Method and apparatus for quickly evaluating entities

• US 9,195,769 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2012
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OpenTable, Inc. (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Original Assignee: OpenTable, Inc. (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Inventors: Chatterji, Sourav, Reese, Corey Layne, Schlansker, Steven Charles, Wu, Leejay, Twohey, Paul Kenneth, Schiff, Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Loan T
• Application Number:
  US13/553,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20130024465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for evaluating entities for a target user, the method comprising obtaining, at a server computer, entity data from a plurality of data sources. The entity data is then stored in an entity database. The method further comprises merging the entity data from the plurality of data sources, mapping the entity data to a corresponding entity, and differentiating the entity. Then a relevance is determined associated with the entity data and data source. The method further comprises generating a set of entity evaluations to the target user using the relevance, determining a set of one or more entities relevant to the primary user based on the entity data, user data, and the relevance, with an initial order of relevance, and displaying, on a user device, the set of relevant entities to the target user in the order of relevance.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for evaluation of an entity by a target user based at least on stored data about the target user, wherein the entity is an entity of a set of entities, and evaluation is related to the entity, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server computer, entity data relating to a particular entity, wherein the entity data includes a relevance based on a rating and a weight based on a relationship with the target user for a particular user that provided the entity data through a particular data source;

determining, by the server computer, a set of entity evaluations to request from the target user based on the weight and the relevance;

from the set of entity evaluations to request, generating, at the server computer, a set of predicted entity evaluations for one or more entities relevant to the target user based on the entity data, user data, and relevance;

determining an order of relevance of the relevant entities based at least in part on the relevance and the weight to increase accuracy of the predicted entity evaluations; and

communicating, from the server computer to the target user, the order of relevance of the one or more relevant entities;

after communicating the order of relevance, receiving, from a user device, evaluation data from the target user that is based on an evaluation received through input via the user device;

in response to receiving the evaluation data, increasing the accuracy of the predicted entity evaluations by computing a similarity among the target user and the particular user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, at the server computer, personal data from the one or more of data sources, wherein the personal data is associated with the target user in a plurality of users;

storing the personal data at the server computer, wherein personal data associated with the plurality of users is stored in a user database;

merging, by the server computer, the personal data from the plurality of data sources;

mapping, by the server computer, the personal data from the plurality of data sources to the target user;

updating the user database with the personal data and stored data associated with the target user;

determining, at the server computer, whether an entity is associated with the personal data from the target user;

wherein the order of relevance of the set of entity evaluations to request is based at least in part on the personal data from the target user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the relevance to the target user is based at least in part on location data including geographical data identifying the location of the target user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the location data is determined from personal data received through a social networking site data source.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the communicating further comprises:

determining a set of media objects associated with the set of entity evaluations to request; and

displaying the set of media objects with the set of entity evaluations to request.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the personal data is used for the order of relevance to prioritize places the target user has visited over those they have not.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, at a server computer, data from a plurality of data sources about entities in the set of entities;

merging, using the server computer, the entity data from the plurality of data sources;

storing the entity data at the server computer in an entity database;

mapping, using the server computer, an entity-specific subset of the entity data from the entity database, wherein the entity-specific subset pertains to a corresponding entity;

differentiating, using the server computer, portions of the entity-specific subset according to which of the plurality of data sources the portion derived from;

determining, using the server computer, a relevance associated with the entity specific subset and the data source, wherein the relevance is determined by a computer process to cross-reference the entity data and data source;

assigning, by the server computer, a weight to the entity data and the data source associated with the entity data based on the relevance; and

updating the entity database with the entity data associated with the corresponding entity.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the evaluation is received through input via the user device that includes finger gestures, clicking, shaking the user device, a coordinate motion between two user devices, blowing on the user device, spinning the user device, making a sound, or speaking a voice command.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the order of relevance is based at least in part on a frequency in which an entity or entity evaluation has been previously queried.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing a confidence score for each predicted entity evaluation in the set of predicted entity evaluations;

after receiving the evaluation data, updating the confidence score.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the order of relevance is based at least in part on prioritizing predicted evaluations that predict the target user will have an extreme opinion in an evaluation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the extreme opinion in the evaluation includes opinions that differ from the geographic norm.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the extreme opinion in the evaluation includes opinions that differ from the global norm.

