Generating display information using a dynamically selected strategy

Abstract

Techniques are described for dynamically generating recommendations for users, such as for products and other items. In at least some situations, the techniques include using multiple recommendation strategies, such as by aggregating recommendation results from multiple different recommendation strategies. Such recommendation strategies may have various forms, and may be based at least in part on data regarding prior interactions of numerous users with numerous items. In addition, information about current selections of a particular user may be gathered based at least in part on providing a GUI (“graphical user interface”) for display to the user that includes selectable information about numerous recommended items, and dynamically updating the displayed GUI with newly generated recommendations of items as the user makes selections of particular displayed recommended items (e.g., newly generated recommendations that are similar to the selected items in one or more manners, or are otherwise related to the selected items).

1 - 70 . (canceled) 
     
     
         71 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, by one or more configured computing systems, information about one or more interactions of a first user with one or more first products;   selecting, by the one or more configured computing systems, and to display to the first user along with other information about the one or more first products from another source, one or more content pieces from a plurality of available content, including:
 selecting, for a current situation that is based on the one or more interactions of the first user with the one or more first products, and from multiple strategies available for use in the current situation to identify information to display for the one or more first products, a single strategy to use for the current situation; 
 selecting, by using information that is generated from the selected single strategy and that is based at least in part on first information specific to the first user and on second information specific to the one or more first products and on third information about prior interactions of multiple users with a plurality of products, one or more other second products distinct from the one or more first products; and 
 obtaining, from the plurality of available content, information about the one or more other second products that includes the one or more content pieces; 
   generating, by the one or more configured computing systems, and for display on a client device of the first user, at least a portion of a Web page that includes the obtained information about the one or more other second products;   providing, via one or more transmissions sent over one or more computer networks from the one or more configured computing systems to the client device of the first user, the generated at least portion of the Web page, to cause presentation of the obtained information about the one or more other second products to the first user in the Web page displayed on the client device and to enable further interactions by the first user with the one or more content pieces; and   responding, by the one or more configured computing systems and after the presentation of the obtained information, to one or more of the further interactions by the first user that include interactions with the one or more content pieces included in the obtained information presented in the displayed Web page.   
     
     
         72 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the selecting of the single strategy to use for the current situation includes:
 for each of the multiple strategies, generating at least one recommendation for the current situation based on at least one of the one or more first products or of the third information about the prior interactions of the multiple users with the plurality of products; and 
 identifying the selected single strategy based at least in part on comparing information about the generated at least one recommendation for each of the multiple strategies. 
 
     
     
         73 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the selecting of the single strategy to use for the current situation includes identifying the single strategy as being predetermined for use with the one or more first products. 
     
     
         74 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the selected single strategy generates recommendations from a subset of the plurality of products that are identified as popular based at least in part on the prior interactions of the multiple users with the plurality of products, and wherein the selecting of the one or more other second products includes selecting one or more of the generated recommendations. 
     
     
         75 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  further comprising determining, by the one or more configured computing systems, one or more third products of the plurality of products to recommend to a second user by selecting another strategy of the multiple strategies that is different from the selected single strategy, and by selecting the one or more third products from recommendations generated by the selected another strategy. 
     
     
         76 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the selecting of the one or more other second products from the information generated from the selected single strategy includes selecting the one or more other second products from only recommendations generated by the selected single strategy, so as to exclude other recommendations of other strategies separate from the selected single strategy. 
     
     
         77 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the multiple strategies are each different and are each one of identifying products that are popular for a particular category of products, of identifying products that are popular for a particular retailer of products, or of identifying products with which one or more users have indicated to group the one or more first products. 
     
     
         78 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the multiple strategies include identifying products that are popular for a particular category of products to which the one or more first products belong, identifying products that are popular for a particular retailer of products, identifying products that are similar to the one or more first products based on sharing one or more attributes with the one or more first products, identifying products that are related to the one or more first products based on users who interact with the one or more first products in one or more manners also interacting with those identified products in the one or more manners, and identifying products with which one or more users have indicated to group the one or more first products. 
     
     
         79 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the one or more first products correspond to one product category of multiple product categories for the plurality of products, and wherein the selected single strategy includes at least one of selecting products that are frequently purchased from the one product category or of selecting products that are frequently viewed from the one product category. 
     
     
         80 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the one or more first products correspond to at least one search result of multiple search results for a search initiated by the first user, and wherein the selected single strategy includes selecting products that are related to the one or more first products in the prior interactions of the multiple users. 
     
