Patent Document ID: 9160548
Application ID: 14543566

Base Claim:
1. 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; identifying a first plurality of items that characterize item preferences of a first user community of the plurality of user communities; calculating a degree to which the first plurality of items are related to a set of items in the electronic catalog identified by the first user; and based at least in part on the degree, determining whether to suggest the first user community to the first user; wherein the method is performed by one or more computers.

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Claim 3:
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event data identifies at least one of the following: (a) items purchased by particular users, (b) items rented by particular users, (c) items added to an electronic shopping cart by particular users, (d) items added to a rental queue by particular users, (e) items rated by particular users, (f) items selected for viewing by particular users, (g) search queries submitted by particular users to search the electronic catalog.