Item recommendation

• US 9,246,866 B1
• Filed: 12/06/2012
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sanders, Adam Callahan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US13/706,874
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A method is described for making a recommendation for an item. The method may include the operation of presenting a recommendation interface control to a user on a client device after the user has consumed an item. Using the recommendation interface control, the user then selects an individual and adds the name of the item the user consumed to the selected individual'"'"'s recommendation list.

Claims

1. A method to recommend a media item, comprising:

under control of a processor and memory configured with executable instructions, presenting a recommendation interface control to add a title of the media item to an associate'"'"'s social queue after a user has accessed the media item;

identifying at least one associate to form an associate list available to receive a recommendation;

identifying at least one selected associate from the associate list to receive the recommendation;

adding the title of the media item to a social queue for the at least one selected associate to make a recommendation for the media item; and

including a visual indicator in a media item description for the media item that informs the at least one selected associate that the title of the media item has been added to the social queue for the at least one selected associate.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising presenting the associate'"'"'s social queue with the added title of the media item when the social queue is accessed by the associate.

3. The method as in claim 1, further comprising presenting an acceptance interface control to an associate to allow the associate to accept the title of the media item added to the associate'"'"'s social queue.

4. The method as in claim 3, further comprising assigning a success rate to a recommender where the success rate is determined by a number of recommendations that are accepted or rejected by an associate.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein identifying at least one associate further comprises identifying a group of associates defined by an associate'"'"'s relationship to the user.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein adding the title of the media item to the at least one selected associate'"'"'s social queue further comprises adding the title of the media item to a plurality of social queues for the group of associates.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein identifying at least one associate further comprises identifying a group of associates where the user belongs to a group of associates having an interest in a topical category shared among the group of associates.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the interest in the topical category shared among the group of associates is that of a topical category of the media item.

9. The method as in claim 8, wherein adding the title of the media item to the at least one selected associate'"'"'s social queue further comprises adding the title of the media item to a social queue that is accessible to the group of associates.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein adding the title of the media item to the at least one selected associate'"'"'s social queue further comprises adding a text comment along with the title of the media item to the associate'"'"'s social queue.

11. A method to recommend items, comprising:

under the control of a processor and memory configured with executable instructions,

presenting a recommendation interface control to add a name of an item to another'"'"'s recommendation list;

identifying an individual available to receive a recommendation;

identifying a selected individual to receive the recommendation;

adding the name of the item to a recommendation list for the selected individual; and

including a visual indicator in a media item description for the media item that informs the selected individual that the name of the media item has been added to the recommendation list for the selected individual.

12. The method as in claim 11, wherein identifying an individual further comprises identifying a group of individuals where the group is defined by a relationship that is shared among the individuals of the group.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein adding the name of the item to an individual'"'"'s recommendation list further comprises adding the name of the item to a recommendation list that is accessible to the group of individuals.

14. The method as in claim 11, wherein identifying the individual further comprises identifying a group of individuals where an individual'"'"'s consumption patterns are similar to consumption patterns of other individuals within the group.

15. The method as in claim 11, wherein identifying a group of individuals further comprises identifying a group of individuals having consumption patterns that match an item category of the item.

16. The method as in claim 15, wherein adding the name of the item to the individual'"'"'s recommendation list further comprises adding the name of the item to a plurality of recommendation lists for the group.

17. The method as in claim 11, wherein identifying an individual further comprises identifying a plurality of individuals that subscribe to a recommender'"'"'s recommendations.

18. The method as in claim 11, wherein adding the name of the item to the individual'"'"'s recommendation list further comprises adding a text comment along with the name of the item to the individual'"'"'s recommendation list.

19. A system to recommend an item comprising:

a computing device;

an association store stored in a data store accessible to the computing device, the association store including a plurality of associated associates and social item queues;

an item library stored in a data store accessible to the computing device, the item library storing item descriptions for a plurality of items;

an item delivery service to instruct delivery of items from the item library to a client device over a network;

a recommendation service that is executable in the computing device, the recommendation service comprising;

logic that determines an item consumed via a client;

logic that sends to the client a plurality of associates from the association store;

logic that obtains a selected associate from the plurality of associates from the client;

logic that stores in a social item queue for the selected associate a name of an item recommended; and

logic that includes a visual indicator in a media item description for the media item that informs the selected associate that the title of the media item has been added to the social item queue for the selected associate.

20. The system as in claim 19, wherein the association store further comprises a plurality of associate groups where the plurality of associate groups are defined by an associate'"'"'s relationship to other associates in the plurality of associate groups.

21. The system as in claim 19, wherein the association store further comprises a plurality of categorized groups of associates where the plurality of categorized groups of associates is defined by a topical category.

22. The system as in claim 19, wherein the recommendation service further comprises logic that obtains a text comment entered by a user;

and

logic that stores in the selected associate'"'"'s social item queue the text comment.

23. The system as in claim 19, wherein the recommendation service further comprises logic that stores a description of the item recommended in a selected associate'"'"'s social item queue.

24. The system as in claim 19, wherein logic that sends to the client the plurality of associates from the association store further comprises logic that sends to the client a plurality of associates that have an interest in the item consumed on the client, where an associate'"'"'s interest is determined by an associate'"'"'s consumption patterns.