×

Proximity-based searching on online social networks

  • US 10,262,039 B1
  • Filed: 01/15/2016
  • Issued: 04/16/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2016
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices of an online social network:

  • receiving, from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a search query inputted by the first user;

    accessing a proximity graph from a proximity-coefficient system of the online social network, wherein the proximity graph comprises;

    a first node corresponding to the first user;

    a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of entities, respectively;

    a plurality of proximity edges connecting the nodes, wherein each proximity edge is associated with a corresponding proximity coefficient that is weighted based on a geographic distance between entities corresponding to the nodes and a period of time the entities corresponding to the nodes were within a threshold distance of each other;

    identifying one or more entities of the plurality of entities matching the search query, at least a portion of the entities being identified based at least in part on whether there is a proximity edge connecting the nodes corresponding to the first user and the identified entity;

    accessing, from the proximity graph of the proximity-coefficient system, a proximity coefficient for each identified entity corresponding to a node connected to the first node by a proximity edge, wherein each proximity coefficient is based on a geographic distance between the first user and the respective identified entity and the period of time the first user and the identified entity were within the threshold distance of each other;

    calculating a score for each identified entity based at least in part on the value of the accessed proximity coefficient for the identified entity and social-graph information associated with the identified entity; and

    sending, to the client system of the first user in response to the received search query, instructions for presenting one or more search results for display to the first user, wherein each search result references an identified entity each having a score greater than a threshold score.

View all claims
  • 3 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×