Patent ID: 6317722
Filing Date: 2001-11-13
Classification: G06Q,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
In a computer system that provides user access to a database of items, and provides electronic shopping carts for allowing users to interactively select and hold items from the database for prospective purchase, a system for recommending items to users, comprising:a computer-readable medium embodying a non-user-specific data structure which maps items from the database to sets of similar items from the database; anda computer system embodying a recommendation process which generates personal recommendations for a user that has an electronic shopping cart by at least:(a) identifying a plurality of items, including multiple items that are currently in the user's shopping cart;(b) for each item identified in step (a), accessing the non-user-specific data structure to identify a corresponding set of similar items, to thereby identify a plurality of sets of similar items;(c) combining the sets of similar items identified in step (b) to generate a ranked set of similar items in which a similar item's ranking reflects whether that similar item appears within more than one of said sets; and(d) presenting at least some of the items of the ranked set of similar items to the user as recommendations.