Various methods are disclosed for monitoring user browsing activities that
indicate user interests in particular products or other items, and for using such
information to identify items that are related to one another. In one embodiment,
relationships between products within an online catalog are determined by identifying
products that are frequently viewed by users within the same browsing session (e.g.,
products A and B are related because a significant portion of those who viewed
A also viewed B). The resulting item relatedness data is preferably stored in a
table that maps items to sets of related items. The table may be used to provide
personalized product recommendations to users, and/or to supplement product detail
pages with lists of related products. In one embodiment, the table is used to provide
session-specific product recommendations to users that are based on the products
viewed by the user during the current browsing session.