     
         81 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 71  wherein the one or more first products are indicated by the first user, and wherein the selected single strategy includes selecting products that are related to the one or more first products in the prior interactions of the multiple users. 
     
     
         82 . A computing system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more memories with stored instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the at least one processor to perform interactions with a user, including:
 receiving, via one or more first transmissions sent over one or more computer networks to the computing system from one or more other computing systems of another entity, information about a current situation involving the user interacting with one or more first products available from the another entity; 
 identifying multiple strategies that are available to be used for the current situation to identify information to display for the one or more first products; 
 selecting, based at least in part on the information about the current situation, only one strategy of the multiple strategies to use for the current situation; 
 determining, by using first information about the one or more first products and using second information about prior interactions of multiple users with a plurality of products, one or more other second products of the plurality from recommendations generated by the selected one strategy; 
 providing, via one or more second transmissions sent over the one or more computer networks from the computing system to a client device of the user, selected information about the determined one or more other second products, to cause display of the selected information to the user on the client device as part of a Web page along with other information about the one or more first products from the another entity and to enable further interactions by the user with the selected information; and 
 responding, after the display of the selected information to the user on the client device, to one or more of the further interactions by the user that include interactions with the selected information displayed in the Web page on the client device. 
   
     
     
         83 . The computing system of  claim 82  further comprising the client device of the user, wherein the client device is configured to receive the Web page from the another entity with the other information about the one or more first products, to receive the selected information about the determined one or more other second products from a system that is executing on the computing system and that includes the instructions stored in the one or more memories, to display the Web page to the user with the selected information about the determined one or more other second products being shown as part of the Web page, to receive a selection of at least one product of the determined one or more other second products by the user via the Web page, to send an indication of the selection to the system executing on the computing system, and to receive and display further provided information about the at least one product from the system executing on the computing system and in response to the sent indication of the selection. 
     
     
         84 . The computing system of  claim 82  wherein the stored instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the receiving and the identifying and the selecting and the determining and the providing and the responding for current situations of each of multiple users, and wherein, for a first user of the multiple users, the selected one strategy to use for a first current situation involving the first user is a first strategy of the multiple strategies, and for a distinct second user of the multiple users in a distinct second current situation, the selected one strategy to use for the second current situation involving the second user is a second strategy of the multiple strategies that is distinct from the first strategy. 
     
     
         85 . The computing system of  claim 82  wherein the stored instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform the receiving and the identifying and the selecting and the determining and the providing and the responding for each of multiple users interacting with the one or more first products, and wherein, for a first user of the multiple users, the selected one strategy to use is a first strategy of the multiple strategies, and for a distinct second user of the multiple users, the selected one strategy to use is a second strategy of the multiple strategies that is distinct from the first strategy. 
     
     
         86 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that cause a computing device to perform automated operations including at least:
 receiving, by the computing device, information about one or more interactions of a first user with one or more first items;   determining, by the computing device, and based at least in part on the one or more interactions and on prior interactions of multiple users with a plurality of items, one or more other items of the plurality for which to provide information to the first user, the determining including selecting one strategy of multiple available strategies to use to generate item recommendations for the first user and further including selecting the determined one or more other items from the generated item recommendations;   providing, via one or more transmissions sent over one or more computer networks from the computing device to a client device of the first user, selected information about the determined one or more other items, to cause presentation of the selected information to the first user on the client device and to enable further interactions by the first user with the presented selected information; and   responding, after the presentation of the selected information to the user on the client device, to one or more of the further interactions by the first user with the presented selected information.   
     
     
         87 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 86  wherein the one or more first items are products, and wherein generating of the item recommendations by the selected one strategy further uses information about the one or more first items. 
     
     
         88 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 86  wherein generating of the item recommendations by the selected one strategy further uses information about the first user. 
     
     
         89 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 86  wherein the computing device is part of a recommendation service that determines item recommendations for multiple users, and wherein the presentation of the selected information to the first user on the client device involves adding the provided selected information to a Web page supplied to the client device from an entity separate from the recommendation service. 
     
     
         90 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 86  wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing device, wherein the stored contents include software instructions that, when executed, program the computing device to perform the automated operations, and wherein the software instructions further cause the computing device to generate, for display on the client device of the first user, at least a portion of a Web page that includes information about the determined one or more other items, and to perform the providing of the selected information about the determined one or more other items to the client device of the first user by transmitting the generated at least portion of the Web page to the client device of the first user, to cause the presentation of the selected information about the determined one or more products to the first user on the client device as part of the Web page along with other information about at least one of the one or more first items.