Generating a recommendation

• US 9,165,300 B2
• Filed: 08/02/2012
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Poon, Alex Dai-Shun, Maltzman, Reed, Taylor, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond, Rob
• Application Number:
  US13/565,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20120296764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for communicating a recommended item to a user of a network-based transaction facility are described. The method comprises determining that the user has been unsuccessful in concluding a transaction pertaining to an item offered for sale via the network-based transaction facility, and in response to this determination, communicating information concerning a recommended item to the user over a network. The recommended item is available for purchase via the network-based transaction facility.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor configured by a commitment evaluator to;

determine that a user of a network-based facility requested a plural number of views of an item page that describes a first item available for purchase through a transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate;

increment a field that corresponds to the first item within a table that corresponds to the user; and

compare the plural number of requested views of the item page to a threshold value that represents a threshold level of commitment to a single item; and

a recommendation generator configured to;

generate a recommendation of a second item that is similar to the first item and is available for purchase through a further transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate, the generating of the recommendation including;

identifying a set of longest words in a first description of the first item, the set of longest words comprising a predetermined number of words,

assigning the set of longest words as keywords, and

identifying the second item based on the keywords being included in a second description of a second item,

the generating of the recommendation of the second item being based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment; and

communicate the generated recommendation of the second item to the user based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment.

2. A method comprising:

determining that a user of a network-based facility requested a plural number of views of an item page that describes a first item available for purchase through a transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate,

the determining that the user requested the plural number of views of the item page being performed by a processor of a machine,

the determining including incrementing a field that corresponds to the first item within a table that corresponds to the user;

comparing the plural number of requested views of the item page to a threshold value that represents a threshold level of commitment to a single item;

generating a recommendation of a second item that is similar to the first item and is available for purchase through a further transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate, the generating of the recommendation including;

identifying a set of longest words in a first description of the first item, the set of longest words comprising a predetermined number of words,

assigning the set of longest words as keywords, and

identifying the second item based on the keywords being included in a second description of the second item,

the generating of the recommendation of the second item being based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment; and

communicating the generated recommendation of the second item to the user based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

accessing preference data generated by a seller of the first item and indicative of a preference of the seller of the first item that recommendations be communicated to the user; and

wherein

the communicating of the generated recommendation of the second item to the user is based on the accessed preference data indicating the preference of the seller of the first item that recommendations be communicated to the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the generating of the recommendation of the second item similar to the first item is based on the plural number of requested views of the item page transgressing the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the determining that the user requested the plural number of views of the item page includes incrementing a field that corresponds to the first item within a table that corresponds to the user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the incrementing of the field that corresponds to the first item is in response to the user making a bid on the first item.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the incrementing of the field that corresponds to the first item is in response to the user making an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the first item.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the incrementing of the field that corresponds to the first item is in response to the user selecting the first item within a category of items.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the incrementing of the field that corresponds to the first item is in response to the user requesting to view the item page that describes the first item.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the threshold level of commitment represents a degree of user interest in items available for purchase.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment is three.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment is indicative of the first item being of importance to the user.

13. 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:

determining that a user of a network-based facility requested a plural number of views of an item page that describes a first item available for purchase through a transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate,

the determining that the user requested the plural number of views of the item page being performed by the one or more processors of the machine,

the determining including incrementing a field that corresponds to the first item within a table that corresponds to the user;

comparing the plural number of requested views of the item page to a threshold value that represents a threshold level of commitment to a single item;

generating a recommendation of a second item that is similar to the first item and is available for purchase through a further transaction that the network-based facility is able to initiate, the generating of the recommendation including;

identifying a set of longest words in a first description of the first item, the set of longest words comprising a predetermined number of words,

assigning the set of longest words as keywords, and

identifying the second item based on the keywords being included in a second description of the second item,

the generating of the recommendation of the second item being based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment; and

communicating the generated recommendation of the second item to the user based on the comparing of the plural number of requested views of the item page to the threshold value that represents the threshold level of commitment.