Sending notifications to members of social group in a social networking system

• US 10,397,162 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Deeter, Ken Taro, Kao, Wayne, Lien, Andy, Chen, Sizhe, Letuchy, Eugene
• Primary Examiner(s): Sall, El Hadji M
• Application Number:
  US13/716,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20140172996A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,447 Days
• Field of Search: 709206, 709200, 709217, 709203, 705 1466, 705 1472, 705 1473, 707748
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A social networking system notifies its users of different events and actions taking place inside the social networking system. To present notifications that are most likely to be of interest to the user, the social networking system observes the interactions of the user with notifications presented to the user and suggests an option to opt-out of notifications associated with a source based on the observed interactions. The option to opt-out of notifications associated with the source may be presented if the users interactions with the notifications presented are below a threshold. Notifications associated with a social group are presented to the user based on factors describing the group and the relation between the user and other users of the social group, for example, seniority of the user, size of the group, and the rate at which user actions associated with the group are received.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a group having a plurality of members, each member being one of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the group being a subset of the plurality of users of the social networking system;

receiving one or more posts from one or more members of the group, the posts directed to the group;

identifying a subject user from the plurality of members of the group for sending a notification to the subject user about one or more of the received posts;

determining whether to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on at least a seniority of the subject user in the group, the seniority of the subject user is measured as a rank of the subject user based on a number of members who joined the group before the subject user, the determination comprising;

responsive to the rank of the subject user exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on whether of the member sending the one or more posts is connected to the subject user in the social networking system; and

responsive to determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user;

generating the notification about one or more of the received posts, and

sending the generated notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user further comprises:

responsive to the rank of the subject user being below a threshold value, sending the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to size of the group being below a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to size of the group exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user if the member sending the one or more posts is connected to the subject user in the social networking system.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to send a notification to a subject user is based on a click through rate of the one or more posts based on past interactions of the members of the group.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the members of the group are connected to a page associated with the group, and wherein the notification sent about one or more of the received posts is a notification about a message posted on the page by an administrator of the page or by another member of the group.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining not to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user;

waiting a pre-determined amount of time,

after the pre-determined amount of time, generating the notification about the one or more received posts, and

sending the generated notification about the one or more received posts to the subject user.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user;

receiving feedback regarding an interaction between the sent notification and the subject user, and

modifying a rule for determining whether to send notifications to the subject user based on the received feedback.

6. A computer implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a group having a plurality of members, each member being one of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the group being a subset of the plurality of users of the social networking system;

receiving one or more posts from one or more members of the group, the posts directed to the group;

identifying a subject user from the plurality of members of the group for sending a notification to the subject user about one or more of the received posts;

determining whether to send the notification to the subject user based on a seniority of the subject user in the group measured as a rank of the subject user based on a number of members who joined the group before the subject user, comprising;

responsive to the rank of the subject user exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on whether of the member sending the one or more posts is connected to the subject user in the social networking system; and

sending the notification about the one or more posts to the subject user conditionally based on the determining.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user further comprises:

responsive to the rank of the subject user being below a threshold value, sending the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein the information about a relationship between the subject user and one or more other members of the group comprises an aggregate measure of frequency of interactions among members of the group.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

responsive to the aggregate measure of frequency of interactions exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a size of the group.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to group size being below a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

responsive to group size exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on whether the member sending the one or more posts is connected to the user in the social networking system.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a click through rate of the one or more posts based on past interactions of members of the group.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a rate at which the members post content to the group.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instruction, the instructions when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

maintain, by a social networking system, a group having a plurality of members, each member being one of a plurality of users of the social networking system, the group being a subset of the plurality of users of the social networking system;

receive one or more posts from one or more members of the group, the posts directed to the group;

identify a subject user from the plurality of members of the group for sending a notification to the subject user about one or more of the received posts;

determine whether to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on at least a seniority of the subject user in the group, the seniority of the subject user is measured as a rank of the subject user based on a number of members who joined the group before the subject user, the determination comprising;

responsive to the rank of the subject user exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user based on whether of the member sending the one or more posts is connected to the subject user in the social networking system; and

responsive to determining to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user;

generate the notification about one or more of the received posts, and

send the generated notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein determining whether to send the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user further comprises:

responsive to the rank of the subject user being below a threshold value, sending the notification about one or more of the received posts to the subject user.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein determining whether to send a notification to a subject user is based on a click through rate of the one or more posts based on past interactions of the members of the group.