Resource management of social network applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9832150-B2
Application number	US-201615006004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2016
Priority date	Aug 19, 2008
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

Applications in social networks support interaction between members through various types of channels such as notifications, newsfeed, and so forth. For each channel, applications are ranked based on their user affinity measures. User affinity is based on measuring positive and negative interactions by users as both senders and recipients of messages generated by applications. Metrics are computed for the different types of messages and interactions provided by applications. For each channel, an application receives user affinity score based on specific weighted combination of the metrics. Applications use channel resources to send messages to increase their user base. Given the large number of applications that are available, the extent to which applications are allowed to use channels is controlled, limiting their resource consumption. User affinity scores of applications calculated for a channel are used to decide the allocation of channel resources for an application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method comprising:
providing access to a plurality of applications provided by third-party developers on a social networking system;
receiving information about a plurality of interactions of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the interactions relating to one or more of the applications, each interaction associated with one of a plurality of action types, each action type associated with a measure of affinity of a user for an application;
aggregating the interactions of the plurality of users for a subject application of the plurality of applications based on the action types;
determining, by the social networking system, a user affinity score for the subject application indicating affinity of the users of the social networking system for the application, the user affinity score based at least in part on the aggregated interactions, weighted based on the action types of the interactions; and
receiving, by the social networking system, request to send one or more messages associated with the subject application; and
determining whether to send the one or more messages based on the user affinity score for the subject application, wherein determining whether to send the one or more messages comprises determining to send the one or more messages responsive to the user affinity score for the subject application exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether to send the one or more messages comprises:
determining to block the one or more messages if the user affinity score for the subject application is below the predetermined threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more messages comprise a message for sending information describing the subject application.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more messages comprise a request to a user of the social networking system to interact with the social networking system in relation to the subject application.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more messages are sent by a user of the social networking system executing the subject application, each of the one or more messages including information describing the subject application and sent to another user connected to the user via the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each action type is associated with a channel, wherein the channel is a computer mediated communication mechanism for facilitating communication between users of the social networking system and the social networking system.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the channel comprises one of: notification channel, invitation channel, mini-feed channel, and wall post channel.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user affinity score represents a likelihood of a user taking an action of a particular action type when presented with a specific application.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined threshold value is a first predetermined threshold value, further comprising:
determining to disable the subject application from being accessible to users of the social networking system if the user affinity score for the subject application is below a second predetermined threshold value.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more messages comprise information for promoting the subject application.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for:
providing access to a plurality of applications provided by third-party developers on a social networking system;
receiving information about a plurality of interactions of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the interactions relating to one or more of the applications, each interaction associated with one of a plurality of action types, each action type associated with a measure of affinity of a user for an application;
aggregating the interactions of the plurality of users for a subject application of the plurality of applications based on the action types;
determining, by the social networking system, a user affinity score for the subject application indicating affinity of the users of the social networking system for the application, the user affinity score based at least in part on the aggregated interactions, weighted based on the action types of the interactions; and
receiving, by the social networking system, request to send one or more messages associated with the subject application; and
determining whether to send the one or more messages based on the user affinity score for the subject application, wherein determining whether to send the one or more messages comprises determining to send the one or more messages responsive to the user affinity score for the subject application exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein determining whether to send the one or more messages comprises:
determining to block the one or more messages if the user affinity score for the subject application is below the predetermined threshold value.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more messages comprise a message for sending information describing the subject application.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more messages comprise a request to a user of the social networking system to interact with the social networking system in relation to the subject application.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more messages are sent by a user of the social networking system executing the subject application, each of the one or more messages including information describing the subject application and sent to another user connected to the user via the social networking system.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein each action type is associated with a channel, wherein the channel is a computer mediated communication mechanism for facilitating communication between users of the social networking system and the social networking system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the channel comprises one of: notification channel, invitation channel, mini-feed channel, and wall post channel.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the user affinity score represents a likelihood of a user taking an action of a particular action type when presented with a specific application.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more messages comprise information for promoting the subject application.

20. A computer system, comprising:
an electronic processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by the electronic processor, the instructions for:
providing access to a plurality of applications provided by third-party developers on a social networking system;
receiving information about a plurality of interactions of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the interactions relating to one or more of the applications, each interaction associated with one of a plurality of action types, each action type associated with a measure of affinity of a user for an application;
aggregating the interactions of the plurality of users for a subject application of the plur

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Whitnah Thomas Scott
• Rush Alexander Matthew
• Zhou Ding
• Sanghvi Ruchi

Classifications

• H04L47/783

  Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers · CPC title

• H04L67/34

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06F16/24578

  using ranking · CPC title

• G06Q10/10 Primary

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title