Providing relevant notifications for a user based on location and social information

• US 10,304,066 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tseng, Erick, Braginsky, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper, Eliyah S.
• Application Number:
  US12/977,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20120166433A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,079 Days
• Field of Search: 707705, 707723, 707748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking system provides relevant third-party content objects to users by matching user location, interests, and other social information with the content, location, and timing associated with the content objects. Content objects are provided based on relevance scores specific to a user. Relevance scores may be calculated based on the user'"'"'s previous interactions with content object notifications, or based on interests that are common between the user and his or her connections in the social network. Context search is also provided for a user, wherein a list of search of results is ranked according to the relevance score of content object associated with the search results. Notifications may also be priced and distributed to users based on their relevance. In this way, the system can provide notifications that are relevant to user'"'"'s interests and current circumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find content objects of interest.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining information about a first user in a social networking system, the information comprising one or more connections established between the first user and one or more other users of the social networking system;

receiving a first location of the first user from a first mobile device at a first time point;

receiving a second location of a second user of the social networking system from a second mobile device at a second time point, the second user having a connection established with the first user in the social network system;

determining that the first user and the second user are in close proximity at a current time point by comparing the first location at the first time point with the second location at the second time point, the first time point and the second time point within a predetermined threshold of the current time point;

determining one or more content objects of which assigned object locations match the first location and the second location;

determining a relevance score for each of the one or more content objects to the first user, the determining comprising;

determining a location value that represents a proximity of the content object at the current time point to the first location;

determining an interest value for the content object, the interest value based on whether a category assigned to the content object is included in the one or more categories associated with the interest information for the second user;

combining the location value and the interest value to determine a combined score; and

modifying the combined score by a weighting factor to determine the relevance score, the weighting factor indicating a likelihood of the first user sharing interest in the content item with the second user;

selecting a set of content objects from the one or more content objects, each selected content object associated with a relevance score greater than a threshold;

ranking the set of content objects based at least in part on their relevance scores; and

providing the ranked set of content objects to a notification controller for transmission to the first user while the first user and the second user are determined to be in close proximity at the current time point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the social information further comprises:

maintaining interest information for the first user according to one or more categories.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the locations are received from the mobile devices at predetermined intervals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the locations is received from one of the mobile devices in response to a change in the location of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the received locations for the device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the first location comprises retrieving a stored location for the first mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an updated first location of the first user from the first mobile device; and

re-ranking the one or more content objects in response to receiving the updated first location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the relevance score for each of the one or more content objects further comprises:

determining a connection value for the content object, the connection value based on one or more of the other users who have established a connection with the first user; and

determining a time value for the content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within the delivery time range assigned to the content object;

wherein the location value and the interest value are further combined with the connection value and the time value to determine the combined score.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a user exposure to a provided content object.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising adjusting the ranking of the one or more content objects based on the user exposure to the provided content object.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving indication of an action by the user associated with a provided content object of the one or more content objects; and

storing an association between the user and the content object of the one or more content objects in response to the received indication.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification controller is configured for transmitting the ranked one or more content objects to the user device for display to the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user and the second user are determined to be in close proximity in response to determining the first location and the second location are within a predetermined distance.

13. A method comprising:

maintaining information about a first user in a social networking system, the information comprising one or more connections established between the first user and one or more other users of the social networking system;

receiving a first location of the first user from a first mobile device at a first time point;

receiving a second location of a second user of the social networking system from a second mobile device at a second time point, the second user having a connection established with the first user in the social network system;

determining that the first user and the second user are in close proximity at a current time point by comparing the first location and the first time point with the second location and the second time point;

determining one or more content objects of which assigned object locations match the first location and the second location;

determining a relevance score for each of the one or more content objects to the first user, the determining comprising;

determining a location value that represents a proximity of the content object at the current time point to the first location;

determining an interest value for the content object, the interest value based on whether a category assigned to the content object is included in the one or more categories associated with the interest information for the second user;

combining the location value and the interest value to determine a combined score; and

modifying the combined score by a weighting factor to determine the relevance score, the weighting factor indicating a likelihood of the first user sharing interest in the content item with the second user;

selecting at least one content object of the one or more content objects based on the calculated relevance scores, each selected content object associated with a relevance score greater than a threshold; and

sending a notification to the first user of the selected at least one content object while the first user and the second user are determined to be in close proximity at the current time point.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first user and the second user are determined to be in close proximity in response to determining the first location and the second location are within a predetermined distance.