System and method for recommended events

• US 7,937,380 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: White, William MacDonald, Spiegelman, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pham; Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/615,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20080154696A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Systems and methods have been developed for selecting and recommending events to a consumer of media content based on information known about the consumer, including the consumer'"'"'s interests, consumption history and preferences. In an embodiment, a system records a history of the media content accessed, purchased, viewed or otherwise consumed by a consumer. The system further includes an event database containing information about upcoming events. When a consumer interacts with the system, such as to access a media content item, the consumer is notified of one or more events based on the consumer'"'"'s history. In this way consumers are automatically provided with updated event recommendations based on the known interests of the consumer, without the need for the consumer to subscribe to an event recommendation service and maintain the subscription to accurately reflect the consumer'"'"'s current interests.

Claims

1. A method of notifying consumers of events comprising:

maintaining, by at least one server computer, a consumer profile for a consumer, the consumer profile including a community location of the consumer;

receiving, by the at least one server computer, a request from the consumer, the request identifying a media content item;

storing, in the consumer profile, interest data identifying the consumer'"'"'s interest in the media content item identified in the consumer'"'"'s request;

determining, by the at least one server computer, an upcoming future first event based on the consumer'"'"'s interest in the media content item identified in the consumer'"'"'s request, an association between the upcoming future first event and the media content item, and on a determination that the upcoming future first event'"'"'s community location corresponds to the consumer'"'"'s community location;

causing, by the at least one server computer, a response to the consumer'"'"'s request; and

transmitting, by the at least one server computer to the consumer, a notification of the upcoming future first event, the notification is in addition to the response to the consumer'"'"'s request.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the request from the consumer is a request to render the media content item on a device associated with the consumer and the method further comprises:

streaming the media content item to the device associated with the consumer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the request from the consumer is a request to purchase a copy of the media content item and the method further comprises:

delivering a copy of the media content item to the consumer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the request from the consumer contains a rating of the media content item indicative of a consumer'"'"'s evaluation of the content item and the method further comprises:

storing, in the consumer profile, interest data identifying the rating of media content item; and

if the rating of the media content item is greater than a predetermined threshold, transmitting the notification to the consumer.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving event data for the upcoming future first event, the event data identifying community location for the upcoming future first event, an event date, and containing information associating the upcoming future first event with the media content item; and

comparing the event data with the consumer profile; and

transmitting the notification if the event date for the upcoming future first event is at a future time.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein determining further comprises:

identifying an author of the media content item; and

determining, based on the event data, that the author is associated with the upcoming future first event.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein determining further comprises:

identifying a genre of the media content item; and

determining, based on the event data, that the genre is associated with the upcoming future first event.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a party associated with the consumer; and

transmitting, to the party, the notification of the upcoming future first event.

9. A method comprising:

transmitting, one or more songs to a device in a response to a consumer request, the one or more songs being identified in the consumer request received by at least one server computer via a user interface on the device associated with the consumer;

storing, by the at least one server computer, information identifying the consumer including a community location of the consumer and interest of the consumer in the one or more songs identified in the consumer request; and

selecting, by the at least one server computer, at least one upcoming future event from a database comprising upcoming future events, wherein each upcoming future event has an associated community location and an event description and wherein the selecting of the at least one upcoming future event is based at least in part on the interest of the consumer in the one or more songs identified in the consumer request transmitted to the device, a determined association between the at least one upcoming future event and the one or more songs transmitted to the device, a determined correspondence between the upcoming future event'"'"'s community location and the consumer'"'"'s community location, and the event description; and

causing the selected at least one upcoming future event to be sent to the consumer, the notification being in addition to the response to the consumer request.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

displaying the event data to the consumer via the user interface on the device.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving a consumer rating associated with a first song; and

storing the consumer rating as information of the consumer'"'"'s interest in the first song, wherein said selecting the at least one upcoming future event is further based on the consumer rating.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining an author of the first song,

