Recommending Content to Digital Magazine Server Users Based on Content Inclusion in Digital Magazines

• US 20150248683A1
• Filed: 12/12/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Inventors: Walkingshaw, Andrew David
• Application Number:
  US14/569,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20150248683A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2291 User-Defined Types; Storage management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

A digital magazine server allows its users to create digital magazines by including content items in sections of one or more digital magazines. For various pairs of digital magazines, the digital magazine server determines a score based on a number of content items added to a digital magazine that were previously added to an additional digital magazine in a pair. The score indicates a frequency that the additional digital magazine added content items before the digital magazine. Digital magazines may be ranked for a user based on the scores, with the ranking used to recommend digital magazines or other users to the user. Further, the scores and connections between digital magazines may be used to create an influence score for various digital magazines.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing information describing a plurality of digital magazines in a digital magazine server, each digital magazine including one or more content items and timestamps indicating times when each content item was added to a digital magazine;

identifying a subject user of the digital magazine server that associated a content item with one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user;

identifying one or more additional users who associated the content item with one or more additional digital magazines after the subject user associated the content item with the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user;

determining a score for each additional user, the score for an additional user based on a number of times that the additional user associated one or more content items with one or more additional digital magazine associated with the additional user after the same one or more content items were associated with the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user by the subject user; and

defining a target group of users based on the determined scores.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a number of content items associated with the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user and associated with the one or more additional digital magazines associated with the additional user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a content item associated with a digital magazine associated with the subject user and associated with an additional digital magazine associated with the additional user comprises a content item associated with a content identifier that is associated with the digital magazine associated with the subject user and is also associated with the additional digital magazine associated with the additional user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a number of content items associated with one or more additional digital magazines associated with the additional user after being associated with one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user and having at least a threshold number of features matching features of at least one content item associated with the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a feature is selected from a group consisting of:

a keyword, a topic, a category, an author, a fingerprint, a type, a style, a manufacturer, a source, and any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a percentage of content items associated with one or more digital magazines associated with one or more digital magazines associated with the additional user after the content items were associated with at least one of the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a percentage of content items associated with one or more digital magazines associated with one or more digital magazines associated with the additional user after the content items were associated with at least one of the one or more digital magazines associated with the subject user and having at least a threshold number of features matching features of at least one content item associated with a digital magazine associated with the subject user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the target group of users based on the determined scores comprises:

defining the target group of users as one or more additional users associated with at least a threshold score.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the target group of users based on the determined scores comprises:

determining one or more characteristics of the subject user;

identifying one or more additional users having associated with at least a threshold score; and

defining the target group as one or more of the identified one or more additional users having at least a threshold number of characteristics matching the determined one or more characteristics of the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a score for each additional user comprises:

determining a topic associated with the content item;

determining a frequency with which the additional user associates content items associated with the determined topic with one or more digital magazines associated with the additional user after the user associated the content item with the one or more digital magazines associated with the user; and

determining the score for the user based at least in part on the determined frequency.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a suggestion identifying the subject user for presentation to one or more users in the target group of users.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the subject user to send content to the target group of users.

13. A method comprising:

storing information describing a plurality of collections of content in a server, each collection of content including one or more content items and timestamps indicating times when each content item was added to a collection of content;

identifying a subject user of the server that associated a content item with one or more collections of content associated with the subject user;

identifying one or more additional users who associated the content item with one or more additional collections of content after the subject user associated the content item with the one or more collections of content associated with the subject user;

determining a score for each additional user, the score for an additional user based on a number of times that the additional user associated one or more content items with one or more additional collections of content associated with the additional user after the same one or more content items were associated with the one or more collections of content associated with the subject user by the subject user; and

defining a target group of users based on the determined scores.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a number of content items associated with one or more collections of content associated with the additional user after being associated with one or more collections of content associated with the subject user and having at least a threshold number of features matching features of at least one content item associated with the one or more collections of content associated with the subject user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a feature is selected from a group consisting of:

a keyword, a topic, a category, an author, a fingerprint, a type, a style, a manufacturer, a source, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a percentage of content items associated with one or more collections of content associated with one or more collections of content associated with the additional user after the content items were associated with at least one of the one or more collections of content associated with the subject user.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the score for the additional user is based at least in part on a percentage of content items associated with one or more collections of content associated with one or more collections of content associated with the additional user after the content items were associated with at least one of the one or more collections of content associated with the subject user and having at least a threshold number of features matching features of at least one content item associated with a digital magazine associated with the subject user.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein defining the target group of users based on the determined scores comprises:

defining the target group of users as one or more additional users associated with at least a threshold score.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein defining the target group of users based on the determined scores comprises:

determining one or more characteristics of the subject user;

identifying one or more additional users having associated with at least a threshold score; and

defining the target group as one or more of the identified one or more additional users having at least a threshold number of characteristics matching the determined one or more characteristics of the user.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein determining a score for each additional user comprises:

determining a topic associated with the content item;

determining a frequency with which the additional user associates content items associated with the determined topic with one or more collections of content associated with the additional user after the user associated the content item with the one or more collections of content associated with the user; and

determining the score for the user based at least in part on the determined frequency.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing a suggestion identifying the subject user for presentation to one or more users in the target group of users.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a request from the subject user to send content to the target group of users.