Providing Context Relevant Search for a User Based on Location and Social Information

• US 20120166432A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• 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 9,978,022 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system provides relevant third-party content objects to users by matching user location, interests, and other social information with the content, location, and timing associated with the content objects. Content objects are provided based on relevance scores specific to a user. Relevance scores may be calculated based on the user'"'"'s previous interactions with content object notifications, or based on interests that are common between the user and his or her connections in the social network. Context search is also provided for a user, wherein a list of search of results is ranked according to the relevance score of content object associated with the search results. Notifications may also be priced and distributed to users based on their relevance. In this way, the system can provide notifications that are relevant to user'"'"'s interests and current circumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find content objects of interest.

Claims

1. A method for providing context search for a social networking system user, the method comprising:

maintaining social information for the user;

receiving a search query from a user device associated with the user;

receiving a location of the user device;

determining a list of search results based on the search query, each search result comprising a search value;

associating each search result with a third-party content object;

calculating a relevance score for each search result by matching the user location, social information, and search value to the third-party content object associated with the search result;

ranking the list of search results by the relevance scores of the third-party content objects associated with the search results; and

providing the ranked list of search results to a notification controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the social information further comprises:

maintaining affinity information for the user according to one or more categories; and

maintaining a plurality of connections between the user and other users of the social networking system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location is received from the user device when the search query is received from the user device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each third-party content object comprises a location, a category, and a delivery time range, and wherein calculating the relevance score for each search result further comprises matching the user location, social information, and search value to the location, category, and delivery time range of the associated third-party content object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein calculating the relevance score further comprises:

determining a location value for the third-party content object, the location value based on a proximity between the location assigned to the third-party content object and the user location;

determining an interest value for the third-party content object, the interest value based on whether a category assigned to the third-party content object is included in the one or more categories associated with the affinity information for the user;

determining a time value for the third-party content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within the delivery time range assigned to the third-party content object;

determining a connection value for the third-party content object, the connection value based on a number of the user'"'"'s plurality of connections associated with the third-party content object; and

combining the search value, location value, interest value, connection value, and time value to determine the relevance score;

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

appending social information to the ranked list of search results to additionally comprise social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

indications of affinity from friends of the user, comments regarding the search result, or friends currently located at the search result.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the ranked list of search results based on a filter criteria received from the user, the filter criteria based on social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

quantity of friends who have indicated affinity for the search result, quantity of friends who have commented on the search result, quantity of friends currently located at the search result.

8. A method for providing context search for a social networking system user, the method comprising:

maintaining social information for the user;

receiving a location of the user device;

assigning each of a plurality of third-party content objects a location, a category, and a delivery time range;

calculating a relevance score for the user for each third-party content object by matching the user location and social information to the location, category, and delivery time range for the third-party content object;

receiving a search query from a user device associated with the user, each search result comprising a search value;

determining a list of search results based on the search query;

associating each search result with a third-party content object;

adjusting the relevance score for each third-party content object based on the search value;

ranking the list of search results by the relevance scores of the third-party content objects associated with the search results;

providing the ranked list of search results to a notification controller.

9. A method for displaying a ranked list of search results for a social networking system user on a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving a ranked list of search results responsive to a search query, each search result comprising a search value;

displaying a graphical map centered around a center location, the graphical map comprising a plurality of locations, each location associated with a search result from the ranked list of search results, each location comprising an indication of an order of the search result in the ranked list of search results, each location placed on the map according to a location associated with the search result; and

wherein the order of the search result in the ranked list of search results is based on a relevance score;

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the relevance score for the search result is determined by matching a user location and social information and the search value to a third-party content object associated with the search result, the third-party content object comprising an object location, a category, and a delivery time range.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying a text field comprising the ranked list of search results, a search result in the text field comprising a list of friends of the user currently located at the location of the search result, a number of affinities of the search result, and a number of comments made regarding the search result.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the center location is based on a user location.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the center location is based on the search query.

14. A method for displaying a search result for a social networking system user, the method comprising:

receiving, responsive to a search query, a search result comprising a location; and

displaying a schedule, the schedule comprising a plurality of entries, a first entry indicating a future date and comprising a list available reservations for the search query, and a second entry indicating a past date and comprising a list of friends who were present at the location of the search query on the past date.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the search query is a restaurant and the list of available reservations comprises a list of available table times, and wherein responsive to receiving a selection from the user, reserving a table at the restaurant at a specified time on the future date.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the search query is a movie theatre and the list of available reservations comprises a list of movies with available tickets, and wherein responsive to receiving a selection from the user, reserving a specified number of tickets for the selected movie at a specified time on the future date.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

displaying a text field comprising a affinities of the search query and a number of comments made regarding the search query; and

displaying a schedule timeline button for switching the schedule between a plurality of timeline selections, the timeline selections comprising day, week, and month selections.