Graph server querying for managing social network information flow

• US 10,628,502 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2011
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Galbreath, Nicholas, Predosin, Mirko
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper, Eliyah S.
• Application Number:
  US13/309,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20120078957A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,063 Days
• Field of Search: 707999101, 707999102, 707770, 707736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

An online social network is managed using one server for database management tasks and another server, preferably in a distributed configuration, for CPU-intensive computational tasks, such as finding a shortest path between two members or a degree of separation between two members. The additional server has a memory device containing relationship information between members of the online social network and carries out the CPU-intensive computational tasks using this memory device. With this configuration, the number of database lookups is decreased and processing speed is thereby increased.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising, by one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems:

receiving, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user profile of a second user of the online social network;

retrieving, using the one or more processors and in response to the request, information from a user profile database, the information comprising user profile data of the second user, wherein a social graph representing the online social network comprises a plurality of nodes and edges, each node representing one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each edge representing a relationship between two of the plurality of users and establishing a degree of separation between each of the plurality of users based on the social graph, wherein the first user corresponds to a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second user corresponds to a second node of the plurality of nodes;

determining, using the one or more processors, a profile format for the user profile data of the second user based on a visibility preference of the second user and a degree of separation between the first node and the second node within the social graph, the visibility preference of the second user being included with the information retrieved from the user profile database, and the visibility preference of the second user indicating a specified degree of separation between the second node and another node at which the user is permitted to view the user profile data of the second user in a full profile format; and

sending, to the client device for display to the first user, information representing the user profile data of the second user, wherein;

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is less than or equal to the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then sending the information using a full profile format; and

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is greater than the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then sending the information using a mini profile format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises an identifier for the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified degree of separation of the visibility preference is 1, 2, 3, or All degrees of separation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the full profile format permits the first user to view an entirety of the user profile data of the second user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the mini profile format permits the first user to view only a limited portion of the user profile data of the second user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the profile format for the user profile data of the second user comprises:

determining whether the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation;

generating, in response to determining that the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation, a request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

receiving, at a graph server configured to manage the social graph, the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

accessing, by the graph server and in response to receiving the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user, the social graph;

determining, by the graph server, the degree of separation between the first user and the second user by computing the fewest number of edges in the social graph between the first node and the second node;

receiving the degree of separation between the first user and the second user determined by the graph server; and

setting the profile format for viewing the user profile data of the second user based on a comparison of the degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference and the received degree of separation between the first user and the second user.

17. The method of claim 16,

wherein the social graph represents a plurality of entries stored in a relationship database for the online social network, each entry of the plurality of entries indicating a relationship between at least two users of the plurality of users of the online social network,

wherein the one or more computing systems and the one or more processors associated with the one or more computing systems are components of an application server configured to manage the user profile database and a relationship database,

wherein the user profile database stores user profile data for each of the plurality of users of the online social network,

wherein the social graph is stored in a dedicated memory device separate from the user profile database and the relationship database, and

wherein the graph server, which is separate from the application server, determines the degree of separation between the first user and the second user without accessing the relationship database.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein if no path connects the first node to the second node within the social graph, then the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is greater than the specified degree of separation in the visibility preference.

6. One or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed by one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems to:

receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user profile of a second user of the online social network;

retrieve, using the one or more processors and in response to the request, information from a user profile database, the information comprising user profile data of the second user, wherein a social graph representing the online social network comprises a plurality of nodes and edges, each node representing one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each edge representing a relationship between two of the plurality of users and establishing a degree of separation between each of the plurality of users based on the social graph, wherein the first user corresponds to a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second user corresponds to a second node of the plurality of nodes;

determine, using the one or more processors, a profile format for the user profile data of the second user based on a visibility preference of the second user and a degree of separation between the first node and the second node within the social graph, the visibility preference of the second user being included with the information retrieved from the user profile database, and the visibility preference of the second user indicating a specified degree of separation between the second node and another node at which the user is permitted to view the user profile data of the second user in a full profile format; and

send, to the client device for display to the first user, information representing the user profile data of the second user, wherein;

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is less than or equal to the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then send the information using a full profile format; and

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is greater than the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then send the information using a mini profile format.

7. The one or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media of claim 6,

wherein the mini profile format permits the first user to view only a limited portion of the user profile data of the second user.

8. The one or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media of claim 6,

wherein the full profile format permits the first user to view an entirety of the user profile data of the second user.

18. The one or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media of claim 6, wherein the software for determining the profile format for the user profile data of the second user is operable when executed by one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems to:

determine whether the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation;

generate, in response to determining that the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation, a request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

control a graph server, which is configured to manage the social graph, to;

receive the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

access, in response to receiving the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user, the social graph; and

determine the degree of separation between the first user and the second user by computing the fewest number of edges in the social graph between a node representing the first user and a node representing the second user;

receive the degree of separation between the first user and the second user determined by the graph server; and

set the profile format for viewing the user profile data of the second user based on a comparison of the degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference and the received degree of separation between the first user and the second user.

9. A system comprising:

a user profile database; and

an application server comprising;

one or more computing systems; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising, by one or more processors associated with one or more computing systems, software for causing the one or more computing systems to execute instructions to;

receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user profile of a second user of the online social network;

retrieve, using the one or more processors and in response to the request, information from a user profile database, the information comprising user profile data of the second user, wherein a social graph representing the online social network comprises a plurality of nodes and edges, each node representing one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each edge representing a relationship between two of the plurality of users and establishing a degree of separation between each of the plurality of users based on the social graph, wherein the first user corresponds to a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second user corresponds to a second node of the plurality of nodes;

determine, using the one or more processors, a profile format for the user profile data of the second user based on a visibility preference of the second user and a degree of separation between the first node and the second node within the social graph, the visibility preference of the second user being included with the information retrieved from the user profile database, and the visibility preference of the second user indicating a specified degree of separation between the second node and another node at which the user is permitted to view the user profile data of the second user in a full profile format; and

send, to the client device for display to the first user, information representing the user profile data of the second user, wherein;

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is less than or equal to the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then sending the information using a full profile format; and

if the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is greater than the specified degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user, then sending the information using a mini profile format.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the request comprises an identifier for the second user.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the specified degree of separation of the visibility preference is 1, 2, 3, or All degrees of separation.

12. The system of claim 9,

wherein the full profile format permits the first user to view an entirety of the user profile data of the second user.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of the application server further comprises instructions to compare the degree of separation between the first node and the second node to the degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user when the application server determines that the visibility preference is not set to All degrees of separation.

14. The system of claim 13,

wherein the mini profile format permits the first user to view only a limited portion of the user profile data of the second user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of the application server further comprises instructions to set the profile format to transmit the information, based on the full profile format, when the degree of separation between the first node and the second node is less than or equal to the degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference of the second user.

19. The system of claim 9,

wherein the system further comprises a graph server,

wherein the instruction to determine the profile format for the user profile data of the second user comprises instructions for the one or more computing systems to:

determine whether the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation;

generate, in response to determining that the visibility preference of the second user is set to some value other than All degrees of separation, a request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

receive the degree of separation between the first user and the second user from the graph server; and

set the profile format for viewing the user profile data of the second user based on a comparison of the degree of separation indicated in the visibility preference and the received degree of separation between the first user and the second user,

wherein the graph server comprises;

a dedicated memory device, the dedicated memory device storing the social graph and being separate from the user profile database;

a processor; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising software for causing the processor to execute instructions to;

receive the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

access, in response to receiving the request for the degree of separation between the first user and the second user, the social graph; and

determine the degree of separation between the first user and the second user by computing the fewest number of edges in the social graph between a node representing the first user and a node representing the second user.