Recommendation of media content items based on geolocation and venue

• US 8,886,584 B1
• Filed: 08/08/2013
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kane, Francis J. Jr., Mason, Llewellyn J., Killalea, Peter Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Traktovenko, Ilya
• Application Number:
  US13/962,809
• Time in Patent Office: 460 Days
• Field of Search: 706/46, 706/45, 706/62
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

Content items, such as e-books, audio files, video files, etc., may be recommended to a user based on the user'"'"'s presence at a geolocation or venue. Geolocation is the geospatial location of the user, while a venue is a designated area for an activity, such as a concert hall, aircraft, waiting room, etc. The recommendations may be of content items relating to the geolocation or venue, or they may be content items being accessed by others who are, or have been, in approximately the same geolocation or venue.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computing devices configured with executable instructions,

identifying a plurality of content items that are related to a location, the identifying being based on at least one of subject matter described within the plurality of content items or one or more users accessing the plurality of content items while at the location;

ranking the plurality of content items based on at least one of (i) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been completed or (ii) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been abandoned;

determining that a user is located at the location; and

upon determining that the user is located at the location, providing a recommendation of a content item of the plurality of content items to an electronic access device of the user, the recommendation being based at least in part on the rankings.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking the plurality of content items is based at least in part on the frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been completed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking the plurality of content items is based at least in part on the frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been abandoned.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying is based at least in part on subject matter described within the plurality of content items.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying is based at least in part on one or more users accessing the plurality of content items while at the location.

6. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining a location of a user;

identifying a plurality of content items that include subject matter related to the location;

ranking the plurality of content items based on at least one of (i) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been completed or (ii) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been abandoned; and

formulating a recommendation of a content item of the plurality of content items based at least in part on the rankings.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the plurality of content items are identified based at least in part on the plurality of content items having been accessed by one or more users while at the location.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the plurality of content items are identified based at least in part on the plurality of content items being currently accessed by one or more users who are at the location.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the location comprises a neighborhood, and the plurality of content items are identified based at least in part on the plurality of content items having been accessed by one or more users who reside in the neighborhood.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the location comprises a defined region of users, and the plurality of content items are identified based at least in part on the plurality of content items having been accessed more frequently by the users in the defined region than users who are not.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the location of the user comprises at least one of a geolocation or a venue.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the location of the user is determined based on at least one of:

a token provided by a venue;

a venue identifier provided by a venue network;

a network identifier provided by a venue network;

a network address of a venue network;

or

a hardware address of an access point of a venue network.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the location of the user is determined based on at least one of:

a geolocation report from an electronic access device of the user;

a geolocation service provided by a network provider;

a network address of the electronic access device of the user;

or

a query to the user.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining a geographical region associated with a user;

identifying a plurality of content items being accessed by one or more users who reside in the geographical region, the one or more users accessing the plurality of content items via one or more electronic access devices;

ranking the plurality of content items based on at least one of (i) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been completed or (ii) a frequency that consumption of a respective content item has been abandoned; and

recommending a content item of the plurality of content items to the user for consumption on an electronic access device associated with the user, the recommending being based at least in part on the rankings.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the geographical region comprises a neighborhood in which the user resides.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the identifying is based at least in part on content access information describing access of at least one of the plurality of content items.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein each of the one or more electronic accesses devices comprises an electronic book reader device.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the content item is recommended to the user based at least in part on a similarity of the user to the one or more users.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the content item is recommended to the user based at least in part on a similarity of the content item to a content item accessed within the geographical region.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of content items comprises an electronic book.