Method and system of suggesting information used with items offered for sale in a network-based marketplace

• US 9,449,322 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2008
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Gupta, Raghav, Huang, Shen, Wu, Xiaoyuan, Wang, Qiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Charles
• Application Number:
  US12/326,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,850 Days
• Field of Search: 707/767
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/332 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3349 Reuse of stored results of previous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy

Abstract

Methods and systems to suggest information to be used with an item being listed for sale may include analyzing stored search queries and identifying co-occurring terms or terms based on their desirability scores (or desirable terms). The co-occurring terms and the desirable terms may be identified based on their frequency of use in the search queries and/or in the title information or other information associated with items offered for sale.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

generating, by a processor of a machine, a user interface for presentation on a user device, the user interface including perceptible user interface elements allowing a user to view title information;

receiving a title of an item being listed;

determining, by a processor of the machine, a concept, the concept including two or more terms in the title of the item being listed;

accessing, from a networked database, a plurality of co-occurring terms stored in a co-occurring terms table, each co-occurring term in the co-occurring terms table including a first set of words and a second word, the first set of words and the second word corresponding to terms that have occurred together in stored search queries and to terms that have occurred together in stored item information corresponding to title information of items previously listed for sale on an online marketplace;

generating, by a processor of the machine, a matching of the concept with one or more co-occurring terms of the plurality of co-occurring terms, the matching being based on the concept matching the first set of words of the one or more co-occurring terms;

selecting, by a processor of the machine, at least one co-occurring term from the plurality of co-occurring terms based on the matching and based on a desirability score associated with the at least one co-occurring term;

transmitting instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the at least one co-occurring term and the associated desirability score;

generating, using one or more processors, a suggestion of a modification to the title of the item being listed, the modification modifying the title by adding to the concept or removing from the concept a second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term, the suggestion of the modification including presenting the concept in conjunction with the second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term; and

transmitting instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the suggestion of the modification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the plurality of co-occurring terms is performed by searching one or more of the stored search queries and one or more of the stored item information corresponding to title information of items previously listed for sale on an online marketplace.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a group of co-occurring terms with first sets of words matching the term; and

sorting the group of the co-occurring terms according to their frequency of occurrence within at least one of the stored search queries.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

matching the concept of two or more terms with another of the plurality of co-occurring terms, the matching being based on the concept of two or more terms matching the first set of words of the another of the plurality of co-occurring terms; and

suggesting, using one or more processors, an additional modification to the title of the item being listed in conjunction with the modification, the additional modification modifying the title by presenting the concept of two or more terms in conjunction with the second word of the another of the plurality of co-occurring terms.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the item is being listed on a commerce platform.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of co-occurring terms in the co-occurring terms table is ranked, based on a frequency of co-occurrence in the stored search queries of words included in the respective co-occurring term.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the one of the co-occurring terms from among the plurality of co-occurring terms in the co-occurring terms table, based on a frequency of co-occurrence in the stored search queries of the first set of words and the second word of the one of the plurality of co-occurring terms.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of co-occurring terms in the co-occurring terms table is ranked, based on a frequency of co-occurrence in the stored item information of words included in the respective co-occurring term.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the one of the co-occurring terms from among the plurality of co-occurring terms in the co-occurring terms table, based on a frequency of co-occurrence in the stored item information of the first set of words and the second word in the one of the plurality of co-occurring terms.

10. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

an interface in communication with at least one processor to receive a title of an item being listed;

a networked database configured to store a co-occurring terms table; and

a processor and executable instructions accessible on a computer-readable medium that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

generate a user interface for presentation on a user device, the user interface including perceptible user interface elements allowing a user to view title information;

receive a title of an item being listed;

determine a concept, the concept including two or more terms in the title of the item being listed;

access, from the networked database, a plurality of co-occurring terms stored in a co-occurring terms table, each co-occurring term in the co-occurring terms table including a first set of words and a second word, the first set of words and the second word corresponding to terms that have occurred together in stored search queries and to terms that have occurred together in stored item information corresponding to title information of items previously listed for sale on an online marketplace,

generate a matching of the concept with one or more co-occurring terms of the plurality of co-occurring terms, the matching being based on the concept matching the first set of words of the or more co-occurring terms;

select at least one co-occurring term from the plurality of co-occurring terms based on the matching and based on a desirability score associated with the at least one co-occurring term;

transmit instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the at least one co-occurring term and the associated desirability score;

generate a suggestion of a modification to the title of the item being listed, the modification modifying the title by adding to the concept or removing from the concept a second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term, the suggestion of the modification including presenting the concept in conjunction with the second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term; and

transmit instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the suggestion of the modification.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising searching one or more of the stored search queries to access the plurality of co-occurring terms and one or more of the stored item information corresponding to title information of items previously listed for sale on an online marketplace.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

forming a group of co-occurring terms with first sets of words matching the term; and

sort the group of the co-occurring terms according to their frequency of occurrence within at least one of the stored search queries.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

matching the concept of two or more terms with another of the plurality of co-occurring terms, the matching being based on the concept of two or more terms matching the first set of words of the another of the plurality of co-occurring terms; and

suggesting, using one or more processors, an additional modification to the title of the item being listed in conjunction with the modification, the additional modification modifying the title by presenting the concept of two or more terms in conjunction with the second word of the another of the plurality of co-occurring terms.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

generating, by a processor of a machine, a user interface for presentation on a user device, the user interface including perceptible user interface elements allowing a user to view title information;

via an interface, receiving a title of an item being listed;

determining, by a processor of the machine, a concept, the concept including two or more terms in the title of the item being listed;

accessing, from a networked database, a plurality of co-occurring terms stored in a co-occurring terms table, each co-occurring term in the co-occurring terms table including a first set of words and a second word, the first set of words and the second word corresponding to terms that have occurred together in stored search queries and to terms that have occurred together in stored item information corresponding to title information of items previously listed for sale on an online marketplace,

generating, by a processor of the machine, a matching of the concept with one or more co-occurring terms of the plurality of co-occurring terms, the matching being based on the concept matching the first set of words of the one or more co-occurring terms;

selecting, by a processor of the machine, at least one co-occurring term from the plurality of co-occurring terms based on the matching and based on a desirability score associated with the at least one co-occurring term;

transmitting instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the at least one co-occurring term and the associated desirability score;

generating a suggestion of a modification to the title of the item being listed, the modification modifying the title by adding to the concept or removing from the concept a second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term, the suggestion of the modification including presenting the concept in conjunction with the second word of the selected at least one co-occurring term, and

transmitting instructions to cause display, on the user interface, of the suggestion of the modification.