Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Other

James G Robinson

Scott Allen Mongrain

Terrence R Nightingale

Samuel S Sonne

Joseph Spencer King

Thomas Lowell Keller

Russell Dicker

Jacob G Kalberer

Brandon W Farrell

Sameer R Rajyaguru

Anne Randolph Marshall

Oystein Hernes

Terrance R Nightingale

Logan Luyet Dillard

Pranav Dandekar

Balamurugan Anandan

Discussion threads may be ranked based a factor other than a time since a most recent post of the discussion thread. For example, discussion threads may be ranked based on a likelihood of each discussion thread being helpful to a broad range of users and/or based on how likely each discussion thread is to draw users to participate in the respective discussion thread.

Ranking discussion forum threads

Discussion threads may be ranked based a factor other than a time since a most recent post of the discussion thread. Discussion threads may be ranked based on a likelihood of each discussion thread being helpful to a broad range of users and/or based on how likely each discussion thread is to draw users to participate in the respective discussion thread.

A computing system for searching for and identifying data repository deficits includes an interactive database of items, a data repository that stores a first type of information related to items, a search engine configured to identify items that do not have an amount of the first type of information that meets a first threshold, a candidate selection interface that provides functionality for the user to select an item from recommended candidate items needing the first type of information, a user interface via which the user can provide the first type of information for an item selected by the user, a game system configured to calculate for a game scores and rankings based at least in part on data stored in the data repository.

Methods and systems for searching for and identifying data repository deficits

Techniques are described for assessing information supplied by users in various ways, such as to assess the reliability and/or other attributes of the user-supplied information. In at least some situations, the user-supplied information includes votes or other evaluations supplied by users related to items available from an online merchant, such as ratings of usefulness or other attributes of item reviews for the items or of other types of content pieces that are provided by other users. If user-supplied information is assessed as being sufficiently reliable and/or to have other desired attributes of interest, such as based on an automated analysis of the information, the user-supplied information may be used in various ways in various embodiments, such as to rate the quality or other attributes of the evaluated content pieces, and/or to rate quality or other attributes of the content-providing users who provide the content pieces.

Assessing user-supplied evaluations

Systems and methods are provided for providing an answer to a question left unanswered in an electronic discussion forum. In some embodiments, a question that has not been answered may be identified in a first discussion forum. A second discussion forum in which to present the question may be determined, where the second discussion forum is more likely than the first discussion forum to result in an answer to the question. The question may then be presented in the second discussion forum, and one or more responses to the question may be received in the second discussion forum. It may then be determined whether one of the one or more responses includes a good answer to the question, and when the determination is that one of the one or more responses includes a good answer, the good answer may be presented in the first discussion forum.

Providing an answer to a question left unanswered in an electronic forum

Criterion-based feedback allows users to provide useful information in a quick and easy to understand fashion. When information for an item is relayed to a user, the user is provided with the ability to provide feedback for any criteria relating to the item. In some embodiments, this feedback takes the form of a submission of a response to a question or statement pertaining to a criterion for the item. The user is able to create new responses if the existing responses do not adequately convey the feedback that the users wishes to submit. Further, a user can also submit entirely new questions and/or statements, along with corresponding new responses, that correspond to a criterion relating to the item. Such an approach provides flexibility for users to quickly and easily provide feedback on specific criteria that might be useful for other users viewing information for that item.

Criteria-based structured ratings

Systems and methods are provided for identifying an answer to a question in an electronic discussion forum. In some embodiments, text from a discussion forum that includes a question may be retrieved. One or more responses to the question from the discussion forum may be determined. An answer to the question may then be determined from the one or more responses to the question. In some embodiments, an answer may be determined based, at least in part, on at least one of a context of the text from the discussion forum, a context of a location in which the answer to the question may be further presented, and user behavior related to the one or more responses to the question.

Identifying an answer to a question in an electronic forum

Techniques described enable an entity, such as a company employing an e-commerce website, to leverage user-provided content, such as customer reviews of an item, to better customers' shopping experiences. To do so, customer reviews pertaining to an item may be examined to determine if the reviews contain links to other items. These links within the customer reviews may then be aggregated and sorted (e.g., ranked) according to certain criteria. The links may be sorted based on a number of times that the links are used in the reviews and/or on ratings of the items associated with the links. One or more of the links may then be displayed on the website. For instance, these links may appear on an item review page adjacent the customer reviews. Customers navigating to the item review page may then peruse the customer reviews as well as the displayed links that customers have used within the reviews.

Customers mention

Disclosed are various embodiments for locating product references in community content. Character sequences (n-grams) are extracted from a page of text content. Each n-gram is evaluated as a potential product reference using a product catalog search for the n-gram or a conditional probability for the n-gram. The conditional probability is obtained from behavior-based search data. When the search was used for the evaluation, each n-gram is found to be a potential product based on results from the product catalog search. When the behavior-based search data was used for the evaluation; each n-gram is found to be a potential product based on the conditional probability exceeding a threshold.

Locating product references in content pages

Techniques are described for assessing users who provide content, such as based on the provided content and/or on aspects of how/when the content is provided. In at least some situations, the users being assessed are author users who create some or all of the content that they provide, while in other situations users may provide other types of content (e.g., content that is identified and/or selected by the users, but not created by the users). Assessment of the content-providing users may be performed in various manners, such as to generate one or more user contribution scores or other user contribution ratings for some or all such users, such as to reflect a combination of multiple factors (e.g., a quantity of pieces of content provided by a user, a recency of providing some or all of the content pieces, an assessed quality of the provided content pieces, etc.).

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Olympia, WA, United States of America

James G Robinson