Determining an entity's hierarchical relationship via a social graph

• US 10,523,736 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2015
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Ke, Guo, Songtao, Yan, Baoshi, Lai, Alex Ching
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jensen
• Application Number:
  US14/672,948
• Publication Number:
  US 20150379113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,737 Days
• Field of Search: 707738
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products for identifying a relationship between sub-units of an entity are described. The sub-units are segmented into one or more candidate related groups based on one or more general attributes and a pair of the sub-units of the one or more candidate related sub-units is selected. The pair of sub-units is analyzed to determine a relationship between the sub-units and the relationship between the sub-units is identified based on the determined relationship.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a hierarchical relationship of an entity, comprising:

receiving a communication from a communication sender or the entity, the communication being addressed to a communication recipient;

segmenting sub-units of the entity into one or more candidate related groups in a groups database based on one or more general attributes, each of the entity and the sub-units being a type of organization, wherein the sub-unit having the largest count of members is determined to be a parent entity;

selecting a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyzing, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a hierarchical relationship of the entity based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units;

identifying the hierarchical relationship of the entity based on the determined hierarchical relationship; and

presenting, through a user interface, a visual representation of a connection path between the communication sender or the entity, and the communication recipient, the connection path being determined at least in part based on the hierarchical relationship.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical relationship is a relevant hierarchical relationship based on one or more metrics exceeding a corresponding threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the metric is a connection density ratio.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical relationship is a parent-subsidiary relationship.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein members of two sub-units are well connected based on a connection density ratio being above a threshold value.

15. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying connection paths in a social graph database that connect the communication sender or the entity and the communication recipient;

filtering the connection paths for potential presentation; and

deriving a path score for each connection path;

wherein the presenting of the visual representation of the connection path is based on the path score.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a communication from a communication sender or an entity, the communication being addressed to a communication recipient;

segmenting sub-units of the entity into one or more candidate related groups in a groups database based on one or more general attributes, each of the entity and the sub-units being a type of organization, wherein the sub-unit having the largest count of members is determined to be a parent entity;

selecting a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyzing, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a hierarchical relationship of the entity based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units;

identifying the hierarchical relationship of the entity based on the determined hierarchical relationship; and

presenting, through a user interface, a visual representation of a connection path between the communication sender or the entity, and the communication recipient, the connection path being determined at least in part based on the hierarchical relationship.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

9. A system for identifying a hierarchical relationship of an entity, the system comprising:

a processor;

memory to store instructions that, when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

receive a communication from a communication sender or the entity, the communication being addressed to a communication recipient;

segment sub-units of the entity into one or more candidate related groups in a groups database based on one or more general attributes, each of the entity and the sub-units being a type of organization. wherein the sub-unit having the largest count of members is determined to be a parent entity;

select a pair of the sub-units of one of the candidate related groups;

analyze, using a hardware processor, the pair of sub-units to determine a hierarchical relationship of the entity based on information contained in one or more profiles of members of a social networking service, the information related to the sub-units and one or more relationships between the sub-units; and

identify the hierarchical relationship of the entity based on the determined hierarchical relationship; and

present, through a user interface, a visual representation of a connection path between the communication sender or the entity, and the communication recipient, the connection path being determined at least in part based on the hierarchical relationship.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the general attribute is a name of the sub-unit, a uniform resource locator, and an electronic mail address.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the hierarchical relationship is a relevant hierarchical relationship based on one or more metrics exceeding a corresponding threshold.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the metric is a connection density ratio.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the hierarchical relationship is a parent-subsidiary relationship.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein members of two sub-units are well connected based on a connection density ratio being above a threshold value.