Patent ID: 8370203

Claim:
A method of recommending items to users of an electronic catalog system, the method comprising: receiving a request that identifies a catalog item selected by a user for performing a transaction; selecting first and second item selection methods, from a set of candidate item selection methods, based at least partly on user profile data associated with the user; selecting a first plurality of additional catalog items to recommend to the user, said first plurality of additional catalog items selected according to the first item selection method; selecting a second plurality of additional catalog items to recommend to the user, said second plurality of additional catalog items selected according to the second item selection method; and generating a page to present to the user in response to the request, wherein generating the page comprises: populating a first section of the page with representations of each of the first plurality of additional catalog items; populating a second section of the page with representations of each of the second plurality of additional catalog items, said second section being distinct from the first section; and populating a third section of the page with at least a representation of the catalog item selected by the user, said third section identifying said catalog item as being selected, and being distinct from the first and second sections; said method performed in its entirety by a server system that comprises one or more physical servers.