System and method for creating topic neighborhood visualizations in a networked system

• US 9,652,524 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2014
• Issued: 05/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Melcher, Ryan, Sacco, Nathan
• Primary Examiner(s): THIAW, CATHERINE B
• Application Number:
  US14/513,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20150032754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 946 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203, 709217-219, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• 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 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method for creating topic neighborhoods and a visualization for related topic neighborhoods in a networked system are disclosed. The apparatus, in an example embodiment, includes a neighborhood generator configured to receive user input that identifies a topic for association with a neighborhood; create a neighborhood in association with the identified topic; gather neighborhood information using the identified topic as a search term to search from sources including information related to the topic; automatically invite users to join the created neighborhood; and provide access to the neighborhood via a neighborhood visualization on a webpage.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving user input that identifies a topic for association with a neighborhood, the user input including votes from a community of users for the topic;

creating, by use of a hardware processor, the neighborhood in association with the identified topic, the neighborhood defining a group of users that share an interest or behavior, the group of users including the community of users that voted for the topic;

determining a related neighborhood based on a relatedness score that indicates a number of users among the group of users that participate in the related neighborhood;

gathering neighborhood information by using the identified topic as a search term to search from sources including information related to the identified topic, the neighborhood information including data from the related neighborhood;

automatically inviting users to join the created neighborhood; and

causing display of a neighborhood visualization on a webpage accessible to the invited users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a further neighborhood displayed on the webpage is not being used for a predetermined period of time;

and pruning the further neighborhood from the webpage based on the determining.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighborhood visualization includes depicting a flower with data elements related to the neighborhood being shown as leaves around a center of the flower.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inviting the community of users to vote for the topic.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining user behavior data that indicates behavior of the users with respect to the webpage;

dynamically detecting a further topic based on the behavior of the users with respect to the webpage; and

creating a further neighborhood in association with the further topic.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inviting users to vote for images displayed within the neighborhood.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information about users that join the created neighborhood including images of the users that join the created neighborhood.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a list of recommended neighborhoods including a number of users that are within each of the recommended neighborhoods.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein sources of the neighborhood information include at least one of:

merchandising, blogs, guides, reviews, people, or photos.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighborhood visualization includes a first flower representing the created neighborhood and a second flower representing the related neighborhood.

11. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors and executable instructions accessible on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executed, configures the one or more processors to at least;

receive user input that identifies a topic for association with a neighborhood, the user input including votes from a community of users for the topic;

create the neighborhood in association with the identified topic, the neighborhood defining a group of users that share an interest or behavior, the group of users including the community of users that voted for the topic;

determine a related neighborhood based on a relatedness score that indicates a number of users among the group of users that participate in the related neighborhood;

gather neighborhood information by using the identified topic as a search term to search from sources including information related to the identified topic, the neighborhood information including data from the related neighborhood;

automatically invite users to join the created neighborhood; and

cause display of a neighborhood visualization on a webpage accessible to the invited users.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine that a further neighborhood displayed on the webpage is not being used for a predetermined period of time; and

prune the further neighborhood from the webpage based on the determination.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the neighborhood visualization includes depicting a flower with data elements related to the neighborhood being shown as leaves around a center of the flower.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

invite the users to vote for the topic.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

obtain user behavior data that indicates behavior of the users with respect to the webpage;

dynamically detect a further topic based on the behavior of the users with respect to the webpage; and

create a further neighborhood in association with the further topic.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

invite users to vote for images displayed within the neighborhood.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

display information about users that join the created neighborhood including images of the users that join the created neighborhood.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

display a list of recommended neighborhoods including a number of users that are within each of the recommended neighborhoods.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein sources of the neighborhood information include at least one of:

merchandising, blogs, guides, reviews, people, or photos.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving user input that identifies a topic for association with a neighborhood, the user input including votes from a community of users for the topic;

creating the neighborhood in association with the identified topic, the neighborhood defining a group of users that share an interest or behavior, the group of users including the community of users that voted for the topic;

determining a related neighborhood based on a relatedness score that indicates a number of users among the group of users that participate in the related neighborhood;

gathering neighborhood information by using the identified topic as a search term to search from sources including information related to the identified topic, the neighborhood information including data from the related neighborhood;

automatically inviting users to join the created neighborhood; and

causing display of a neighborhood visualization on a webpage accessible to the invited users.