Custom event and attraction suggestions

• US 8,990,344 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2013
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ganesh, Jaikumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian P
• Application Number:
  US14/019,300
• Publication Number:
  US 20140101123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 565 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

A computing device may determine a geographic location of the computing device. The computing device may receive information associated with a user. The information may include a search history, a browsing history, an electronic communication message, a social media profile, and a geographic location history. The computing device may determine, based on the information associated with the user, a predicted interest of the user. The computing device may determine, based on the predicted interest of the user, events within a threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device. The computing device may determine, based on a strength of a relationship between the predicted interest and respective event information associated with each of the events, a ranking of the events. The computing device may output, based on the ranking, at least a portion of the event information for at least one of the events.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, an indication of a geographic location of a computing device associated with a user;

receiving, by the computing system and from the computing device, information associated with the user, wherein the information associated with the user is based on user input received by the computing device that caused the computing device to perform one or more functions unrelated to predicting interests of the user;

generating, by the computing system and based on the information associated with the user, an interest graph associated with the user, the interest graph including a plurality of topics of interest;

determining, by the computing system, based on the interest graph and from the plurality of topics of interest, a topic of interest that appears more frequently within the information associated with the user than at least one other topic of interest from the plurality of topics of interest;

determining, by the computing system and based on the topic of interest, one or more events occurring within a threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device; and

outputting, by the computing system, for transmission to the computing device, at least a portion of event information for at least a first event from the one or more events.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user includes textual information, wherein generating the interest graph associated with the user comprises:

determining, by the computing system, based on the textual information, a respective count of one or more of a plurality of keywords within the textual information, the respective count for each keyword indicating a number of occurrences of the keyword within the textual information; and

inserting, by the computing system, to the interest graph as one of the plurality of topics of interest, the keyword from the plurality of keywords with a greatest respective count.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the respective count for each keyword represents a sum of the number of occurrences of the keyword included in the textual information and a number of occurrences of synonyms of the keyword included in the textual information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the textual information comprises a search history of the user, wherein the search history of the user represents a series queries associated with the user and performed by an Internet search engine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user includes a social media profile of the user, wherein generating the interest graph associated with the user comprises:

determining, by the computing system, based on the social media profile of the user, a stated interest of the user; and

inserting, by the computing system, to the interest graph as one of the plurality of topics of interest, the stated interest of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user includes a social media profile of the user, wherein generating the interest graph associated with the user comprises:

determining, by the computing system, based on the social media profile of the user, a plurality of users sharing a social connection on a social networking service with the user, wherein the social connection represents a relationship on the social networking service between the user and each of the plurality of users;

identifying, by the computing system, one or more stated interests of the plurality of users from a social media profile associated with each of the plurality of users;

determining, by the computing system, a respective count for each of the one or more stated interests that are common between two or more of the plurality of users; and

inserting, by the computing system, to the interest graph as one of the plurality of topics of interest, the stated interest with the highest respective count.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user includes a browsing history of the user, the browsing history including one or more uniform resource locators, wherein determining the topic of interest comprises:

retrieving, by the computing system, textual information from each reference specified by the one or more uniform resource locators;

determining, by the computing system, based on the textual information, a respective count of one or more of a plurality of keywords within the textual information, the respective count for each keyword indicating a number of occurrences of the keyword within the textual information; and

inserting, by the computing system, to the interest graph as one of the plurality of topics of interest, the keyword from the plurality of keywords with a greatest respective count.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the topic of interest comprises receiving, by the computing system, from the computing device, the topic of interest.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing system, an indication of input received by the computing device; and

modifying, by the computing system, based on the input, the threshold distance.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more events within the threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device comprises:

invoking, by the computing system, a search engine to search for the one or more events associated with the one or more topics of interest of the user; and

receiving, by the computing system, from the search engine, the one or more events associated with the one or more topics of interest of the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more events within a threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device further comprises determining, by the computing system, the one or more events within a transit time from the geographic location of the computing device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the event information for at least a first event from the one or more events includes at least one of an indication of an event location, an indication of an event description, an indication of an event venue, and an indication of a distance between the geographic location of the computing device and an event location.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the interest graph associated with the user comprises inserting at least one topic of interest from the information associated with the user into the plurality of topics of interest included in the interest graph associated with the user.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computing system, based on a strength of a relationship between the one or more topics of interest of the user and event information associated with each event from the one or more events, a ranking of the one or more events; and

outputting, by the computing system, for transmission to the computing device, in an order determined based at least in part on the ranking and for display at the computing device, at least a portion of the event information associated with each of the one or more events.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the at least a portion of event information for at least a first event from the one or more events is in response to receiving, by the computing system, from the computing device, a request for nearby events, wherein the request for nearby events is based on at least one of an audible input detected by the computing device and a touch input detected by the computing device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing system, additional information associated with the user; and

determining, by the computing system, based on the additional information, one or more updated topics of interest of the user.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the at least a portion of event information for at least a first event from the one or more events comprises:

determining, by the computing system, that the geographic location of the computing device is a new geographic location of the computing device that is not included in the geographic location history of the user; and

responsive to determining that the geographic location of the computing device is a new geographic location of the computing device, outputting, by the computing system, for transmission to the computing device, the at least a portion of event information as a notification.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more functions unrelated to predicting interests of the user comprise at least one of:

sending or receiving communications of the user that comprise message content related to one or more of the plurality of topics of interest;

executing a search related to one or more of the plurality of topics of interest;

or

accessing a social media service.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a computing system to:

receive an indication of a geographic location of a computing device associated with a user;

receive, from the computing device, information associated with the user, wherein the information associated with the user is based on user input received by the computing device that caused the computing device to perform one or more functions unrelated to predicting interests of the user;

generate, based on the information associated with the user, an interest graph associated with the user, the interest graph including a plurality of topics of interest;

determine, based on the interest graph and from the plurality of topics of interest, a topic of interest that appears more frequently within the information associated with the user than at least one other topic of interest from the plurality of topics of interest;

determine, based on the topic of interest, one or more events occurring within a threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device; and

output, for transmission to the computing device, at least a portion of event information for at least a first event from the one or more events.

19. A computing system comprising:

at least one hardware unit comprising at least one processor; and

at least one module operable by the at least one processor to;

receive an indication of a geographic location of a computing device associated with a user;

receive, from the computing device, information associated with the user, wherein the information associated with the user is based on user input received by the computing device that caused the computing device to perform one or more functions unrelated to predicting interests of the user;

generate, based on the information associated with the user, an interest graph associated with the user, the interest graph including a plurality of topics of interest;

determine, based on the interest graph and from the plurality of topics of interest, a topic of interest that appears more frequently within the information associated with the user than at least one other topic of interest from the plurality of topics of interest;

determine, based on the topic of interest, one or more events occurring within a threshold distance from the geographic location of the computing device; and

output, for transmission to the computing device, at least a portion of event information for at least a first event from the one or more events.