Generating activity summaries

• US 10,025,450 B1
• Filed: 04/05/2013
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lider, Brett Rolston, Smarr, Joseph Robert, Glazer, David, Norton, Kenneth, Agarawala, Anand
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Hua
• Application Number:
  US13/857,900
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A system and method for generating activity summaries to users of a social network server is disclosed. User activity information is received by a user activity information receiver module. The user activity information is then categorized by a categorization module, which in some implementations, also groups the categorized user activity information in accordance with commonalities identified among the user activity information. The categorized user activity information is ranked according to relevance to the user by the ranking module or according to relevance to the user'"'"'s contacts. An output generation module 308 determines when the groupings are complete. Activity summaries are then generated by the output generation module. The activity summary includes the categorized user activity information. The activity summary is sent for display on a user device of a user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving user activity information, wherein the user activity information includes content that represents a first type of activity information and a second type of activity information of a user'"'"'s online activity;

determining an initiation of a user story of user activities based on a first location of the user;

generating, using one or more computing devices, a notification of the initiation of the user story for display, the notification including a representation of the first location;

identifying whether there is a session based on a time frame and relatedness of the user activities to a topic;

in response to determining the initiation of the user story and the user activities falling within the session,

categorizing the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information into a group of user activity information, the group of user activity information being based on the first location of the user common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information; and

updating the notification to indicate that the user story is in progress with progress information associated with the user story, the progressing information including information of an increasing number of the user'"'"'s contacts that get related to the user story as the user story is progressing;

determining a change in location of the user activity information to signal an ending of the user story;

in response to determining the change in location, generating an activity summary for the user, wherein the activity summary includes the content that represents the categorized user activity information based on the first location common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information; and

sending, using the one or more computing devices, the activity summary for display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

grouping the categorized user activity information in accordance with commonalities.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a beginning of the grouping.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

ranking the grouped user activity information according to relevance to the user and/or user'"'"'s contacts.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining when the group is complete.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating a verb identifier with a user activity; and

categorizing the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information according to the verb identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity summary includes more than one type of user activity.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the user to share the generated activity summary with other users.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium encoding instructions that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving user activity information, wherein the user activity information includes content that represents a first type of activity information and a second type of activity information of a user'"'"'s online activity;

determining an initiation of a user story of user activities based on a first location of the user;

generating, using one or more computing devices, a notification of the initiation of the user story for display, the notification including a representation of the first location;

identifying whether there is a session based on a time frame and relatedness of the user activities to a topic;

in response to determining the initiation of the user story and the user activities falling within the session,

categorizing the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information into a group of user activity information, the group of user activity information being based on the first location of the user common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information; and

updating the notification to indicate that the user story is in progress with progress information associated with the user story, the progressing information including information of an increasing number of the user'"'"'s contacts that get related to the user story as the user story is progressing;

determining a change in location of the user activity information to signal an ending of the user story;

in response to determining the change in location, generating an activity summary for the user, wherein the activity summary includes the content that represents the categorized user activity information based on the first location common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information; and

sending, using the one or more computing devices, the activity summary for display.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

grouping the categorized user activity information in accordance with commonalities.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

determining a beginning of the grouping.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

ranking the grouped user activity information according to relevance to the user and/or user'"'"'s contacts.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

determining when the group is complete.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

associating a verb identifier with a user activity; and

categorizing the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information according to the verb identifier.

15. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the activity summary includes more than one type of user activity.

16. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to further perform:

allowing the user to share the generated activity summary with other users.

17. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a user activity information receiver module stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors, the user activity information receiver module for receiving user activity information, wherein the user activity information includes content that represents a first type of activity information and a second type of activity information of a user'"'"'s online activity;

a categorization module stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the user activity information receiver module, executable by the one or more processors, for determining an initiation of a user story of user activities based on a first location of the user, for identifying whether there is a session based on a time frame and relatedness of the user activities to a topic, for categorizing, in response to determining the initiation of the user story and the user activities falling within the session, the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information into a group of user activity information, the group of user activity information being based on the first location of the user common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information, and for determining a change in location of the user activity information to signal an ending of the user story;

in response to determining the change in location, an activity summary generation module stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the categorization module, executable by the one or more processors, for generating, using one or more computing devices, a notification of the initiation of the user story for display, wherein the notification includes a representation of the first location of the user, for updating the notification, in response to determining the initiation of the user story and the user activities falling within the session, to indicate that the user story is in progress with progress information associated with the user story, the progressing information including information of an increasing number of the user'"'"'s contacts that get related to the user story as the user story is progressing, and for generating an activity summary for the user, wherein the activity summary includes the content that represents the categorized user activity information based on the first location common to the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information; and

an output generation module stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors, communicatively coupled to the activity summary generation module, executable by the one or more processors, for sending, using the one or more computing devices, the activity summary for display.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the categorization module further groups the categorized user activity information in accordance with commonalities.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the categorization module further determines a beginning of the grouping.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the categorization module further ranks the grouped user activity information according to relevance to the user and/or user'"'"'s contacts.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the categorization module further determines when the group is complete.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the categorization module further associates a verb identifier with a user activity, and categorizes the first type of user activity information and the second type of user activity information according to the verb identifier.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the activity summary includes more than one type of user activity.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the activity summary generation module allows the user to share the generated activity summary with other users.