Resource management of social network applications

• US 10,389,664 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2017
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Whitnah, Thomas Scott, Rush, Alexander Matthew, Zhou, Ding, Sanghvi, Ruchi
• Primary Examiner(s): Patek, Hitesh
• Application Number:
  US15/727,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20180034758A1
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers

Abstract

Applications in social networks support interaction between members through various types of channels such as notifications, newsfeed, and so forth. For each channel, applications are ranked based on their user affinity measures. User affinity is based on measuring positive and negative interactions by users as both senders and recipients of messages generated by applications. Metrics are computed for the different types of messages and interactions provided by applications. For each channel, an application receives user affinity score based on specific weighted combination of the metrics. Applications use channel resources to send messages to increase their user base. Given the large number of applications that are available, the extent to which applications are allowed to use channels is controlled, limiting their resource consumption. User affinity scores of applications calculated for a channel are used to decide the allocation of channel resources for an application.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, an object representing an entity associated with a third party, wherein the social networking system receives requests to send messages associated with the entity via a channel resource of the social networking system, wherein the channel resource describes a computer mediated communication mechanism for facilitating communication between users of the social networking system and the social network system;

receiving, by the social networking system, user interactions from each of a plurality of users, wherein the received user interactions are indicative of an affinity of the users towards the entity;

determining an affinity score value for the entity based on the received user interactions of the plurality of users of the social networking system for the plurality of time intervals, wherein determining the affinity score comprises;

for each of a plurality of action types, determining an action type score based on a rate of occurrence of actions of the action type, wherein the rate of occurrence of actions of the action type is normalized over a set of objects within the social networking system;

assigning a weight to each action type; and

for each action type, aggregating the product of the assigned weight and the action type score into the affinity score relevant to the channel resource;

determining an allocation of the channel resource for the entity as a value directly related to the affinity score assigned to the channel resource, the allocation specifying a threshold number of messages on the channel resource that the entity is allowed to send during a time interval; and

reducing a rate at which the social networking system sends messages associated with the entity via the channel resource, the reducing comprising limiting the number of messages sent by the entity via the channel resource during a particular time interval to the threshold number of messages specified by the allocation of the channel resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more messages comprise a request to a user of the social networking system to interact with the social networking system in relation to the entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein messages comprise a message for sending information describing the entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel resource is a computer mediated mechanism for facilitating communication between users of a social networking system, the computer mediated mechanism comprising one or more of:

an email channel,

a notification channel,

an invitation channel,

a wall post channel,

a newsfeed channel, or

a mini-feed channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a user interaction provides a user feedback comprising one of:

implicit feedback or explicit feedback.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a user interaction providing implicit feedback comprises, responsive to being presented with a notification, refraining from interacting with the message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a user interaction providing explicit feedback comprises one of:

unsubscribing from a service associated with the object, requesting additional information, forwarding content associated with the object to one or more connections.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold usage specifies a per-user maximum for a recipient of messages from the third party.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold usage specifies a maximum of messages associated with the entity sent by the social networking system in a unit time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein user affinity is determined using user interactions comprising:

user actions independent of channel resources, comprising one of;

uninstalling an application,

running an application,

minimizing an application, or

maximizing an application; and

user actions related to channel resources, comprising one of;

subscribing to an email channel,

clicking on a notification,

forwarding an invitation,

posting on wall post,

interacting with newsfeed, or

interacting with mini-feed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein computations of user affinity scores include previously computed values of affinity scores, the previously computed values indicating a change in a behavior of the object.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

restricting entities with affinity scores below a minimum from using a

channel resource, the restriction comprising one of;

setting a reduced quantity of messages,

stopping all messages, or

hiding the object from the users of the social networking system.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disabling access to the object responsive to determining that the affinity score for the entity associated with the object is below a threshold value.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing channel resource allocation as a mapping from values of affinity scores to pre-determined values of threshold usage.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold usage specifies a per-user maximum for a recipient of messages from the third party.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold usage specifies maximum of messages associated with the entity sent by the social networking system in a unit time.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, an object representing an entity associated with a third party, wherein the social networking system receives requests to send messages associated with the entity via a channel resource of the social networking system, wherein the channel resource describes a computer mediated communication mechanism for facilitating communication between users of the social networking system and the social network system;

receiving, by the social networking system, user interactions from each of a plurality of users, wherein the received user interactions are indicative of an affinity of the users towards the entity;

determining an affinity score value for the entity based on the received user interactions of the plurality of users of the social networking system for the plurality of time intervals, wherein determining the affinity score comprises;

for each of a plurality of action types, determining an action type score based on a rate of occurrence of actions of the action type, wherein the rate of occurrence of actions of the action type is normalized over a set of objects within the social networking system;

assigning a weight to each action type; and

for each action type, aggregating the product of the assigned weight and the action type score into the affinity score relevant to the channel resource;

determining an allocation of the channel resource for the entity as a value directly related to the affinity score assigned to the channel resource, the allocation specifying a threshold number of messages on the channel resource that the entity is allowed to send during a time interval; and

reducing a rate at which the social networking system sends messages associated with the entity via the channel resource, the reducing comprising limiting the number of messages sent by the entity via the channel resource during a particular time interval to the threshold number of messages specified by the allocation of the channel resource.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein user affinity is determined using metrics comprising:

user actions independent of channel resources, comprising one of;

uninstalling an application,

running an application,

minimizing an application, or

maximizing an application; and

user actions related to channel resources, comprising one of;

subscribing to an email channel,

clicking on a notification,

forwarding an invitation,

posting on wall post,

interacting with newsfeed, or

interacting with mini-feed.