REFERRING-SITE BASED RECOMMENDATIONS
First Claim
1. A method for selecting items to recommend to users, the method comprising:
- tracking referrals of users from each of a plurality of referring sites to a target site, said referrals resulting from user selections of links provided on the referring sites;
collecting user activity data regarding item-specific user actions performed on the target site, said item-specific user actions reflective of user preferences for particular items represented on the target site; and
selecting, by execution of code by a computer system, a subset of said items to recommend to users of a first referring site of said plurality of referring sites, wherein selecting the subset of items comprises analyzing the collected user activity data, in conjunction with data regarding the tracked referrals, to identify items that are more popular among users referred from the first referring site than among a general user population of the target site.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing community-specific content to customers of a merchant'"'"'s web site. In one embodiment, customers who are electronically referred to the merchant'"'"'s web site from an affiliate web site, or from one of a group of related affiliate web sites, are automatically assigned to the same community. For example, all customers who enter the merchant'"'"'s web site from links on golf-related affiliate web sites may be assigned to the community “golf.” Customers may also join or be assigned to communities using other methods. Purchase histories and/or other activity data of the merchant'"'"'s customers is analyzed periodically to identify specific products or other items that are currently “popular” within the community (e.g., best selling), based upon predefined criteria. This information is provided to members of the community, and possibly to other customers, on the merchant'"'"'s web site and/or on the web sites of the corresponding affiliates.
82 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for selecting items to recommend to users, the method comprising:
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tracking referrals of users from each of a plurality of referring sites to a target site, said referrals resulting from user selections of links provided on the referring sites; collecting user activity data regarding item-specific user actions performed on the target site, said item-specific user actions reflective of user preferences for particular items represented on the target site; and selecting, by execution of code by a computer system, a subset of said items to recommend to users of a first referring site of said plurality of referring sites, wherein selecting the subset of items comprises analyzing the collected user activity data, in conjunction with data regarding the tracked referrals, to identify items that are more popular among users referred from the first referring site than among a general user population of the target site. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for selecting items to recommend to users, the system comprising:
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a computer data repository that stores referral data identifying, for each of a plurality of users of a target site, which of a plurality of referring sites referred the respective user to the target site; and a computer data repository that stores user activity data identifying item-specific actions performed by users on the target site, said item-specific user actions reflective of user preferences for particular items represented on the target site; and a computer system programmed to select a subset of said items to recommend to users of a first referring site of said plurality of referring sites, said computer system programmed to select the subset of items at least partly by analyzing the user activity data, in conjunction with the referral data, to identify items that are more popular among users referred from the first referring site than among a general user population of the target site. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer implemented method, comprising:
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receiving, at a server of a target site, a page request from a computing device of an unknown or unrecognized user, said page request resulting from selection by the user of a referral link on a referring site, said page request including an identifier of the referring site; and selecting a set of items to present to the unknown or unrecognized user in response to the page request, said set of items selected by the server based on the identifier of the referring site, said set of items consisting of items that are more popular among users referred from the referring site than among a general user population of the target site, as determined based on a programmatic analysis of actions performed on the target site by users referred from the referring site and by users not referred from the target site. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification