Invite abuse prevention

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9495711-B2
Application number	US-95021910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2010
Priority date	Nov 19, 2010
Publication date	Nov 15, 2016
Grant date	Nov 15, 2016

Abstract

Techniques for invite abuse prevention are described. In an implementation, data that describes mutual activities of the clients with one or more resources available via a service provider is obtained from multiple clients. The service provider may use this data regarding mutual activities to ascertain activity scores between clients that interact directly. The ascertained activity scores may then be used to compute a score between two subject clients to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients. Computing the score may include determining one or more connections between the two clients through clients that interact directly, calculating candidate values for the one or more connections, and selecting one of the candidate values as the computed score using various techniques. The computed score may be used in various ways to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients using the one or more resources.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented by a computing system of a social networking service, comprising: obtaining activity data from multiple client devices in a social network that describes mutual online direct interaction engaged in by the multiple client devices with respect to other clients in the social network; calculating a closeness score for a first client and a second client that use the social network service; based on the activity data obtained from the multiple client devices in accordance with a closeness scale that assigns relative ranks to different types of online activities conducted as part of the online direct interaction via the social network each of the relative ranks being assigned according to a determined closeness of each to one of the different types of online activities including activities offered by the social network, and the closeness score being calculated by the computing system; and utilizing the calculated closeness score to control social network activities between said clients.

2. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein calculating the closeness score comprises:
matching the online direct interaction to corresponding ranks from the closeness scale that assigns the relative ranks to the different types of online activities according to the determined closeness of the activities; and
selecting the closeness score to correspond to a highest ranked activity that is matched.

3. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein utilizing the calculated closeness score comprises selectively blocking or allowing an invite between said clients based on the calculated closeness score.

4. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein utilizing the calculated closeness score comprises:
including the second client in a group of closest friends of the first client based upon the calculated closeness score;
arranging one or more portions of a user interface configured to provide the social network service to the first client to differentiate between information from the closest friends of the first client and information from other friends.

5. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein utilizing the calculated closeness score comprises configuring an update feed provided to the first client via the social network service to enable selective filtering of information in the update feed from the second client based on the calculated closeness score.

6. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein the calculating and utilizing are performed via an activity manager implemented by the service provider using activity data that is obtained over a network from said clients.

7. A method as described in claim 1 , wherein the calculating and utilizing are performed via a collection module implemented by one of said clients using activity data that is collected by the one of said clients.

8. One or more computer-readable storage media devices having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by a computing system, of a social network service, causes the computing system to implement an activity manager to perform operations comprising: obtaining activity data from multiple client devices in a social network that describes mutual online direct interaction engaged in by the multiple client devices with respect to other clients in the social network; computing a closeness score for two subject clients that use the social networking service, based upon the activity data obtained from the multiple client devices in accordance with a closeness scale that assigns relative ranks to different types of online activities conducted as part of the online direct interaction, the relative ranks being assigned according to a determined closeness of each of the different types of online activities including activities offered by the social network, the closeness score being computed by the computing system; and controlling interaction of the two subject clients based upon the closeness score.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein computing the closeness score for the two subject clients comprises:
identifying one or more connections between the two subject clients through clients of the multiple client devices that interact directly;
ascertaining activity scores between the clients of the multiple client devices that interact directly;
calculating candidate values for the closeness score that correspond to each of the one or more connections using the ascertained activity scores; and
selecting one of the candidate values as the closeness score for the two subject clients.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 9 , wherein ascertaining the activity scores between the clients of the multiple client devices that interact directly comprises, for each pair of said clients:
matching the mutual online direct interaction of the client pair to corresponding ranks from the closeness scale that assigns the relative ranks to the different online activities according to a perceived closeness of the activities; and
selecting an activity score for the client pair to correspond to a highest ranked activity that is matched.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein the social network corresponds to a social network service from a service provider.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein computing the closeness score for the two subject clients comprises:
identifying one or more connections between the two subject clients through clients of the multiple client devices that interact directly;
calculating candidate values for the closeness score as minimums of activity scores associated with client pairs of the multiple client devices in each of the one or more connections;
selecting a maximum of the candidate values as the closeness score.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein computing the closeness score for the two subject clients comprises:
identifying one or more connections between the two subject clients through clients of the multiple client devices that interact directly;
calculating candidate values for the closeness score as averages of activity scores associated with client pairs of the multiple client devices in each of the one or more connections;
selecting a maximum of the candidate values as the closeness score.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein controlling interaction of the two subject clients based upon the closeness score includes selectively blocking or allowing an invite between the two subject clients to become friends in the social network based on the closeness score.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media devices as described in claim 8 , wherein controlling interaction of the two subject clients based upon the closeness score includes:
assigning threshold values for closeness to different online direct interaction available within the social network; and
enabling or disabling the different activities for the two subject clients depending upon whether the closeness score satisfies the thresholds established for the different activities.

16. A system, of a social networking service, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed via the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement an activity manager configured to perform acts to compute a closeness score for two subject c

Assignees

• Samuel Arjmand M
• Halai Sameer
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Samuel Arjmand M
• Halai Sameer

Classifications

• G06Q10/40 Primary

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

• G06Q10/107 Primary

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title

• G06Q50/01 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/42

  Determination of affinities or common interests between users · CPC title