Geographically localized recommendations in a computing advice facility

• US 9,159,034 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2011
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Pinckney, Thomas, Dixon, Christopher, Gattis, Matthew Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN JR, NATHAN H
• Application Number:
  US13/155,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20110307478A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 706/11
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/04 characterised by modifying the teaching programme in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question, supplying a further explanation

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a geographically localized recommendation to a user through a computer-based advice facility, comprising collecting a recommendation from an Internet source, wherein the recommendation is determined to have an interestingness aspect and a geographic location aspect, comparing the collected recommendation to a derived user taste and the user'"'"'s current geographic location, determining at least one recommendation for the user based on processing on the comparison, and delivering at least one recommendation to a user'"'"'s mobile communications device, wherein the user is enabled to at least one of view, save, and share the recommendation via an application at least in part resident on the computer-based advice facility.

Claims

1. A method of providing a geographically localized recommendation to a user through a computer-based advice facility, comprising:

collecting a recommendation from an Internet source, the recommendation being determined to have an interestingness aspect and a geographic location aspect, the interestingness aspect being topical information that is new as determined by a date of emergence on the Internet;

comparing the collected recommendation to a derived user taste and the user'"'"'s current geographic location;

determining at least one recommendation for the user based on processing on the comparison; and

delivering, using one or more processors, the at least one recommendation to a user'"'"'s mobile communications device, the user being enabled to at least one of view, save, and share the determined recommendation via an application at least in part resident on the computer-based advice facility.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer-based advice facility is a mobile communications device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mobile communications device is a smart-phone.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing includes providing source information from the Internet source.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the source information includes the collected recommendation.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the source information includes a rating.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the source information includes an image associated with the Internet source.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the source information includes a visual indictor of an extent of similarity to the tastes of at least one individual who made the collected recommendation.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the source information includes a visual indicator of an extent of similarity to the tastes of individuals other than an individual who made the collected recommendation.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the visual indicator indicates a sorting of individuals based on the extent of taste similarity.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein individuals are listed in decreasing order of similarity.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the interestingness aspect is topical information that is deemed by the advice facility to be new to the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the interestingness aspect is topical information that has a new aspect to an existing topic.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the interestingness aspect is determined as related to the ratio of users rating the item, to the item being saved by users.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the interestingness aspect is determined by an acceleration of social activity associated with topical information.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the interestingness aspect is information that is determined to be similar to the user'"'"'s profile and dissimilar to the user'"'"'s history.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further determined to be at least one of relevant to the user'"'"'s current location and a temporal factor.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further based on topical information that is new as determined by a date of emergence on the Internet.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further based on topical information that is deemed by the advice facility to be new to the user.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further based on topical information that has a new aspect to an existing topic.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further determined as related to the ratio of users rating the item, to the item being saved by users.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the interestingness aspect is further determined by an acceleration of social activity associated with the topical information.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographical aspect is a geographical location associated with topical information.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the geographical location is the location of an event.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the geographical location is the location of a store.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the geographical location is the location of a restaurant, a point-of-interest, or a product location.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the derived user taste is based on a rating.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is provided by the user.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is provided by friends of the user.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is provided by people with similar taste as the user.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is provided by an authoritative source.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is provided by a famous person.

33. The method of claim 27, wherein the rating is inferred from user behavior.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the user behavior is online behavior, including at least one of buying behaviors, browsing behavior, social networking behavior, and location-based behaviors.

35. The method of claim 27, wherein the derived user taste is based on machine learning with respect to user online behavior.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined recommendation is at least one of items to buy, places to visit, events to attend, and places to eat.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined recommendation is based on one of ratings and recommendations of at least one other user with similar tastes to the user from the current geographic location of the user.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the similar tastes is determined by machine learning through at least one of ratings from the other user and online behavior of the other user.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined recommendation is provided as part of a feed of local discovery recommendations.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the saving of the determined recommendation corresponds to saving to a list, where the list is at least one of a wish list, a to-do list, an events list, and a deals list.

41. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined recommendation is shown saved and provided to the user through a local discovery application responsive to the geographic location aspect of the saved recommendation matching the current location of the user.

42. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined recommendation is forwarded to the user based on a recommendation from at least one other user, where the advice facility determines an applicability radius around the user'"'"'s current location for use of the other user'"'"'s recommendation.

43. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is a local discovery application.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the local discovery application correlates at least one of new and saved recommendations with the weather.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the local discovery application correlates at least one of new and saved recommendations with the time of day.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein the local discovery application correlates at least one of new and saved recommendations with the user'"'"'s social activity.

47. The method of claim 43, wherein the local discovery application displays images based on a determination by the advice facility of the user'"'"'s inferred interest in at least one of each recommendation and each topic.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the displayed images are displayed in an irregular grid where the left-right top-to-bottom ordering is based on a determination by the advice facility of the user'"'"'s inferred interest in at least one of each recommendation an each topic.

51. The method of claim 7, wherein the image is a photo of an individual who provided the collected recommendation.

49. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

collecting a recommendation from an Internet source, the recommendation being determined to have an interestingness aspect and a geographic location aspect, the interestingness aspect being topical information that is new as determined by a date of emergence on the Internet;

comparing the collected recommendation to a derived user taste and the user'"'"'s current geographic location;

determining at least one recommendation for the user based on processing on the comparison; and

delivering the at least one recommendation to a user'"'"'s mobile communications device, the user being enabled to at least one of view, save, and share the determined recommendation via an application at least in part resident on a computer-based advice facility.

50. A system comprising

a computer-based advice facility, comprising one or more processors, configured to:

collect a recommendation from an Internet source, the recommendation being determined to have an interestingness aspect and a geographic location aspect, the interestingness aspect being topical information that is new as determined by a date of emergence on the Internet;

compare the collected recommendation to a derived user taste and the user'"'"'s current geographic location;

determine at least one recommendation for the user based on processing on the comparison; and

deliver the at least one recommendation to a user'"'"'s mobile communications device, the user being enabled to at least one of view, save, and share the determined recommendation via an application at least in part resident on the computer-based advice facility.