preference list of a first user in computer storage, said first preference list identifying a plurality of catalog items selected by the first user from an electronic catalog of items, and representing preferences of the first user;

maintaining a second preference list of a second user in computer storage, said second preference list identifying a second plurality of catalog items selected by the second user from the electronic catalog of items, and representing preferences of the second user;

detecting that the first and second users share a common delivery address;

in response to detecting that the first and second users share a common delivery address, providing an option to the first user, via a user interface provided on a network, to request creation of an association between the first and second preferences lists;

creating an association between the first preference list and the second preference list at least partly in response to the first user selecting the option; and

programmatically using at least the first preference list and the second preference list, in combination, at least partly as a result of the association created between the first and second preference lists, to select a catalog item that corresponds to the preferences of both the first user and the second user, wherein the programmatic selection of the catalog item is in response to detecting that the catalog item is on the first preference list and is also on the second preference list; and

causing the selected catalog item to be delivered to the first user before at least one catalog item that is listed on the first preference list but not the second preference list;

said method performed by a computer system under control of program instructions.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first and second preference lists are rental queues of the first and second users, respectively, and the selected catalog item is in the rental queue of the first user, and wherein the method further comprises, in response to the programmatic selection of the catalog item, causing the catalog item to be delivered to the first user before at least one item that is in a higher priority position in the rental queue of the first user.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating, in association with the preference list of the first user, an output message which identifies the selected catalog item as corresponding to the preferences of both users.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the programmatic selection of the item is executed on a computer system comprising computer hardware.