SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING INTEREST IN AN ITEM OR CATEGORY OF ITEMS

Systems and methods are provided for determining customer interest associated with an item or category of items. In some embodiments, one or more discussion forums associated with each of a plurality of items may be determined. For each item, interest criteria associated with the item may be determined based at least in part on the one or more discussion forums associated with the item. The interest criteria may include the number of user posts in the one or more discussion forums and/or the number of users who have participated in the one or more discussion forums. An interest score associated with each item may be determined based at least in part on the interest criteria. In some embodiments, interest ranking information for an item or category may be generated by comparing the interest score associated with an item or category and interest scores associated with other items or categories.