Services for using group preferences to improve item selection decisions

摘要

Computer services use group preferences, as partially or wholly specified by preference lists of individual members, to identify items well suited for a designated group of users. In one embodiment, items in the movie/video rental queue (one type of preference list) of a first user are prioritized based, at least partly, on the rental queue of a second, affiliated user, to give priority to items corresponding to the collective preferences of both users. Items may also be recommended to the users based on their collective preferences. In a second embodiment, the suggestion lists of multiple members of a book club are used, optionally in combination with other member preference information, to select or recommend book titles for the club. In a third embodiment, the wish lists of two or more affiliated users are used to assist others in purchasing gifts that correspond to their collective preferences.