RANKING SEARCH RESULTS BY SOCIAL RELEVANCY

• US 20120078916A1
• Filed: 09/24/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: TSENG, Erick
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A location based service with enhanced searching functionality that considers social relevancy in searching for nearby places and analyzing ratings of nearby places.

Claims

1. A method, comprising

accessing, at a computer system, a search request comprising a character string, location data, and a user identifier corresponding to a user;

identifying one or more places in the vicinity of a location corresponding to the location data;

accessing a social graph to compose a set of associated users based on the user identifier of the user;

accessing rating data for of the one or more places;

associating one or more of the associated users with one or more elements of the rating data for one or more of the places;

weighting the rating data based on the associated users;

ranking the one or more places based on the list of other users, the weighted rating data of the one or more places, and a distance between each place of the one or more places and the location; and

presenting the ranked list of one or more nearby places to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying the one or more places in the vicinity of the location comprises:

accessing a data store of places;

identifying one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location; and

matching a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the matching a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string further comprises:

matching the name partially or completely to the character string.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the character string is an empty string.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying the one or more places in the vicinity of the location further comprises:

ordering the list of one or more nearby places based on a distance from the location.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the ordering the one or more places based on a distance from a location further comprises:

assigning a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places, based on a distance between each place and the location; and

ordering the one or more places by the proximity coefficient of each place of the one or more places.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of associated users is composed by:

accessing a social graph against the user identifier;

identifying one or more friends of the user wherein the one or more friends are within a threshold degree of separation from the user in the social graph.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising

assigning an affiliation coefficient for each associated user in the set of associated users in the friends list based on social closeness of each associated user to the user.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising compiling of the rating data for each place of the one or more places further by:

accessing a data store of rating data; and

identifying rating data for at least one place of the one or more places.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the ranking the one or more places comprises:

assigning an affiliation coefficient for each associated user based on social closeness of each associated user to the user;

identifying rating data for each place of the one or more places, wherein the rating data comprises one or more ratings for a given place, each rating comprising a rating value and a source;

if a rating in the set of ratings has a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

applying the affiliation coefficient of the associated user to the rating value of the rating;

if a rating in the set of ratings does not have a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

assigning a default affiliation coefficient to the rating value of the rating;

assigning a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places based on the distance between each place and the location;

calculating a weighted average rating value for each place of the one or more places based on the proximity coefficient of each place and the ratings and one or more affiliation coefficients of the ratings corresponding to each place; and

ranking the one or more places by weighted average rating value.

11. A system comprising:

a memory;

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory, storage medium storing computer-readable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the one or more processors to;

access a search request comprising a character string, location data, and a user identifier corresponding to a user;

identify one or more places in the vicinity of a location corresponding to the location data;

access a social graph to compose a set of associated users based on the user identifier of the user;

access rating data for of the one or more places;

associate one or more of the associated users with one or more elements of the rating data for one or more of the places;

weight the rating data based on the associated users;

rank the one or more places based on the list of other users, the weighted rating data of the one or more places, and a distance between each place of the one or more places and the location; and

present the ranked list of one or more nearby places to the user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein to identify the one or more places in the vicinity of the location, comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

access a data store of places;

identify one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location; and

match a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein to match a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

match the name partially or completely to the character string.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the character string is an empty string.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein to identify the one or more places in the vicinity of the location, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

order the list of one or more nearby places based on a distance from the location.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein to order the one or more places based on a distance from a location, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

assign a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places, based on a distance between each place and the location; and

order the one or more places by the proximity coefficient of each place of the one or more places.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein to compose the set of associated users, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

access a social graph against the user identifier;

identify one or more friends of the user wherein the one or more friends are within a threshold degree of separation from the user in the social graph.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

assign an affiliation coefficient for each associated user in the set of associated users in the friends list based on social closeness of each associated user to the user.

19. The system of claim 11 further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

compile the rating data for each place of the one or more places further by;

accessing a data store of rating data; and

identifying rating data for at least one place of the one or more places.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein to rank the one or more places, comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

assign an affiliation coefficient for each associated user based on social closeness of each associated user to the user;

identify rating data for each place of the one or more places, wherein the rating data comprises one or more ratings for a given place, each rating comprising a rating value and a source;

if a rating in the set of ratings has a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

apply the affiliation coefficient of the associated user to the rating value of the rating;

if a rating in the set of ratings does not have a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

assign a default affiliation coefficient to the rating value of the rating;

assign a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places based on the distance between each place and the location;

calculate a weighted average rating value for each place of the one or more places based on the proximity coefficient of each place and the ratings and one or more affiliation coefficients of the ratings corresponding to each place; and

rank the one or more places by weighted average rating value.

21. One or more computer-readable tangible storage media embodying software operable when executed by one or more computing devices to:

access a search request comprising a character string, location data, and a user identifier corresponding to a user;

identify one or more places in the vicinity of a location corresponding to the location data;

access a social graph to compose a set of associated users based on the user identifier of the user;

access rating data for of the one or more places;

associate one or more of the associated users with one or more elements of the rating data for one or more of the places;

weight the rating data based on the associated users;

rank the one or more places based on the list of other users, the weighted rating data of the one or more places, and a distance between each place of the one or more places and the location; and

present the ranked list of one or more nearby places to the user.

22. The media of claim 21, wherein to identify the one or more places in the vicinity of the location, comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

access a data store of places;

identify one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location; and

match a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein to match a name of a place of one or more places that is within a threshold distance from the location to the character string, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

match the name partially or completely to the character string.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the character string is an empty string.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein to identify the one or more places in the vicinity of the location, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

order the list of one or more nearby places based on a distance from the location.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein to order the one or more places based on a distance from a location, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

assign a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places, based on a distance between each place and the location; and

order the one or more places by the proximity coefficient of each place of the one or more places.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein to compose the set of associated users, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

access a social graph against the user identifier;

identify one or more friends of the user wherein the one or more friends are within a threshold degree of separation from the user in the social graph.

28. The system of claim 27 further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

assign an affiliation coefficient for each associated user in the set of associated users in the friends list based on social closeness of each associated user to the user.

29. The system of claim 21 further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

compile the rating data for each place of the one or more places further by;

accessing a data store of rating data; and

identifying rating data for at least one place of the one or more places.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein to rank the one or more places, comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

assign an affiliation coefficient for each associated user based on social closeness of each associated user to the user;

identify rating data for each place of the one or more places, wherein the rating data comprises one or more ratings for a given place, each rating comprising a rating value and a source;

if a rating in the set of ratings has a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

apply the affiliation coefficient of the associated user to the rating value of the rating;

if a rating in the set of ratings does not have a source that is an associated user of the one or more associated users, then

assign a default affiliation coefficient to the rating value of the rating;

assign a proximity coefficient for each place of the one or more places based on the distance between each place and the location;

calculate a weighted average rating value for each place of the one or more places based on the proximity coefficient of each place and the ratings and one or more affiliation coefficients of the ratings corresponding to each place; and

rank the one or more places by weighted average rating value.