Determining visibility of group content to a user based on inferred connections between users of an online system

• US 10,075,825 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2016
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Egan, John David, Rasmussen, Lars Eilstrup, Lopiano, Fabio
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Lan-Dai T
• Application Number:
  US15/046,346
• Publication Number:
  US 20170237810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 937 Days
• Field of Search: 709204, 709217, 709223, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

An online system allows users to join groups and interact with other members of group that they have joined. The online system identifies relationships between users in an organization using information about the users, such as roles and connections from an organizational chart. The online system establishes inferred connections between the users based on information from the organizational chart. The online system then determines whether to make group content visible to a user by applying visibility criteria for a group to the inferred connections between a user and members of the group, if any. Depending on this determination, groups are then made visible to certain users by presenting content associated with the group to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving information identifying a plurality of users of an online system, the information including a plurality of use profiles, wherein each user profile of the plurality of user profiles is associated with a user of the plurality of users;

receiving information describing an organizational chart for an organization, the organizational chart indicating connections among the plurality of users defined by each user'"'"'s role in the organization;

storing a group on the online system;

providing a social networking environment to the plurality of users, the social networking environment enabling the plurality of users to establish connections with the group;

identifying one or more users of the plurality of users that are not connected to the group;

generating a set of inferred connections between the identified one or more users and one or more other users of the online system, wherein the one or more other users of the online system have roles in the organization, and wherein the inferred connections are based at least in part on the received information describing the organizational chart;

applying a set of visibility criteria to the inferred connections between the identified one or more users and one or more other users of the online system that are connected to the group;

determining whether to make the group visible to the identified one or more users based on the applying; and

in response to determining to make the group visible to the identified one or more users, presenting content associated with the group to the identified one or more users through the social networking environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to make the group visible to the identified one or more users is further based on one or more measures of affinity of the identified one or more users for the group, the one or more measures of affinity computed based on one or more indicators associated with the identified one or more users and the group.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein computing the measure of affinity of the identified one or more users for the group comprises:

determining values for each of the one or more indicators based on information associated with the identified one or more users and with the group by the online system;

associating weights with each of the one or more indicators, a weight associated with an indicator based at least in part on a likelihood that the indicator indicates interest in the group by a user of the identified one or more users; and

computing the one or more measures of affinity for the identified one or more users for the group based at least in part on the values associated with each of the one or more indicators and the weights associated with each of the one or more indicators.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting content associated with the group to the identified one or more users comprises presenting a content item associated with the group to the identified one or more users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting content associated with the group to the identified one or more users comprises presenting the group as a result of a search query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting content associated with the group to the identified user comprises presenting a suggestion to the identified one or more users to join the group.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on a rank of the identified one or more users in the organizational chart.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on one or more positions of the identified one or more users in the organizational chart being in a particular branch of the organizational chart.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on the identified one or more users being connected to a predefined number of other users of the plurality of users who are members of the group.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on comparing characteristics of the identified one or more users and characteristics of the group.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on a number of previous interactions of the identified one or more users with content related to the group.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein apply the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on the identified one or more users being connected to a predefined number of other users of the plurality of users who are members of the group.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on comparing characteristics of the identified one or more users and characteristics of the group.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive information identifying a plurality of users of an online system, the information including a plurality of use profiles, wherein each user profile of the plurality of user profiles is associated with a user of the plurality of users;

receive information describing an organizational chart for an organization, the organizational chart indicating connections among the plurality of users defined by each user'"'"'s role in the organization;

store a group on the online system;

provide a social networking environment to the plurality of users, the social networking environment enabling the plurality of users to establish connections with the group;

identify one or more users of the plurality of users that are not connected to the group;

generate a set of inferred connections between the identified one or more users and one or more other users of the online system, wherein the one or more other users of the online system have roles in the organization, and wherein the inferred connections are based at least in part on the received information describing the organizational chart;

apply a set of visibility criteria to the inferred connections between the identified one or more users and one or more other users of the online system that are connected to the group;

determine whether to make the group visible to the identified one or more users based on the applying; and

in response to determining to make the group visible to the identified one or more users, present content associated with the group to the identified one or more users through the social networking environment.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein determining whether to make the group visible to the identified one or more users is further based on one or more measures of affinity of the identified one or more users for the group, the one or more measures of affinity computed based on one or more indicators associated with the identified one or more users and the group.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein presenting content associated with the group to the identified one or more users comprises presenting a content item associated with the group to the identified one or more users.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein presenting content associated with the group to the identified one or more users comprises presenting the group as a result of a search query.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the visibility criteria for the group are based on the organizational chart provided to the online system.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on a rank of the identified one or more users in the organizational chart.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein applying the visibility criteria to the inferred connections is based on one or more positions of the identified one or more users in the organizational chart being in a particular branch of the organizational chart.