Systems and methods for contextual recommendations

A computer-implemented recommendation system for use within a network-based system, the system comprising:

• one or more computer processing components comprising:
• a tracking module to track user activity associated with a plurality of users interacting with a network-based system;
• a relationship module to calculate a recommendation relationship type based at least in part on the tracked user activity, the recommendation relationship type selected from a group of recommendation relationship types including a substitute relationship type and a complement relationship type;
• a recommendation engine to select a recommended object based at least in part on the recommendation relationship type and a first object accessed by a user interacting with the network-based system;
• a type module to determine a relationship strength between the recommended object and the first object accessed by the user interacting with the network-based system, the relationship strength based on a navigational relationship and a transactional relationship between the first object and the recommended object, and cause display of the recommended object.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a computer-implemented network-based system, cause the network-based system to:

• track, on a server including a processor, user activity associated with a plurality of users interacting with a network-based system;
• determine, on the server, a recommendation relationship type based at least in part on the tracked user activity, the recommendation relationship type selected from a group of recommendation relationship types including a substitute relationship type and a complement relationship type;
• select, on the server, a recommended object based at least in part on the recommendation relationship type and a first object accessed by a user interacting with the network-based system;
• determine a relationship strength between the recommended object and the first object accessed by the user interacting with the network-based system, the relationship strength based on a navigational relationship and a transactional relationship between the first object and the recommended object, wherein each of the navigational relationship and the transactional relationship is determined from the user activity;
• and
• cause display of the recommended object based on at least the relationship strength between the first object and the recommended object and the recommended relationship type.