Methods and apparatus for generating recommendations for gifts
View Patent ↗One embodiment is a method that monitors, on the computer, activity of a member of a group to build a profile of the member. The profile of the member is used to generate recommendations for gifts that the member wants to receive to celebrate an event. The method then transmits the gifts to a website so other members of the group can select one of the gifts to purchase for the member.
1. A method executed by one or more computers, comprising:
monitoring, by the one or more computers, activity on a computer to build a profile of a person;
analyzing, by the one or more computers, the profile of the person to generate a recommendation for a product that the person desires;
retrieving, by the one or more computers, prices at different websites for the product without knowledge of the person and before the recommendation for the product is presented to the person;
presenting, by the one or more computers and to the person, the recommendation for product and the prices for the product; and
secretly sending, without knowledge of the person, the recommendation for the product to another person that desires to purchase a gift for the person.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: retrieving, by the one or more computers, pictures of the product before the recommendation for the product is presented to the person.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: building the profile by collecting information from an email written by the person in which the information in the email indicates that the person wants the product.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: building the profile from data that includes what peripheral device is in communication with the computer.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising: building the profile from data that includes internet searches performed on the computer by the person, videos watched on the computer by the person, and advertisements clicked on the computer by the person.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: building the profile from data that includes a number of times the person navigated to a website and a length of time the person spent on the website.
7. A non-transient computer readable storage medium having instructions for causing one or more computers to execute a method, comprising:
monitor, by the one or more computers, activity of a user on a computer in order to build a user profile of the user;
analyze, by the one or more computers, the user profile to generate a recommendation of a product that the user desires to have;
gather, without knowledge of the user and by the one or more computers, a description for the product and a price for the product before the user is presented with the recommendation for the product;
provide the recommendation for the product to other persons that desire to purchase a gift for the user; and
present, on the computer and to the user, the recommendation for the product, the description for the product, and the price for the product, wherein the user does not know that the recommendation was provided to the other persons.
8. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to:
crawl an internet to gather a picture of the product before the user is presented with the recommendation for the product;
present, on the computer and to the user, the picture of the product.
9. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to: build the user profile from data that includes content in an email that indicates the user wants the product.
10. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to:
determine a type of peripheral device connected to the computer;
recommend a previously presented peripheral device to the user as the recommendation for the product.
11. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to:
perform an analysis of installed software loaded on the computer; and
recommend software to the user based on the analysis of the installed software on the computer.
12. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to:
determine which retail stores sell the product before the user is presented with the recommendation for the product.
13. The non-transient computer readable storage medium of claim 7 having instructions for further causing the one or more computers to: build the profile from data that includes queries performed on the computer by the user and items purchased over an internet by the user.
14. A computer system, comprising:
one or more memories that store an algorithm; and
one or more processors that execute the algorithm to:
monitor activity on a computer to build a profile of a person using the computer;
generate, using the profile of the person, a recommendation for a product that the person would like to have;
retrieve, without knowledge of the person, a price of the product before the person is presented with the recommendation for the product;
provide the recommendation for the product to another person that desires to purchase a gift for the person; and
present the recommendation for the product to the person, wherein the person does not know that the recommendation is provided to the another person.
15. The computer of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors further execute the algorithm to: crawl an internet to retrieve a picture of the product before the person is presented with the recommendation for the product.
16. The computer of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors further execute the algorithm to crawl an internet to:
generate, using the profile of the person, a recommendation for a service that the person would like to have;
retrieve a price of the service before the person is presented with the recommendation for the service; and
present the recommendation for the service to the person.
17. The computer of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors further execute the algorithm to: determine which retail stores sell the product before the person is presented with the recommendation for the product.
18. The computer of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors further execute the algorithm to: determine which internet websites offer the product for sale before the person is presented with the recommendation for the product.