Surfacing forums associated with a search string

• US 7,970,781 B1
• Filed: 08/13/2010
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Joseph, Dicker, Russell A., Ahmed, Waqas
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Spieler; William
• Application Number:
  US12/856,351
• Time in Patent Office: 319 Days
• Field of Search: 707/759, 705/27, 705/319
• US Class Current: 707/759
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Creation, association, and/or placement of search forums for searches strings enable users to discuss aspects of both searches and elements associated with the searches, and further enable the users to view discussions from other users. The search forum may be generated from variations of the search string. In addition or alternatively, search strings may be associated with existing item forums, category forums, and tag forums. Search forums may be placed with, for example, search results or with items, categories, and/or tags, among other possibilities, to provide user access to the search forums.

Claims

1. A method of selecting a forum, the method comprising:

receiving a search string for searching items in an electronic sales catalog to return search results, the search string including search terms;

creating variations of the search string based at least in part on the search terms, at least one of the variations to map to at least one of a tag having a tag forum or a category having a category forum;

associating the tag forum or the category forum with the search string; and

causing display of the tag forum or the category forum with the search results.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the creating the variations includes at least one of correcting a misspelled search term or replacing a search term with a synonym.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the items are at least one of items offered for sale or documents available from the electronic sales catalog.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising creating a new forum based at least in part on the search terms or the variations.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the causing the display includes the new forum with the search results.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the creating variations includes mapping at least one of the search terms to the tag that includes the tag forum.

7. A method of managing forums, the method comprising:

receiving a search string for searching an electronic list of items, the search string including a plurality of search terms;

identifying items associated with the search string to create a search result;

generating variations of the search string, the variations including a modified arrangement of the plurality of search terms that form the search string;

determining whether a forum associated with the search string or with one of the variations of the search string exists by determining if the search string or one of the variations of the search string is associated with at least one of a tag having a tag forum, a category having a category forum, or an existing search term having a search forum;

at least partly in response to determining that a forum associated with the search string or one of the variations exists, selecting a forum from at least one of the tag forum, the category forum, or the search forum; and

causing display of the selected forum as a part of the search result.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein generating variations of the search string includes at least one of replacing one of the plurality of search terms with an alternatively spelled search term or replacing one of the plurality of search terms with a synonym of the search term.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the search string or one of the variations of the search string is associated with the tag having the tag forum.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising selecting a tag forum that has a corresponding tag with a highest tag score of other tags associated with the search string or one of the variations of the search string.

11. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

selecting an item from the search result associated with the search string, the item having a category and at least one tag;

selecting at least one of a category forum associated with the category or a tag forum associated with the tag; and

causing display of the category forum or the tag forum proximate the search result.

12. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

obtaining a search string that includes search terms used to identify elements in an electronic list;

identifying variations of the search terms based at least in part on the search terms;

mapping the at least a portion of the search string or the variations with at least one of tags having tag forums or categories having category forums; and

associating at least one of the tag forums or categories forums with the search string.

13. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the variations include an alternatively spelled search term or a synonym of the search term.

14. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the mapping includes mapping at least a portion of the search string with at least one of tags having the tag forums or categories having the category forums.

15. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, further comprising causing display of the at least one of the tag forums or categories forums with search results retrieved with the search string.

16. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the causing the display includes at a tag forum and a category forum displayed with the search results retrieved with the search string.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the mapping includes mapping the at least a portion of the search string or the variations with tags having tag forums.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 17, further comprising selecting a tag forum that is associated with a tag that has a highest tag score.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the mapping includes mapping the at least a portion of the search string or the variations with categories having the category forums.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, further comprising selecting a category forum that is associated with a category of an item returned in a search result that is based at least in part on the search terms.