Method and system for programmatic analysis of consumer reviews

• US 9,741,058 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2016
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Inventors: L'Huillier, Gaston, Larrain, Francisco Jose, Arroyo Garcia, Hernan Enrique, Li, Juzheng, Langdon, Daniel, Esterhazy, Jonathan, Vedanarayanan, Srinivasa Raghavan, Jeffery, Shawn, Karablieh, Feras, Bansal, Bhupesh, Levi, Dor, Koren, Amit
• Primary Examiner(s): MORRISON, JAY A
• Application Number:
  US15/073,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20160275573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

Embodiments provide a computer-executable method, computer system and non-transitory computer-readable medium for programmatically analyzing a consumer review. The method includes programmatically accessing, via a network device, one or more consumer reviews for a commercial entity or a commercial object. The method also includes executing a consumer review processing engine to programmatically identify an attribute descriptor in the one or more consumer reviews, and executing the consumer review processing engine to programmatically generate a sentiment score associated with the one or more consumer reviews. The method further includes storing, on a non-transitory computer-readable storage device, the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

Claims

1. An apparatus for programmatically analyzing a consumer review, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to programmatically access, via a networked device, one or more consumer reviews for a commercial entity or a commercial object;

a consumer review processing engine programmed to

programmatically identify an attribute descriptor in the one or more consumer reviews, and

programmatically generate a sentiment score associated with the one or more consumer reviews, wherein programmatic generation of the sentiment score comprises;

using a natural language processing engine to programmatically parse the consumer review into a set of sentences;

using the natural language processing engine to programmatically parse each sentence in the set of sentences into a set of words;

for each word in the set of words in each sentence, programmatically generating a word sentiment score;

for each sentence in the set of sentences, programmatically generating a sentence sentiment score, the sentence sentiment score generated based on word sentiment scores associated with words in the sentence, wherein programmatically generating the sentence sentiment scores includes applying a machine learning algorithm to determine a relationship between the sentence sentiment score and the word sentiment scores associated with the words in the sentence; and

programmatically generating the sentiment score by combining sentence sentiment scores associated with the set of sentences in the consumer review; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage device configured to store the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

cause the network device to transmit one or more computer-executable instructions to a computing device, the one or more computer-executable instructions programmed to cause the computing device to visually display the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sentiment score is associated with the attribute descriptor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sentiment score is associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object but not specifically with the attribute descriptor.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein programmatic generation of the first sentence sentiment score for the first sentence in the consumer review comprises:

programmatically identifying one or more emoticons in the first sentence; and

assigning one or more emoticon scores to the one or more emoticons based on sentiments expressed in the emoticons;

wherein the first sentence sentiment score is determined based on the one or more emoticon scores.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the consumer review processing engine is further configured to:

programmatically analyze prior purchase data or profile data associated with a first consumer to generate a first attribute descriptor of interest to the first consumer;

programmatically match the first attribute descriptor to the attribute descriptor generated based on the one or more consumer reviews; and

wherein the processor is further configured to, based on the matching, cause the network device to transmit computer-executable instructions to a computing device associated with the first consumer to cause a visual display device associated with the computing device to display the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the commercial entity is a merchant.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the commercial object is a product, service or promotion.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a context associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a quality associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a category or sub-category associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

12. A computer-executed method for programmatically analyzing a consumer review, the method comprising:

programmatically accessing, via a network device, one or more consumer reviews for a commercial entity or a commercial object;

executing a consumer review processing engine to programmatically identify an attribute descriptor in the one or more consumer reviews;

executing the consumer review processing engine to programmatically generate a sentiment score associated with the one or more consumer reviews, wherein programmatically generating the sentiment score comprises;

using a natural language processing engine to programmatically parse the consumer review into a set of sentences;

using the natural language processing engine to programmatically parse each sentence in the set of sentences into a set of words;

for each word in the set of words in each sentence, programmatically generating a word sentiment score;

for each sentence in the set of sentences, programmatically generating a sentence sentiment score, the sentence sentiment score generated based on word sentiment scores associated with words in the sentence, wherein programmatically generating the sentence sentiment scores includes applying a machine learning algorithm to determine a relationship between the sentence sentiment score and the word sentiment scores associated with the words in the sentence; and

programmatically generating the sentiment score by combining sentence sentiment scores associated with the set of sentences in the consumer review; and

storing, on a non-transitory computer-readable storage device, the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

13. The computer-executed method of claim 12, further comprising:

causing the network device to transmit one or more computer-executable instructions to a computing device, the one or more computer-executable instructions programmed to cause the computing device to visually display the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

14. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the sentiment score is associated with the attribute descriptor.

15. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the sentiment score is associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object but not specifically with the attribute descriptor.

16. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein programmatic generation of the first sentence sentiment score for the first sentence in the consumer review comprises:

programmatically identifying one or more emoticons in the first sentence; and

assigning one or more emoticon scores to the one or more emoticons based on sentiments expressed in the emoticons;

wherein the first sentence sentiment score is determined based on the one or more emoticon scores.

17. The computer-executed method of claim 12, further comprising executing the consumer review processing engine to:

programmatically analyze prior purchase data or profile data associated with a first consumer to generate a first attribute descriptor of interest to the first consumer;

programmatically match the first attribute descriptor to the attribute descriptor generated based on the one or more consumer reviews; and

wherein the computer-executed method further includes causing the network device to, based on the matching, transmit computer-executable instructions to a computing device associated with the first consumer to cause a visual display device associated with the computing device to display the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

18. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the commercial entity is a merchant.

19. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the commercial object is a product, service or promotion.

20. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a context associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

21. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a quality associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

22. The computer-executed method of claim 12, wherein the attribute descriptor indicates a category or sub-category associated with the commercial entity or the commercial object.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for programmatically analyzing a consumer review, the non-transitory computer-readable medium having encoded thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to:

access one or more consumer reviews for a commercial entity or a commercial object;

identify an attribute descriptor in the one or more consumer reviews;

generate a sentiment score associated with the one or more consumer reviews, wherein programmatic generation of the sentiment score comprises;

using a natural language processing engine to programmatically parse the consumer review into a set of sentences;

using the natural language processing engine to programmatically parse each sentence in the set of sentences into a set of words;

for each word in the set of words in each sentence, programmatically generating a word sentiment score for each sentence in the set of sentences,

programmatically generating a sentence sentiment score, the sentence sentiment score generated based on word sentiment scores associated with words in the sentence, wherein programmatically generating the sentence sentiment scores includes applying a machine learning algorithm to determine a relationship between the sentence sentiment score and the word sentiment scores associated with the words in the sentence; and

programmatically generating the sentiment score by combining sentence sentiment scores associated with the set of sentences in the consumer review; and

store the attribute descriptor and the sentiment score in association with the commercial entity or the commercial object.