CUSTOMIZED PRESENTATION OF EVENT GUEST LISTS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20140047045A1
• Filed: 08/13/2012
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baldwin, Robert Michael, Bridge, Henry, Morris, Robyn David
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,382 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 user creates an event in a social networking system specifying a location, a time, and a guest list of other users invited to the event. The social networking system generates a page associated with the event that provides information about the event and identifies whether users have responded to invitations to the event. The content of the page may be customized for the user viewing the page to encourage the viewing user to attend the event. For example, the viewing user'"'"'s relationship to and/or similar characteristics with other users on the guest list is determined and used by the social networking system to identify the users whose responses to invitations are shown to the viewing user via the page. Additionally, a notification method more prominently distributes acceptances of invitations to other users to encourage attendance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with the event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system invited to the event and associating an acceptance state based on a received response to the event with users on the guest list;

grouping users included on the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, a group of users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group of users;

accessing a user profile associated with a viewing user, the user profile identifying and one or more connections between the viewing user and other users of the social networking system;

accessing user profiles associated with users in the selected group, the users profiles identifying characteristics of the users in the selected group;

ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group;

determining a display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprising:

identifying users within the selected group connected to the viewing user; and

ranking users within the selected group connected to the viewing user based on affinity with the viewing user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

determining whether a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is a host associated with the event; and

responsive to determining a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is the host associated with the event, increasing a ranking associated with the host associated with the event.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

determining whether a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is a user that invited the viewing user to the event; and

responsive to determining a user within the selected group connected to the viewing includes the user that invited the viewing user to the event, increasing a ranking associated with the user that invited the viewing user to the event.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprises:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user;

for each user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user, determining a user connected to both the viewing user and to a user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on an affinity between the viewing user and the user connected to both the viewing user and to the user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprising:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user;

determining a number of mutual connections between the viewing user and each user within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the number of mutual connections with the viewing user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprising:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user comprises:

determining a relationship status of the viewing user from the user profile associated with the viewing user;

responsive to determining the relationship status of the viewing user is single, determining a preferred gender of the viewing user from the user profile associated with the viewing user; and

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user having a relationship status of single and the preferred gender of the viewing user;

9. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the set of users for display from the ranking comprises:

selecting the identified users.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the set of users for display from the ranking comprises:

selecting users within the selected group having a connection to the viewing user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the page associated with the event for display to the viewing user, the page including the selected set of users comprises:

responsive to the selected set of users including users connected to the viewing user, retrieving an image and a user name for each of the selected set of users; and

responsive to the selected set of users not including users connected to the viewing user, retrieving the image for each of the selected set of users.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the images for each of the selected set of users are placed in a different order each time the viewing user accesses the page associated with the event.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceptance state is selected from a group consisting of:

an accepted state indicating a received response indicating a user is attending the event, a possible state indicating a received response indicating the user is uncertain regarding attending the event, an invited state indicating the user has received an invitation but has not responded to the invitation and a declined state indicating the user is not attending the event.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking comprises:

generating a display including a list of the users on the guest list, the list ordered based on the ranking.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking comprises:

generating a display including a subset of users within the selected group and the common acceptance state associated with the selected group.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the determined display to the viewing user comprises:

generating a page associated with the event, the page including the determined display.

17. A method comprising:

receiving, from a responding user of a social networking system, a response to an invitation to an event;

determining a type of the response;

responsive to determining the response is a declination of the invitation;

requesting a decline posting from the responding user;

responsive to receiving the decline posting, posting the decline posting and an identification of the responding user to a decline page associated with the event, the decline page separate from the page associated with the event.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein responsive to determining the response is an acceptance of the invitation, further posting an acceptance message identifying the responding user and the acceptance to a page associated with the user.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein responsive to receiving the decline posting, transmitting a notification of the declination to the in inviting user and host of the event.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

responsive to determining the response is an acceptance of the invitation, posting an acceptance message identifying the responding user and the acceptance to a page associated with the event; and

transmitting a notification of the acceptance to other users of the social networking system connected to the responding user.

21. A method comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with the event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system invited to the event and associating an acceptance state based on a received response to the event with users on the guest list;

grouping users included on the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, a group of users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group of users;

ranking the users within the selected group based on interactions between a viewing user and the users within the selected group;

determining a display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the interactions between the viewing user and the users within the selected group comprise one or more selected from a group consisting of:

a connection between the viewing user and a user within the selected group, an interest common to the viewing user and the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the viewing user and communication between the viewing user and the user within the selected group.

23. A method comprising:

receiving information associated with an event;

accessing a guest list associated with the event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system who are invited to the event and an acceptance state for the users;

a step for ranking a plurality of the users included on the guest list having a common acceptance state;

selecting a set of the users included on the guest for display based on the ranking; and

generating the page associated with the event for display to the viewing user, the page including the selected set of users.