Accurate user alignment across online social media platforms

• US 10,305,845 B1
• Filed: 03/05/2015
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Original Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Waagen, Alex N., Xu, Jiejun, Lu, Tsai-Ching
• Primary Examiner(s): Survillo, Oleg
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cadorna, Christopher P
• Application Number:
  US14/639,979
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Described is system for accurate user alignment across multiple online social media platforms. Out of textual messages from multiple user accounts of a first social media platform, the system identifies a set of textual messages from a first user account and a second user account of the first social media platform, each textual message in the set of textual messages comprising a set of specific character strings. The set of specific character strings represents a link to a post on a second social media platform, resulting in linked messages, the post originating from a linked account of the second social media platform. Either the first user account or the second user account is selected as an associated account by determining which originated the greater number of messages in the set of textual messages. A map component associated with a user identity that includes the associated account and the linked account is generated.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for user alignment across online social media platforms, comprising steps of:

searching a plurality of textual messages from a first social media platform user account for implicit mentions of other social media platform user accounts, wherein an implicit mention comprises a unique shortened uniform resource locator (URL) having a prefix specific to a social media platform, which is followed by an alphanumeric identifier, wherein the unique shortened URL represents a link from the first social media platform to another social media platform;

cross-linking the first social media platform user account with an account of a user on the other social media platform having the largest number of implicit mentions, wherein cross-linked user accounts are user accounts of the first and other social media platforms belonging to the same user;

generating a map component that represents of the cross-linked user accounts aligned across the first social media platform and the other social media platform;

determining at least one of a user interest and geo-information from the aligned user accounts; and

delivering a targeted advertisement or recommendation related to at least one of the user interest and geo-information to one or more of the aligned user accounts, wherein the targeted advertisement or recommendation is accessed by the user via a display device.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of assigning the geo-information to the map component.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of propagating the geo-information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of propagating user interest information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

5. A computer program product for user alignment across online social media platforms comprising computer-readable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that are executable by a computer having one or more processors for causing the one or more processors to perform operations of:

searching a plurality of textual messages from first social media platform user account for implicit mentions of other social media platform user accounts, wherein an implicit mention comprises a unique shortened uniform resource locator (URL) having a prefix specific to a social media platform, which is followed by an alphanumeric identifier, wherein the unique shortened URL represents a link from the first social media platform to another social media platform;

cross-linking the first social media platform user account with an account of a user on the other social media platform having the largest number of implicit mentions, wherein cross-linked user accounts are user accounts of the first and other social media platforms belonging to the same user;

generating a map component that represents the cross-linked user accounts aligned across the first social media platform and the other social media platform;

determining at least one of a user interest and geo-information from the aligned user accounts; and

delivering a targeted advertisement or recommendation related to at least one of the user interest and geo-information to one or more of the aligned user accounts, wherein the targeted advertisement or recommendation is accessed by the user via a display device.

6. The computer program product as set forth in claim 5, further comprising instructions for causing the processor to perform an operation of assigning the geo-information to the map component.

7. The computer program product as set forth in claim 6, further comprising instructions for causing the one or more processors to perform an operation of propagating the geo-information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

8. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7, further comprising instructions for causing the one or more processors to perform an operation of propagating user interest information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

9. A system for user alignment across online social media platforms, the system comprising:

one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions encoded therein such that when executed, the one or more processors perform operations of;

searching a plurality of textual messages from a first social media platform user account for implicit mentions of other social media platform user accounts, wherein an implicit mention comprises a unique shortened uniform resource locator (URL) having a prefix specific to a social media platform, which is followed by an alphanumeric identifier, wherein the unique shortened URL represents a link from the first social media platform to another social media platform;

cross-linking the first social media platform user account with an account of a user on the other social media platform having the largest number of implicit mentions, wherein cross-linked user accounts are user accounts of the first and other social media platforms belonging to the same user;

generating a map component that represents of the cross-linked user accounts aligned across the first social media platform and the other social media platform;

determining at least one of a user interest and geo-information from the aligned user accounts; and

delivering a targeted advertisement or recommendation related to at least one of the user interest and geo-information to one or more of the aligned user accounts, wherein the targeted advertisement or recommendation is accessed by the user via a display device.

10. The system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of assigning the geo-information to the map component.

11. The system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of propagating the geo-information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of propagating user interest information from the first social media platform to the other social media platform.

13. The system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the one or more processors further perform an operation of using the map component, generating geographic distributions of the associated user accounts for real-world event detection.

14. The system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the targeted advertisement is based, in part, on geo-information of the map component.

15. The system as set forth in claim 9, wherein the unique shortened URL is automatically generated by the other social media platform when a linked user account of the first social media platform makes a post.

16. The system as set forth in claim 15, wherein the first social media platform is Wordpress, and the other social media platform is Twitter.