Organizing conversation threads based on social information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9800529-B2
Application number	US-201113284567-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2011
Priority date	Nov 12, 2010
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A messaging system that organizes and presents messages to users of the messaging system. The messaging system includes a mailbox module that receives messages and generates conversation threads from the messages. Messages received from different electronic message channels may be aggregated into a common conversation thread. The conversation threads are also organized in a message interface and then presented to a user of the messaging system. The messaging system may include a social networking system that stores social information about users, which can be used to organize the conversation threads. Other features include a multi mode message interface, and a method for adding contextual information to messages.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
maintaining a plurality of conversation threads in a social networking system, each conversation thread having a differing set of participants and including a collection of messages sent between the set of participants, wherein the participants are users of the social networking system;
generating a message interface that includes a plurality of conversation folders for grouping the conversation threads;
accessing a social networking database that includes first social information about a first social relationship between a first participant and a second participant of at least one conversation thread of the conversation threads and second social information about a second social relationship between the first participant and a third participant of the at least one conversation thread;
selecting, by a computing device, a folder of the plurality of folders based on the first social information from the social networking database about the first social relationship between the first participant and the second participant of the at least one conversation thread and the second social information about the second social relationship between the first participant and the third participant of the at least one conversation thread;
placing the at least one conversation thread into the folder selected based on the first social information and the second social information; and
sending the message interface for display to the first participant of the at least one conversation thread,
wherein selecting the folder of the plurality of folders comprises calculating a relationship score based on the first social information and the second social information, and selecting the folder of the plurality of folders based on whether the relationship score exceeds a threshold,
wherein the first social information comprises a first affinity value determined from interactions between the first participant of the conversation thread and the second participant of the conversation thread,
wherein the second social information comprises a second affinity value determined from interactions between the first participant of the conversation thread and the third participant of the conversation thread, and
wherein calculating the relationship score comprises calculating the relationship score based on the first affinity value and the second affinity value, the folder selected based on whether the relationship score exceeds the threshold.

2. A method comprising:
maintaining a plurality of conversation threads in a social networking system, each conversation thread having a differing set of participants and including a collection of messages sent between the set of participants, wherein the participants are users of the social networking system;
generating a message interface that includes a plurality of conversation folders for grouping the conversation threads;
accessing a social networking database that includes first social information about a first social relationship between a first participant and a second participant of at least one conversation thread of the conversation threads and second social information about a second social relationship between the first participant and a third participant of the at least one conversation thread;
selecting, by a computing device, a folder of the plurality of folders based on the first social information from the social networking database about the first social relationship between the first participant and the second participant of the at least one conversation thread and the second social information about the second social relationship between the first participant and the third participant of the at least one conversation thread;
placing the at least one conversation thread into the folder selected based on the first social information and the second social information; and
sending the message interface for display to the first participant of the at least one conversation thread,
wherein the first social information comprises a first affinity value determined from interactions between the first participant of the conversation thread and the second participant of the at least one conversation thread,
wherein the second social information comprises a second affinity value determined from interactions between the first participant of the conversation thread and the third participant of the at least one conversation thread,
wherein selecting the folder comprises selecting the folder of the plurality of folders based on the first affinity value and the second affinity value.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first social information used in selecting the folder of the plurality of folders comprises a degree of connection between the first participant and the second participant.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first social information used in selecting the folder of the plurality of folders comprises the first participant's affinity for the second participant.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first social information used in selecting the folder of the plurality of folders comprises whether the first participant and the second participant have established a connection in the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first social information used in selecting the folder of the plurality of folders comprises a type of connection between the first participant and the second participant.

7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising sorting the at least one conversation thread in the message interface based on the first social information.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the message interface includes a summary of the at least one conversation thread.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein a summary of the conversation thread is comprised of a most recent message from the conversation thread.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein a summary of the conversation thread is comprised of one or more images associated with the participants of the thread.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein a summary of the conversation thread is comprised of one or more names of the participants of the thread.

12. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of the at least one conversation thread;
receiving a selection of a different folder for the selected conversation thread; and
responsive to the selection of the at least one conversation thread and the selection of the different folder, moving the selected conversation thread into the selected folder.

13. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of one or more messages of the at least one conversation thread;
receiving a selection of a different conversation thread of the plurality of conversation threads; and
responsive to the selection of the one or more messages and the selection of the different conversation thread, forwarding the selected one or more messages to the selected conversation thread.

14. A method comprising:
maintaining a plurality of conversation threads in a social networking system, each conversation thread having a differing set of participants and including a collection of messages sent between the set of participants, wherein the participants are users of the social networking system;
generating a message interface that includes a plurality of conversation folders for grouping the conversation threads;
accessing a social networking database that includes first social information about a first social relationship between a first participant and a second participant of at least one conversation thread of the conversation threa

Assignees

• Malik Prashant
• Liu Jiakai
• Bosworth Andrew G
• Seligstein Joel Benjamin
• Hamlin Drew W
• Hsiao Daniel
• Lau Kenneth M
• Bayer Ross David
• Zuckerberg Mark E
• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Malik Prashant
• Liu Jiakai
• Bosworth Andrew G
• Seligstein Joel Benjamin
• Hamlin Drew W
• Hsiao Daniel
• Lau Kenneth M
• Bayer Ross David
• Zuckerberg Mark E

Classifications

• G06F15/16

  Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs {(coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B)} · CPC title

• H04L51/36

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06N5/025

  Extracting rules from data · CPC title

• G06F15/18

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L69/14

  Multichannel or multilink protocols · CPC title