Patent ID: 8892508

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of matching users to user communities, the method comprising: for each of a plurality of users of an electronic catalog, storing event data representing user-generated events that reflect user affinities for particular items represented in the electronic catalog; storing information about a plurality of user communities, each of which corresponds to a respective subset of the plurality of users and comprises multiple users; generating a score that reflects a degree to which item preferences of a first user of the plurality of users are similar to item preferences associated with a first user community of said plurality of user communities, wherein generating the score comprises analyzing the event data associated with the first user and event data associated with members of the first user community; and based at least in part on the score, determining whether to suggest the first user community to the first user; wherein the method is performed by one or more computers, wherein generating the score further comprises identifying a first plurality of items that characterize item preferences of the first user community, and calculating a degree to which the first plurality of items are related to a set of items ordered by the first user; and wherein calculating the degree to which the first plurality of items are related to the set of items ordered by the first user comprises accessing item similarity data to determine whether the first plurality of items are similar to the set of items ordered by the first user.