Patent ID: 6963850

Claim:
A method of assisting users in selecting items from an electronic catalog of items, the catalog accessible to users of an online sales system that provides services for allowing users to purchase items from the catalog, the method comprising: providing a database which contains information about a plurality of user communities, wherein different communities represent different subsets of users of the sales system; tracking, via computer, online purchases of items from the sales system by the users to generate purchase history data, and storing the purchase history data in a computer memory: processing, via computer, at least the purchase history data to identify at least one item which, based on actions of both members and non-members of a selected community of said plurality of user communities, has a popularity level that is substantially greater within the selected community than outside the selected community; and electronically notifying users that the at least one item is popular within the selected community to assist users in selecting items from the electronic catalog.