Location based content promotion on online social networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9910479-B2
Application number	US-201414323951-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 3, 2014
Priority date	Apr 16, 2014
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

In one embodiment, a computing system may access a social graph of an online social network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, where each of the edges between two of the nodes represent a single degree of separation between them, and the nodes comprise a first node corresponding to a first user of the online social network, and a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network. The computing system may calculate a content score for each of one or more content items shared by the second users on the online social network, where each content score is based at least in part on a proximity coefficient between the first user and the content item. The computing system may send one or more of the scored content items for display to the first user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing systems:
by the one or more computing systems, accessing a social graph of an online social network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to a first user of the online social network; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network;

by the one or more computing systems, calculating a content score for each of one or more content items shared by the second users on the online social network, wherein each content score is based at least in part on a proximity coefficient between the first user and the content item shared by a second user, wherein:
the proximity coefficient is based on a location history of the first user and a location history associated with the node corresponding to the content item shared by the second user; and
the proximity coefficient is a weighted combination of multiple subpart proximity coefficients over a period of time, each subpart proximity coefficient being calculated based on a geographical distance between locations of the first user and the second user sharing the content item and a total time that the first user and the second user were at their respective geographical locations when the content item is shared by the second user; and

by the one or more computing systems, sending to a client device of the first user for display one or more of the content items based at least in part on the calculated content scores.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content item comprises a text, an image, a video, an audio recording, a status update, a wall post, or a message.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location history associated with the first user and the location history associated with the node corresponding to the content item each comprises:
one or more geographic locations; and
one or more time stamps corresponding to each of the geographic locations.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the proximity coefficient is based on a time decay factor.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the proximity coefficient is based on a determination of whether the location history of the first user comprises a geographic location within a threshold distance of a geographic location associated with the content item, wherein a time stamp corresponding to the geographic location of the first user references a time period that is shared with a time stamp corresponding to the geographic location associated with the content item.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the geographic location comprises:
a home location of the first user;
a workplace location of the first user;
a school of the first user; or
a location that the first user frequents.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the geographic location associated with the content item comprises a location history of the second user associated with the content item.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second user is tagged in the content item.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second user has uploaded the content item to the online social network.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the proximity coefficient calculated for the content item associated with the second user is also used for one or more additional content items associated with the second user.

11. The method of claim 5 , wherein the proximity coefficient is based on:
the distance between the geographic location of the first user and the geographic location associated with the content item; and
a total time period during which the first user was at the geographic location.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the proximity coefficient is adjusted based on a determination of whether the first user is traveling.

13. The method of claim 12 , determining whether the first user is traveling is based at least in part on the distance between a current location of the first user and a location determined to be the first user's home.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein a proximity coefficient is calculated based on the distance between the geographic location and the location associated with the content item without the time the first user was at the geographic location if the first user is traveling.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the content score is further based on an affinity coefficient between the first user and the content item.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the affinity coefficient is based at least in part on a degree of separation between the first node corresponding to the first user and the concept node corresponding to the content item.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the content score comprises, for each content item:
calculating an affinity coefficient between the first user and the content item; and
calculating a proximity coefficient between the first user and the content item.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content items are sent for display to the first user within a newsfeed of the first user.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
access a social graph of an online social network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to a first user of the online social network; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network;

calculate a content score for each of one or more content items shared by the second users on the online social network, wherein each content score is based at least in part on a proximity coefficient between the first user and the content item shared by a second user, wherein:
the proximity coefficient is based on a location history of the first user and a location history associated with the node corresponding to the content item shared by the second user; and
the proximity coefficient is a weighted combination of multiple subpart proximity coefficients over a period of time, each subpart proximity coefficient being calculated based on a geographical distance between locations of the first user and the second user sharing the content item and a total time that the first user and the second user were at their respective geographical locations when the content item is shared by the second user; and

send to a client device of the first user for display one or more of the content items based at least in part on the calculated content scores.

20. A system comprising: one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
access a social graph of an online social network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to a first user of the online social network; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users associated with the online social network;

calculate a content score for each of one or more c

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Vaccari Andrea
• Jia Yuntao
• Ge Jun
• Moreels Pierre

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

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

• H04W4/20

  Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel · CPC title

• H04W4/08

  User group management · CPC title

• G06F16/9537

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title