Patent ID: 8666980

Claim:
A system for mining user conversations from a remote content site to obtain data for generating personalized recommendations, the system comprising: one or more processors of an electronic catalog system configured to provide users with access to an electronic catalog of items, the one or more processors configured to implement at least: an item data repository comprising data representations of catalog items; a data collector configured to, for a user of the electronic catalog system, collect conversation data representing one or more conversations involving the user and one or more additional users at a content site, the conversation data comprising text of the one or more conversations, the text identifying a first item, the content site being implemented on a distinct server system separate from the electronic catalog system; a data mining module configured to: analyze the conversation data to identify virtual activity data associated with the first item in which the user expressed an interest; determine a type of the virtual activity data, the type of the virtual activity data including one or more of virtual item selections and potential item selections, the virtual item selections including a link to the first item, the potential item selections referencing the first item without including the link to the first item; assign weights to the virtual activity data associated with the first item based on the type of the virtual activity data; and use the weighted virtual activity data associated with the first item to identify a second item associated with the first item; and a recommender configured to select one or more item data representations associated with the first item, associated with the second item, or associated with both the first item and the second item from the item data repository as recommendations for the user, the recommender configured to output the recommendations for presentation to the user in response to the user accessing a page of the electronic catalog system.