14. A server computer comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code executable by the processor to implement a method for evaluation of an entity by a target user based at least on stored data about the target user, wherein the entity is an entity of a set of entities, and evaluation is related to the entity, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server computer, entity data relating to a particular entity in the set of entities, wherein the entity data includes a relevance based on a rating and a weight based on a relationship with the target user for a particular user that provided the entity data through a particular data source;

determining, by the server computer, a set of entity evaluations to request from the target user based on the weight and the relevance;

from the set of entity evaluations to request, generating, at the server computer, a set of predicted entity evaluations for one or more entities relevant to the target user based on the entity data, user data, and relevance;

determining an order of relevance of the relevant entities based at least in part on the relevance and the weight to increase accuracy of the predicted entity evaluations; and

communicating, from the server computer to the target user, the order of relevance of the one or more relevant entities;

after communicating the order of relevance, receiving, from a user device, evaluation data from the target user that is based on an evaluation received through input via the user device;

in response to receiving the evaluation data, increasing the accuracy of the predicted entity evaluations by computing a similarity among the target user and the particular user.

15. The server computer of claim 14, the method further comprising:

obtaining, at the server computer, personal data from the one or more of data sources, wherein the personal data is associated with the target user in the plurality of users;

storing the personal data at the server computer, wherein personal data associated with the plurality of users is stored in a user database;

merging, by the server computer, the personal data from the plurality of data sources;

mapping, by the server computer, the personal data from the plurality of data sources to the target user;

updating the user database with the personal data and stored data associated with the target user;

wherein the order of relevance of the set of entity evaluations to request is based at least in part on the personal data from the target user.

16. The server computer of claim 15, wherein the relevance to the target user is based at least in part on location data including geographical data identifying the location of the target user.

17. The server computer of claim 16, wherein the location data is determine from personal data received through a social networking site data source.

18. The server computer of claim 15, wherein the communicating further comprises:

determining a set of media objects associated with the set of entity evaluations to request; and

displaying the set of media objects with the set of entity evaluations to request.

19. The server computer of claim 15, wherein the personal data is used for the order of relevance to prioritize places the target user has visited over those they have not.

20. The server computer of claim 14, the method further comprising:

obtaining, at a server computer, data from a plurality of data sources about entities in the set of entities;

merging, using the server computer, the entity data from the plurality of data sources;

storing the entity data at the server computer in an entity database;

mapping, using the server computer, an entity-specific subset of the entity data from the entity database, wherein the entity-specific subset pertains to a corresponding entity;

differentiating, using the server computer, portions of the entity-specific subset according to which of the plurality of data sources the portion derived from;

determining, using the server computer, a relevance associated with the entity-specific subset and the data source, wherein the relevance is determined by a computer process to cross-reference the entity data and data source;

assigning, by the server computer, a weight to the entity data and the data source associated with the entity data based on the relevance; and

updating the entity database with the entity data associated with the corresponding entity.

21. The server computer of claim 14, wherein the evaluation is received through input via the user device that includes finger gestures, clicking, shaking the user device, a coordinate motion between two user devices, blowing on the user device, spinning the user device, making a sound, or speaking a voice command.

22. The server computer of claim 14, wherein the order of relevance is based at least in part on a frequency in which an entity has been previously queried.

23. The server computer of claim 14, further comprising:

computing a confidence score for each predicted entity evaluation in the set of predicted entity evaluations; and

after receiving the evaluation data, updating the confidence score.

24. The server computer of claim 14, wherein the order of relevance is based at least in part on prioritizing predicted evaluations that predict the target user will have an extreme opinion in an evaluation.

25. The server computer of claim 24, wherein the extreme opinion in the evaluation includes opinions that differ from the geographic norm.

26. The server computer of claim 24, wherein the extreme opinion in the evaluation includes opinions that differ from the global norm.