Configurable extractions in social media

• US 9,460,163 B1
• Filed: 03/27/2013
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Toal, Colin Kieron, Champion, Catherine Ann, van der Net, Jacqueline Joanne, Suritz, Olivier, Nagel, William Alfred, Kuwahara, Daniel Seiji
• Primary Examiner(s): SOMERS, MARC S
• Application Number:
  US13/851,576
• Time in Patent Office: 1,287 Days
• Field of Search: 707/776
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/03 Data mining
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for accessing and processing social media content. An extraction configuration comprising definitions for keywords, social networks, extraction times, and/or actions to be initiated upon a detection of a condition may be defined by a user of a site monitoring system. The defined social networks may be accessed at the defined extraction times to obtain data from a post comprising the defined keyword. The presence of some data in association with the post may initiate an action defined by the user.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in at least one computing device, the at least one program having instructions that cause the at least one computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving an extraction configuration defined by a merchant user offering an item through an electronic commerce application, the extraction configuration comprising a specification of the item, a social network, an extraction time, a condition, and an action to be performed in response to the condition being met;

accessing data of the social network at the extraction time to obtain extraction data from a plurality of posts that include a mention of the item;

for at least one of the plurality of posts associated with the extraction data;

causing performance of the action in response to detection of the condition being met based on an analysis of the extraction data associated with the at least one of the plurality of posts, wherein causing performance of the action in response to detection of the condition being met comprises automatically adjusting a price of the item set by the merchant user through the electronic commerce application in response to a number of mentions of the item in the at least one of the plurality of posts meeting a predefined threshold that indicates that the item is trending on the social network;

storing the at least one of the plurality of posts in a data store in association with the item offered by the merchant user in response to the mention of the item in the at least one of the plurality of posts;

identifying a name associated with an originator of the at least one of the plurality of posts;

querying the data store using the name associated with the originator to identify a user account of the electronic commerce application, wherein an association of a social networking account of the originator has been made with the user account of the electronic commerce application; and

identifying a sentiment level for the at least one of the plurality of posts using a natural language processor to determine whether a purchase of the item made on the user account is associated with a positive sentiment or a negative sentiment; and

encoding at least a portion of the extraction data in a user interface for access by the merchant user on a client device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein accessing the data of the social network further comprises:

causing a request for the plurality of posts to be communicated to the social network via an application programming interface (API); and

accessing a response received from the social network, the response comprising the plurality of posts and the extraction data.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein accessing the data of the social network further comprises:

accessing a network page comprising the at least one of the plurality of posts; and

extracting the extraction data from the at least one of the plurality of posts through a source code of the network page.

4. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device;

a data store in communication with the at least one computing device; and

program instructions executable in the at least one computing device that, when executed, cause the at least one computing device to perform a method comprising;

accessing an extraction configuration previously defined by a user and stored in the data store, the extraction configuration comprising a specification of a keyword associated with an item offered through an electronic commerce application, a social network, and an extraction time;

accessing data of the social network at the extraction time in accordance with the extraction configuration to obtain extraction data from at least one post comprising the keyword;

identifying a name associated with an author of the at least one post;

querying the data store using the name associated with the author of the at least one post to identify a user account of the electronic commerce application;

encoding at least a portion of the extraction data and information associated with the user account in a user interface for rendering on a client device; and

causing performance of an action in response to a predefined condition associated with the action being met based at least in part on an analysis of the extraction data, the action and the predefined condition being specified in the extraction configuration, wherein causing performance of the action in response to detection of the condition being met comprises automatically adjusting a price of the item through the electronic commerce application in response to a number of mentions of the item in the at least one post meeting a predefined threshold that indicates that the item is trending on the social network.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the method performed by the at least one computing device further comprises determining whether the at least one post comprises the name associated with the author of the at least one post.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the method performed by the at least one computing device further comprises identifying, using a natural language processor, that the author made a purchase of the item through the electronic commerce application using the user account.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the method performed by the at least one computing device further comprises:

determining a sentiment level for the at least one post using the natural language processor; and

determining whether the purchase of the item made using the user account is associated with a positive sentiment or a negative sentiment.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein accessing the data from the social network further comprises:

causing a request for the at least one post to be communicated to the social network via an application programming interface (API); and

accessing a response received from the social network, the response comprising the extraction data.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the method performed by the at least one computing device further comprises accessing the extraction data received from the social network in response to receipt of a push notification communicated to the at least one computing device from the social network.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the method performed by the at least one computing device further comprises encoding an extraction user interface for access through the electronic commerce application that obtains the extraction configuration from at least one form of the extraction user interface, the extraction configuration being defined in association with the item offered through the electronic commerce application.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein accessing the data of the social network at the extraction time further comprises:

accessing a network page comprising the at least one post; and

extracting the extraction data from the at least one post through a source code of the network page.

12. A method, comprising:

accessing, by at least one computing device, an extraction configuration defined through an electronic commerce application, the extraction configuration comprising a specification of a search string, a network site, and an extraction time;

accessing, by the at least one computing device, the network site to perform a search utilizing the search string at the extraction time;

storing, by the at least one computing device, extraction data obtained as a result of the search in memory, the extraction data comprising information obtained from at least one post using at least one keyword specified in the search string;

identifying, by the at least one computing device, an identifier that identifies an author of the at least one post;

identifying, by the at least one computing device, a user account of the electronic commerce application based at least in part on the identifier and an association made between a profile of the network site and the user account of the electronic commerce application;

encoding, by the at least one computing device, at least a portion of the extraction data and information associated with the user account in a user interface for access on a client device; and

causing, by the at least one computing device, performance of an action in response to a predefined condition associated with the action being met based at least in part on an analysis of the extraction data, the action and the predefined condition being specified in the extraction configuration, wherein causing performance of the action in response to detection of the condition being met comprises automatically adjusting a price of at least one item through the electronic commerce application in response to a number of mentions of the at least one item in the at least one post meeting a predefined threshold that indicates that the at least one item is trending on the network site.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the action further comprises communicating, by the at least one computing device, a notification to another computing device, the notification indicating that the predefined condition has been met.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein causing, by the at least one computing device, performance of the action in response to the predefined condition associated with the action being met further comprises:

identifying, by the at least one computing device, a use of the at least one keyword in the at least one post; and

communicating, by the at least one computing device, an alert that indicates that the use of the at least one keyword in the at least one post has been identified.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining, by the at least one computing device a sentiment level for the at least one post based at least in part on an analysis of the extraction data.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the network site comprises a social networking site or a blog defined in the extraction configuration.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating, by the at least one computing device, a graph comprising statistical information associated with the extraction data for rendering on the client device.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

encoding, by the at least one computing device, a first user interface for access through the electronic commerce application that receives the extraction configuration from at least one form of the first user interface, the extraction configuration being defined in association with the at least one item offered for sale through the electronic commerce application; and

encoding, by the at least one computing device, a second user interface for access through the electronic commerce application that comprises at least a portion of the extraction data shown in association with the at least one item offered for sale.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising obtaining, by the at least one computing device, the extraction data from the network site by:

causing, by the at least one computing device, a request for the at least one post to be communicated to the network site via an application programming interface (API); and

accessing, by the at least one computing device, a response received from the network site, wherein the response comprises the extraction data.