wherein said selecting the at least one upcoming future event is further the author.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein each upcoming future event is associated with an event promoter and the method further comprises:

transmitting the event data of the at least one upcoming future event to the device; and

transmitting to the event promoter associated with the at least one upcoming future event information indicating that event data of the at least one upcoming future event was transmitted to a consumer.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving selections from the consumer identifying one or more favorite songs of the consumer via the user interface;

storing a record of the consumer'"'"'s favorite song selections,

wherein said selecting the at least one upcoming future event is further based on the consumer'"'"'s favorite song selections.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving selections from the consumer identifying one or more favorite music genres of the consumer via the user interface;

storing a record of the consumer'"'"'s favorite music genre selections,

wherein said selecting the at least one upcoming future event is further based on the consumer'"'"'s favorite music genre selections.

16. A system comprising:

at least one server computer, each server computer coupled to memory and comprising a processing unit;

the memory storing;

a first datastore of media content items;

a second datastore of events, each event having community location and event data associating the event with one or more media content items;

a third datastore of consumer profiles;

each consumer profile associated with a consumer and including a community location and information identifying an interest in the media content items requested by the associated consumer; and

the at least one server computer executing a user interface module that, in response to a first consumer'"'"'s request that identifies a first media content item in the first datastore, causes a response to the first consumer'"'"'s request, and transmits a notification of an upcoming future first event to the first consumer, the notification is in addition to the response to the first consumer'"'"'s request, the upcoming future first event being selected from the event data in the second datastore based on an association between the upcoming future first event and the first media content item identified in the first consumer'"'"'s request, the consumer'"'"'s interest in the first media content and a determined correspondence between the consumer'"'"'s community location included in the consumer profile of the first consumer in the third datastore and the event'"'"'s community location.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the user interface module further retrieves the first media content item from the first datastore and transmits the first media content item to the first consumer in response to the request from the first consumer.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the user interface module further generates a renderable graphical user interface in the form of a web page through which the first consumer can render the first media content item and the notification.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

the at least one server further executing an event logging module through which event promoters can submit events for addition to the second datastore.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein

each media content item is associated with an artist,

the event data identifies a first artist that is also associated with the first media content item, and

the community location of the upcoming future first event and the consumer'"'"'s community location of the consumer are within a predetermined distance.

21. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium tangibly storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

receiving a request to access a media player via a consumer device;

retrieving a consumer profile containing consumer information including a consumer'"'"'s community location and information identifying an interest of the consumer in at least one media content item previously rendered by the media player to the consumer;

selecting an upcoming future first event based on a community location associated with the upcoming future first event and the consumer'"'"'s community location and based on a determined association between the upcoming future first event and the at least one media content item and the information identifying the consumer'"'"'s interest in the at least one media content item; and

generating a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface including a media player portion in response to the request, wherein in addition to the response to the request at least a portion of the graphical user interface displays event data for the upcoming future first event.

22. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 21 further comprising computer-executable instructions for:

transmitting the graphical user interface to the consumer device.

23. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 21,

wherein said selecting further comprising computer-executable instructions for:

selecting the upcoming future first event from a database comprising upcoming future events, wherein each upcoming future event has a community location and an event description, and wherein the selecting is based at least in part on the information identifying the consumer'"'"'s interest in the at least one media content item transmitted to the device, the upcoming future first event'"'"'s community location, the consumer'"'"'s community location and the event description.

24. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 21 further comprising computer-executable instructions for:

receiving a render request to render a media content item; and

in response to the render request, selecting an upcoming future second event based on the consumer'"'"'s community location, the consumer'"'"'s interest in the media content item; and

revising the graphical user interface so that the at least a portion of the graphical user interface displays event data for the upcoming future second event.

25. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 21 further comprising computer-executable instructions for:

receiving confirmation that the consumer attended the upcoming future first event; and

billing an event promoter identified in the event data for the upcoming future first event a pre-determined amount.