Ranking Search Results Based on the Frequency of Access on the Search Results by Users of a Social-Networking System

• US 20110087658A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• 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, Lunt, Christopher, Winner, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,986 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/727
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

Particular embodiments access a search query submitted by a first user of a social-networking system; identify one or more web pages in response to the search query; for each of the one or more web pages, determine a value indicating a number of user clicks associated with the web page by one or more second users of the social-networking system who are connected to the first user within the social-networking system; and send a set of hyperlinks for the one or more web pages, wherein hyperlinks for web pages where the value is greater than zero are visually emphasized over other hyperlinks.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by one or more first computing devices, a search query submitted by a first user of a social-networking system;

identifying, by the one or more first computing devices, one or more web pages in response to the search query;

for each of the one or more web pages, determining, by the one or more first computing devices, a value indicating a number of user clicks associated with the web page by one or more second users of the social-networking system who are connected to the first user within a predetermined degree of separation within the social-networking system; and

sending, by the one or more first computing devices, a set of hyperlinks for the one or more web pages, wherein hyperlinks for web pages where the value is greater than zero are visually emphasized over other hyperlinks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the one or more web pages, the value determined for the web page is a click-through rate of the web page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the one or more web pages, the value determined for the web page equals a number of times the web page has been clicked by the one or more second users divided by a number of times the web page has been presented to the one or more second users.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking the one or more web pages at least in part based on the value of each web page.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more web pages comprise one or more sponsored links and one or more algorithmic search results, further comprising:

ranking the one or more sponsored links further based on a bid received with each sponsored link; and

ranking the one or more algorithmic search results further based on a degree of relevance of each algorithmic search result with respect to the search query.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a visual indicator with each of the one or more web pages whose value satisfies a predetermined threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the visual indicator associated with each of the one or more web pages whose value satisfies the predetermined threshold is a clickable button.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a database of a plurality of users of the social-networking system;

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of users of the social-networking system, storing an adjacency list comprising one or more other users who are directly connected to the user within the social-networking system in the database; and

extracting the one or more second users who are connected to the first user within the predetermined degree of separation within the social-networking system from one or more adjacency lists in the database.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising maintaining a graph structure defining relationships between the plurality of users of the social-networking system, wherein the graph structure comprises a plurality of nodes and information defining connections between the plurality of nodes, wherein each node corresponds to a user, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph structure from one node to the other node.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a database of a plurality of search queries, a plurality of web pages identified in response to the plurality of search queries, and a plurality of frequencies that the plurality of web pages have been accessed by the plurality of uses of the social-networking system; and

for each of the one or more web pages, retrieving the value that the web page has been accessed by the one or more second users from the database.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, by the one or more first computing devices, the one or more web pages, and their respective values to a second computing device associated with the first user.

13. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions executable by one or more processors; and

the one or more processors coupled to the memory and operable to execute the instructions, the one or more processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

access a search query submitted by a first user of a social-networking system;

identify one or more web pages in response to the search query;

for each of the one or more web pages, determine a value indicating a number of user clicks associated with the web page by one or more second users of the social-networking system who are connected to the first user within the social-networking system; and

send a set of hyperlinks for the one or more web pages, wherein hyperlinks for web pages where the value is greater than zero are visually emphasized over other hyperlinks.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein for each of the one or more web pages, the value determined for the web page is a click-through rate of the web page.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein for each of the one or more web pages, the value determined for the web page equals a number of times the web page has been clicked by the one or more second users divided by a number of times the web page has been presented to the one or more second users.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to rank the one or more web pages at least in part based on the value of each web page.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more web pages comprise one or more sponsored links and one or more algorithmic search results, and the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

rank the one or more sponsored links further based on a bid received with each sponsored link; and

rank the one or more algorithmic search results further based on a degree of relevance of each algorithmic search result with respect to the search query.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to associate a visual indicator with each of the one or more web pages whose value satisfies a predetermined threshold.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the visual indicator associated with each of the one or more web pages whose value satisfies the predetermined threshold is a clickable button.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to maintain a database of a plurality of users of the social-networking system;

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

for each of the plurality of users of the social-networking system, store an adjacency list comprising one or more other users who are directly connected to the user within the social-networking system in the database; and

extract the one or more second users who are connected to the first user within the predetermined degree of separation within the social-networking system from one or more adjacency lists in the database.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to maintain a graph structure defining relationships between the plurality of users of the social-networking system, wherein the graph structure comprises a plurality of nodes and information defining connections between the plurality of nodes, wherein each node corresponds to a user, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph structure from one node to the other node.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

maintain a database of a plurality of search queries, a plurality of web pages identified in response to the plurality of search queries, and a plurality of frequencies that the plurality of web pages have been accessed by the plurality of uses of the social-networking system; and

for each of the one or more web pages, retrieve the value that the web page has been accessed by the one or more second users from the database.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to send the one or more web pages, and their respective values to a second computing device associated with the first user.