Implicit contacts in an online social network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10334064-B2
Application number	US-201715785237-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2017
Priority date	Mar 31, 2014
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user-list including one or more second users of the online social network. The method includes calculating, for each of the second users, a contact-score between the first user and the second user based on social interactions and non-social interactions between the users. The social interactions are interactions on the online social network visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the second user and the respective social interaction. The non-social interactions are interactions on a third-party application accessed by the online social network, shared based on a privacy setting associated with the third-party application. The method includes generating the user-list with references to second users having a contact-score above a threshold contact-score. The method includes providing instructions for displaying the user-list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, by a computing device:
receiving, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user-list comprising references to one or more second users of the online social network;
calculating, for each of one or more second users, a contact-score between the first user and the second user, wherein the contact-score for each second user is based at least in part on:
one or more social interactions between the first user and the second user, the social interactions being interactions on the online social network, wherein the social interactions are visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the second user and the respective social interaction; and
one or more non-social interactions between the first user and the second user, the non-social interactions being interactions on a third-party application on the client system and being accessed by the online social network from the third-party application, wherein the non-social interactions are shared with the online social network based on a privacy setting associated with the third-party application, and wherein the privacy settings associated with the third-party application determines how particular information associated with the first user is shared with the online social network;

generating the user-list comprising references to one or more second users having a contact-score with respect to the first user above a threshold contact-score; and
providing, to the client system responsive to the request, instructions for displaying the user-list to the first user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to the first user associated with the online social network; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network, respectively.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more social interactions are represented as edges connecting the first node corresponding to the first user and a second node corresponding to the second user.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the user-list comprises references to one or more second users who are first-degree connections of the first user within the social graph.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the user-list comprises references to one or more second users who are not connected to the first user within the social graph.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the user-list is displayed on a user interface of a native application associated with the online social network or the user-list is displayed on a webpage associated with the online social network accessed by a browser client.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user-list comprises one or more interactive elements associated with one or more second user referenced on the user-list.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more interactive elements are operable to:
send a friend request to the referenced second user;
accept a friend request from the referenced second user;
modify a privacy setting with respect to the referenced second user;
modify a friend connection with respect to the referenced second user;
send a message to the referenced second user;
initiate a voice call with the referenced second user;
remove the referenced second user from the user-list; or
view additional information about the referenced second user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-social interactions between the first user and the second user comprise one or more of:
a phone call between the first user and the second user;
an SMS or MMS message between the first user and the second user;
an email message between the first user and the second user;
an event attended by the first user and the second user;
the first user and the second user having substantially the same geographic location at substantially the same time; or
an address book entry of the first user or the second user.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user-list is an ordered list of one or more second users, the order based on the contact-score calculated for each second user.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user-list contains information about the contact-score for each second user.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contact-score for each second user is a composite contact-score comprising:
a first weighting factor applied to a first component of the contact-score based on the social interactions; and
a second weighting factor applied to a second component of the contact-score based on the non-social interactions.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying a query-filter to the user-list;
updating the contact-scores of the one or more second users based at least in part on the query-filter;
generating a revised user-list based on the updated contact-scores; and
providing, to the client system, instructions for displaying the revised user-list.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein a reference to a second user comprises:
an image associated with the referenced second user;
a name associated with the referenced second user;
an email address associated with the referenced second user;
contact information associated with the referenced second user;
a user ID associated with the referenced second user; or
user-profile information associated with the referenced second user on the online social network.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contact-score for each second user is calculated based at least in part on one or more interactions by the second user that have a visibility that is not visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the second user.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contact-score for each second user is calculated based at least in part on one or more interactions by the first user that have a visibility that is not visible to the second user based on privacy settings associated with the first user.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the client system, an input to filter the user-list by a particular time period;
re-calculating, for each of one or more second users, the contact-score between the first user and the second user based on social interactions or non-social interactions between the first user and the second user within the particular time period;
updating the user-list to comprise references to one or more second users having a re-calculated contact-score above a threshold contact-score; and
providing, to the client system, instructions for displaying the updated user-list.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the particular time period extends to a time of the input by the first user.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
receive, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user-list comprising one or more second users of the online social network;
calculate, for each of one or more second users, a contact-score between the first user and the second user, wherein the contact-score for each second user is based at least in part on:
one or more social interactions between the first user and the second user, the social interactions being

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Lessin Samuel Wharton
• Baldwin Robert M
• Huang Jeffrey
• Stanke Timothy A
• Winner Caitlin Rothrock
• Sain Matthew Vincent

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06Q10/00

  Administration; Management · CPC title

• H04L51/32

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q50/01

  Physics · mapped topic