TARGETING ITEMS TO A USER OF A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM BASED ON A PREDICTED EVENT FOR THE USER

• US 20130159115A1
• Filed: 12/31/2012
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Paul Adams
• Inventors: Adams, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,406,092 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A social networking system predicts a life event (e.g., birthday, change in marital status, relationship status, etc.) for a target user based on information associated with the user. The social networking system identifies gift suggestions to provide to one or more friends of the user based on the predicted event. A gift suggestion may include an invitation to purchase or send an item, voucher, or other gift to the target user, wherein the gift may be determined based on information about the target user'"'"'s interests obtained by the social networking system. The social networking system sends a gift suggestion to one or more friends of the target user, where the gift suggestion identifies the predicted life event and provides the gift suggestion to the target user'"'"'s friend. The advertisement may require action by multiple of the target user'"'"'s friends before the gift is sent to the target user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

predicting a life event for a target user of a social networking system based on communications between the target user and other users of the social networking system;

associating the predicted life event with a profile of the target user in the social networking system;

selecting a gift suggestion for the target user, the gift suggestion comprising an advertisement and the gift suggestion selected if the target user matches targeting criteria provided by the advertisement;

identifying a viewing user who is connected to the target user in the social networking system; and

sending the gift suggestion along with a notification about the predicted life event to at least one of the user'"'"'s friends.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted life event comprises a change in marital status, a change in relationship status, a birthday, a change in employment status, a graduation, a change in health status, an addition of a new child, or death of a person associated with the user outside the social network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion is selected based on at least one of:

an item in the target user'"'"'s wish list, an item placed in a shopping cart by the target user, and a bookmark for a webpage provided by the user and stored within the social networking system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion includes a link to a merchant site to purchase an item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion includes multiple links, each link associated with a web page to buy an item for the target user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion comprises an advertisement for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a discount offer for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a user interface permitting a viewing user to share the gift suggestion with other users of the social networking system with whom the target user has established a connection in the social networking system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a voucher enabling a viewing user to send the voucher to the target user, the voucher for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion and the notification about the predicted life event are sent to a plurality of users with whom the target user has established a connection in the social networking system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift suggestion provides an interface for purchasing a portion of a gift for the target user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting the life event for the target user comprises:

training a machine learning model using historical data related to communications involving a plurality of users of the social networking system and confirmations about the life event for one or more of the plurality of users; and

predicting the life event for the target user using the trained machine learning model.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for:

predicting a life event for a target user of a social networking system based on communications between the target user and other users of the social networking system;

associating the predicted life event with a profile of the target user in the social networking system;

selecting a gift suggestion for the target user, the gift suggestion comprising an advertisement and the gift suggestion selected if the target user matches targeting criteria provided by the advertisement;

identifying a viewing user who is connected to the target user in the social networking system; and

sending the gift suggestion along with a notification about the predicted life event to at least one of the user'"'"'s friends.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the predicted life event comprises a change in marital status, a change in relationship status, a birthday, a change in employment status, a graduation, a change in health status, an addition of a new child, or death of a person associated with the user outside the social network.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion is selected based on at least one of:

an item in the target user'"'"'s wish list, an item placed in a shopping cart by the target user, and a bookmark for a webpage provided by the user and stored within the social networking system.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion includes a link to a merchant site to purchase an item.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion includes multiple links, each link associated with a web page to buy an item for the target user.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion comprises an advertisement for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a discount offer for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

20. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a user interface permitting a viewing user to share the gift suggestion with other users of the social networking system with whom the target user has established a connection in the social networking system.

21. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion comprises a voucher enabling a viewing user to send the voucher to the target user, the voucher for an item associated with the gift suggestion.

22. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion and the notification about the predicted life event are sent to a plurality of users with whom the target user has established a connection in the social networking system.

23. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the gift suggestion provides an interface for purchasing a portion of a gift for the target user.

24. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein predicting the life event for the target user comprises:

training a machine learning model using historical data related to communications involving a plurality of users of the social networking system and confirmations about the life event for one or more of the plurality of users; and

predicting the life event for the target user using the trained machine learning model.