Incorporation of user-provided natural language translations in a social networking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016170973-A1
Application number	US-201414567941-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 11, 2014
Priority date	Dec 11, 2014
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A social networking system determines whether a particular user is qualified to provide translations of text from a first language to a second language. The determination may include evaluation of the language competencies of the user, and also of the trustworthiness of the user as a translator, as determined based on prior translations submitted by the user. The social networking system also selects translations of a text item for a user to whom that text is to be shown. When evaluating a candidate translation for presentation to the user, the evaluation may assess factors such as the determined qualification as a translator of the user who provided the candidate translation; a quality score of the candidate translation itself; and/or the similarity of the user viewing the content and the user providing the candidate translation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing a text item submitted on a social networking system by a publishing user of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the text item being in a first language; obtaining, from a plurality of translating users of the plurality of users of the social networking system, a plurality of translations of the text item into one or more second languages; identifying, from among the plurality of translations, a translation from the plurality of translations for display to a viewing user, the identification comprising evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users from whom the plurality of translations were obtained; and providing the identified translation for display to the viewing user.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users comprises evaluating one or more similarities between connections of the viewing user and of the translating users on the social networking system.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users comprises evaluating demographic similarities between the viewing user and the translating users.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the translation for the viewing user further comprises eliminating from consideration one or more translations of the plurality of translations based on comparisons of the one or more translations to other translations of the plurality of translations.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the translation for the viewing user further comprises:
comparing one or more translations of the plurality of translations to automated machine translations of the text item into the one or more second languages; and eliminating from consideration one or more of the compared translations based on the comparisons.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying, in visual association with the identified translation, attribution information identifying the translating user who submitted the identified translation.

7 . A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions comprising:
instructions for storing a text item submitted on a social networking system by a publishing user of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the text item being in a first language; instructions for obtaining, from a plurality of translating users of the plurality of users of the social networking system, a plurality of translations of the text item into one or more second languages; instructions for identifying, from among the plurality of translations, a translation from the plurality of translations for display to a viewing user, the identification comprising evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users from whom the plurality of translations were obtained; and instructions for providing the identified translation for display to the viewing user.

8 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users comprises evaluating one or more similarities between connections of the viewing user and of the translating users on the social networking system.

9 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein evaluating one or more similarities between the viewing user and the translating users comprises evaluating demographic similarities between the viewing user and the translating users.

10 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein identifying the translation for the viewing user further comprises eliminating from consideration one or more translations of the plurality of translations based on comparisons of the one or more translations to other translations of the plurality of translations.

11 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein identifying the translation for the viewing user further comprises:
comparing one or more translations of the plurality of translations to automated machine translations of the text item into the one or more second languages; and eliminating from consideration one or more of the compared translations based on the comparison.

12 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , the instructions further comprising:
instructions for displaying, in visual association with the identified translation, attribution information identifying the translating user who submitted the identified translation.

13 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing a text item submitted to a social networking system by a first user, the text item being in a first language; comparing:
prior translations for text items from the first language to a second language, the prior translations provided by a second user, and
other translations of the text items from the first language to the second language, the other translations provided by users other than the second user;
determining, based on the comparison, whether the second user is qualified to translate the text item to the second language; obtaining from the second user a translation of the text item into the second language; and storing the second translation in association with the text item.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining that a third user speaks the second language; and providing the obtained translation of the text item to the third user.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising computing automated machine translations of the text items, wherein determining whether the second user is qualified to translate the text item to the second language comprises comparing the prior translations provided by the second user for the text items with the automated machine translations.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising receiving translations of the text items from other users, wherein determining whether the second user is qualified to translate the text item to the second language comprises comparing the prior translations provided by the second user for the text items with the translations by other users.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein determining whether the second user is qualified to translate the text item to the second language comprises:
identifying ratings by other users of the prior translations by the second user; and determining whether the identified ratings are positive.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein determining whether the second user is qualified to translate the text item to the second language comprises determining a degree to which the prior translations provided by the second user contain terms on a term blacklist.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising providing to the first user a notification that the translation has been obtained.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 19 , further comprising providing to the first user options to accept or to reject the translation.

21 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing a text item submitted on a social networking system by a publishing user of a plurality of users of

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Ying
• Waibel Alexander

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

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

• G06F40/58 Primary

  Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation · CPC title

• G06F17/289 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/48

  using social graphs · CPC title

• G06Q10/42

  Determination of affinities or common interests between users · CPC title