Displaying Social Opportunities by Location on a Map

• US 20130036165A1
• Filed: 08/04/2011
• Published: 02/07/2013
• 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, Cahill, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 9,691,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking system provides relevant content objects at the request of social networking system users. Relevance scores are determined for content objects by matching user location, user interests, and other social information to the content, location, and timing associated with content objects. A ranked list of content objects can be provided to the user, where the content objects are relevant to them based on their interests, location, and other social information. The system provides a user interface that displays a map containing pins, where each pin represents a content object in actionable proximity to a user. The content objects selected to be presented as pins to the user are those content objects with sufficiently high relevance scores. Multiple pins for a nearby area can be clustered. The user can switch between zoom levels for the map, thereby showing pins at varying distances from the user'"'"'s current location.

Claims

1. A method for providing relevant information to a user of a social networking system, the method comprising:

maintaining social information for the user;

associating each of a plurality of content objects with a location, a category, and a time

receiving a request for information from a user device;

receiving a user location;

determining a relevance score for the content objects based on matching the user location and social information to the locations, categories, and times for the content objects;

ranking the content objects by their relevance scores; and

providing the ranked content objects to a notification controller for transmission to the user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the social information 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 calculating the relevance score comprises:

determining a location value for the content object, the location value based on a proximity between the location associated with the content object and the user location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises:

determining an interest value for the content object, the interest value based on whether a category associated with the content object is included in the one or more categories associated with the affinity information for the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises:

determining a time value for the content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within the delivery time range assigned to the content object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises:

determining a connection value for the content object, the connection value based on a number of the user'"'"'s plurality of connections associated with the content object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises:

combining a location value, an interest value, a connection value, and a time value to determine the relevance score.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the time has an action associated with it, where the action can be performed by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the time is a time range that determines whether the content object is eligible to be received by the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a location of a user device associated with the user comprises receiving the location directly from the user device

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the location is received from the user device at predetermined intervals.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the request received from the user includes the user location.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a user exposure to a provided content object.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising adjusting the relevance scores of the content objects based on the user exposure to the provided content object.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving indication of an action by the user associated with a provided content object; and

storing an association between the user and the provided content object in response to the received indication.

16. The method of claim 1, transmitting a highest ranked content object from the ranked content objects to the user device for display to the user.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification controller is configured for transmitting the ranked content objects to the user device for display to the user.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content objects comprises third-party content objects provided by third-parties, and content objects formed based on interactions of users with the social networking system.

19. A method for displaying information regarding relevant content objects to a social networking system user, the method comprising:

transmitting from a user device at a user location a request for information;

receiving at the user device a ranked list of content objects, each content object comprising a location, a category, a rank, and a time, wherein the ranked list of content objects are ranked according to a relevance score determined based on matching the user location and a user'"'"'s social information to the locations, categories, and times for the content objects; and

displaying a map comprising a plurality of pins displaying the locations of the content objects, wherein each pin is associated with a content object, and each pin displays the rank of the associated content object.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising:

displaying a plurality of selectable zoom levels that change a distance covered by the map.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the zoom levels are based on fixed distances.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the zoom levels are based on geographical regions.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the zoom levels are based on relevance score thresholds.

24. The method of claim 19, comprising:

displaying a group pin representing the locations of a plurality of associated content objects, wherein the content objects associated with the group pins are located within a proximity of each other.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the group pin displays the number of content objects it is associated with.