METHODS, APPARATUS, AND ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE TO RANK USERS IN AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK

• US 20110296004A1
• Filed: 07/13/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Swahar, Gayathri
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to rank users in an online social network are described. An example method to rank in an online social network includes determining a connectedness of a user on a social networking site based on a number of contacts of the user, determining a number of first interactions directed from the user to at least one of the contacts, determining a number of second interactions associated with the first interaction and at least one of the contacts, and ranking the user with other users on the social networking site based on the connectedness, the first interactions, and the second interactions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to rank users in an online social network, comprising:

determining a connectedness of a user on a social networking site based on a number of contacts of the user;

determining a number of first interactions directed from the user to at least one of the contacts;

determining a number of second interactions associated with the first interaction and at least one of the contacts; and

ranking the user with other users on the social networking site based on the connectedness, the first interactions, and the second interactions.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first interactions comprise updating a status, sending a message, chatting, uploading media, tagging media with a user identity, posting a comment, or posting results from an application.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining a number of first interactions comprises generating at least one of a matrix or a vector representative of an interaction between the user and at least one of the contacts.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining a number of second interactions comprises generating or updating at least one of a matrix or a vector representative of an interaction between the user and at least one of the contacts.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the connectedness of the user comprises determining a number of first-degree contacts and a number of second-degree contacts.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein determining the connectedness of the user further comprises assigning a first weight to the number of first-degree contacts and a second weight to the number of second-degree contacts.

7. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein determining the connectedness of the user further comprises assigning a first weight to at least a portion of the first-degree contacts who have restricted respective connections with the user, and assigning a second weight to the first-degree contacts who have not restricted respective connections with the user.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein ranking the user comprises determining a percentile rank of the user.

9. A system to rank users in an online social network, comprising:

a connectedness monitor to determine a connectedness for a user of an online social network based on a number of direct contacts and a number of indirect contacts;

an interactivity monitor to determine an interactivity for the user based on a number of first interactions directed by the user to one or more second users and a number of second interactions directed at the user by one or more of the second users; and

a user ranker to determine a rank for the user based on the connectedness score and the interactivity score.

10. A system as defined in claim 9, further comprising a database to store at least one of the connectedness, the interactivity, or the rank.

11. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the interactivity monitor processes a plurality of interactions to generate an interaction count, at least one of the number of first interactions or the number of second interactions being based on the interaction count.

12. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the interactivity monitor generates at least one of a matrix or a vector in response to identifying an initial interaction and stores the interaction count in the matrix or the vector.

13. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the interactivity monitor updates at least one of a matrix or a vector in response to identifying a response interaction to an initial interaction.

14. An article of manufacture comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

determine a connectedness of a user on a social networking site based on a number of contacts of the user;

determine an interactivity of the user based on a number of first interactions directed from the user to at least one of the contacts and a number of second interactions associated with the first interactions; and

rank the user with other users on the social networking site based on the connectedness, the first interactions, and the second interactions.

15. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14, wherein the first interactions comprise at least one of updating a status, sending a message, chatting,

16. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14, wherein determining a number of first interactions comprises generating at least one of a matrix or a vector representative of at least one of the first interactions.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 16, further comprising generating or updating the at least one of the matrix or the vector to represent at least one of the second interactions.

18. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14, wherein determining the connectedness of the user comprises determining a number of first-degree contacts and a number of second-degree contacts.

19. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 18, wherein determining the connectedness of the user further comprises assigning a first weight to the number of first-degree contacts and a second weight to the number of second-degree contacts.

20. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 18, wherein determining the connectedness of the user further comprises assigning a first weight to at least a portion of the first-degree contacts and the second-degree contacts who have restricted respective connections with the user, and assigning a second weight to the first-degree contacts and the second-degree contacts who have not restricted respective connections with the user.

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