Patent ID: 9621600
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: G06Q,H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. A method for providing information to a merchant, the method comprising: receiving a request for user information from a merchant over a data communication network; determining a location of the merchant; identifying a plurality of users within a proximity of the location of the merchant; determining whether one or more servers comprise the user information obtained within a predetermined time period, wherein the user information comprises a location of the plurality of users and interest information associated with the plurality of users, and wherein the one or more servers comprises geo-tagged contents retrieved from social network services, the geo-tagged contents being organized according to a geo-hash hierarchy; requesting the user information from one or more data sources if the one or more servers has no user information obtained within the predetermined time period, the one or more data sources comprising user data information, the one or more data sources being associated with one or more social networks; requesting the user information from the one or more servers if the one or more servers has the user information obtained within the predetermined time period; processing the user information based on the merchant request and user relationship information related to the merchant; determining a relevance value associated with the user information, wherein the relevance value is based on one or more factor weights, the one or more factor weights being configured dynamically; generating recommendations for the merchant based on the relevance value; and sending the recommendations to the merchant.