Customizing content in a social stream

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9762629-B1
Application number	US-201213693680-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 4, 2012
Priority date	Dec 4, 2012
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

The disclosure includes a system and method for providing a customized stream of content to a user. The system includes: an item sourcer for gathering one or more content items from one or more content sources; a behavior indicator module and scorer for determining one or more behavior scores for the one or more content items; a content indicator module and scorer for determining one or more content scores for the one or more content items; a score combiner for aggregating the one or more behavior scores and the one or more content scores to generate one or more item scores for the one or more content items; a content diversifier for determining one or more diverse items from the one or more content items; and a stream generator for generating a customized stream of content for the user from the one or more diverse items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
gathering one or more content items from one or more content sources;
determining a user-activity pair representing a behavior pattern indicating how a user interacts with a second user on an activity;
determining a weight for the second user based on a defined relationship between the user and the second user in a social graph, and historical communications between the user and the second user;
determining a behavior score for the user based on the user-activity pair and the weight, the behavior score indicating interaction behavior of the user;
determining one or more content scores for the one or more content items;
aggregating the behavior score and the one or more content scores to generate one or more first item scores for the one or more content items;
determining one or more diverse items from the one or more content items; and
generating a customized stream of content for the user from the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more first item scores.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the customized stream of content from the one or more diverse items comprises:
determining, from the one or more first item scores, one or more second item scores related to the one or more diverse items;
ranking the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more second item scores;
applying a time-decay function to generate one or more current scores for the one or more diverse items;
re-ranking the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more current scores; and
generating the customized stream of content that includes one or more top-ranking diverse items from the one or more diverse items responsive to the re-ranking of the one or more diverse items.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the behavior score comprises:
determining one or more other users participating in one or more activities related to the one or more content items;
determining one or more activity types for the one or more activities;
determining one or more first weights for the one or more other users and one or more second weights for the one or more activity types; and
generating the behavior score based on the user-activity pair, the user-activity pair based at least in part on the one or more first weights and the one or more second weights, each user-activity pair including one of the one or more other users and one of the one or more activity types.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more content scores for the one or more content items comprises:
determining one or more virality scores for the one or more content items;
determining one or more quality scores for the one or more content items;
boosting the one or more quality scores based at least in part on reputation of one or more authors of the one or more content items; and
generating the one or more content scores including the one or more quality scores and the one or more virality scores.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the one or more virality scores for the one or more content items comprises:
identifying one or more activity types related to a first content item from the one or more content items;
determining an aggregate number of other users involved in the first content item;
aggregating one or more actions related to the first content item based at least in part on the one or more activity types; and
determining one of the one or more virality scores related to the first content item based at least in part on the aggregate number of other users and the one or more actions related to the first content item.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more diverse items from the one or more content items comprises:
determining one or more authors of the one or more content items;
determining one or more topics related to the one or more content items;
ranking the one or more content items based at least in part on the one or more first item scores; and
selecting the one or more diverse items from the one or more ranked content items based at least in part on the one or more authors and the one or more topics.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
mixing the one or more content items;
creating one or more groups of items from the one or more content items based at least in part on one or more content attributes;
generating metadata for the one or more content items; and
attaching the metadata to the one or more content items.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the behavior score and the one or more content scores are time-dependent indicators.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the behavior score includes a group interaction indicator measuring user interaction with content published by one or more members of a group.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:
gather one or more content items from one or more content sources;
determine a user-activity pair representing a behavior pattern indicating how a user interacts with a second user on an activity;
determine a weight for the second user based on a defined relationship between the user and the second user in a social graph, and historical communications between the user and the second user;
determine a behavior score for the user based on the user-activity pair and the weight, the behavior scores indicating interaction behavior of the user;
determine one or more content scores for the one or more content items;
aggregate the behavior score and the one or more content scores to generate one or more first item scores for the one or more content items;
determine one or more diverse items from the one or more content items; and
generate a customized stream of content for the user from the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more first item scores.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein generating the customized stream of content from the one or more diverse items comprises:
determining, from the one or more first item scores, one or more second item scores related to the one or more diverse items;
ranking the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more second item scores;
applying a time-decay function to generate one or more current scores for the one or more diverse items;
re-ranking the one or more diverse items based at least in part on the one or more current scores; and
generating the customized stream of content that includes one or more top-ranking diverse items from the one or more diverse items responsive to the re-ranking of the one or more diverse items.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein determining the behavior score comprises:
determining one or more other users participating in one or more activities related to the one or more content items;
determining one or more activity types for the one or more activities;
determining one or more first weights for the one or more other users and one or more second weights for the one or more activity types; and
generating the behavior score based on the user-activity pair, the user-activity pair based at least in part on the one or more first weights and the one or more second weights, each user-activity pair including one of the one or more other users and one of the one or more activity types.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein determining the one or more content scores for the one or

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Bhargava Aman
• Bose Abhijit
• Bunner Andrew Ames
• Liu Lan
• Mazniker Boris
• Schutt Rachel Ida Rosenthal
• Tomkins Andrew
• Zunger Yonatan

Classifications

• G06Q10/40 Primary

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

• H04L65/40 Primary

  Support for services or applications · CPC title

• G06Q10/46

  Determination of level of influence of users within social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q10/48

  using social graphs · CPC title

• G06Q10/42

  Determination of affinities or common interests between users · CPC title