ANALYZING SOCIAL PROXIMITY OF USERS OF A DIGITAL MAGAZINE SERVER

• US 20140074934A1
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Inventors: van Hoff, Arthur Anthonie, Breunig, Markus Manfred
• Granted Patent: US 9,372,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications

Abstract

Connections between an online system user and one or more social networking system users maintained by various social networking systems are analyzed to determine social proximity between the online system user and social networking system users connected to the online system user via a social networking system. Social networking system users connected to the online system user via each of a plurality of social networking systems are identified. Based on a number of social networking system users connected to both the online system user and to a social networking system user connected to the online system user, a social proximity score indicating relative social “closeness” of the digital magazine server user and the social networking system user connected to the digital magazine server user is generated.

Claims

1. A method for determining social proximity between users of an online system, the method comprising:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a plurality of additional users of a social networking system including the profile that are connected to the user via the social networking system including the profile of the user of the online system;

identifying a user of an identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

identifying one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system; and

generating a social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the identified user of the identified social networking system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring an interaction of the user of the online system with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the identified user of the identified social networking system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein recommending the content item to the identified user of the identified social networking system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score comprises:

recommending the content item to the identified user of the identified social networking system if the generated social proximity score has at least a threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring an interaction of the identified user of the identified social networking system with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score comprises:

recommending the content item to the user of the online system if the generated social proximity score has at least a threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system comprises:

determining a number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

determining a ratio of a number of the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system to the number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system comprises:

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system;

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the social networking system;

determining a weighted average of the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system and the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the social networking system; and

determining a ratio of a number of the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system to the weighted average.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the social proximity score based on a directionality of a connection between the user of the online system and the identified user, wherein a social proximity score for a bidirectional connection is greater than a social proximity score for a unidirectional connection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score comprises:

identifying a group maintained by the identified social networking system including the identified user of the identified social networking system based on a profile of the user of the online system maintained by the identified social networking system; and

adjusting the social proximity score based on at least one of a name of the group and a set of social networking system users in the group.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein adjusting the social proximity score based on the name of the group comprises:

selecting a class of the group from plurality of classes of groups based at least in part on the name of the group, each class of groups associated with a distribution of social proximity scores for users within the group; and

normalizing the social proximity score to the distribution of the group.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more users of a second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the second social networking system;

wherein generating the social proximity score further comprises generating the social proximity score based on the identified one or more users of the second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the second social networking system.

12. A computer program product for determining social proximity between users of an online system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a plurality of additional users of a social networking system including the profile that are connected to the user via the social networking system including the profile of the user of the online system;

identifying a user of an identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

identifying one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system; and

generating a social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the identified user of the identified social networking system.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer program code for:

monitoring an interaction of the user of the online system with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the identified user of the identified social networking system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer program code for:

monitoring an interaction of the identified user of the identified social networking system with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer program code for:

receiving a search query from the user of the online system; and

ranking search results for the search query based at least in part on interactions of the identified user with one or more of the search results and the generated social proximity score.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system comprises:

determining a number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

determining a ratio of a number of the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system to the number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system comprises:

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system;

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the social networking system;

determining a weighted average of the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system and the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the social networking system; and

determining a ratio of a number of the identified one or more additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system to the weighted average.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein generating the social proximity score comprises:

identifying a group maintained by the identified social networking system including the identified user of the identified social networking system based on a profile of the user of the online system maintained by the identified social networking system; and

adjusting the social proximity score based on at least one of a name of the group and a set of social networking system users in the group.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein adjusting the social proximity score based on the name of the group comprises:

selecting a class of group from plurality of classes of groups based at least in part on the name of the group, each class of groups associated with a distribution of social proximity scores for users within the group; and

normalizing the social proximity score to the distribution of the group.

20. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising computer program code for:

identifying one or more users of a second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the second social networking system;

wherein generating the social proximity score further comprises generating the social proximity score based on the identified one or more users of the second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the second social networking system.

21. A method for determining social proximity between two users of an online system, the method comprising:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a plurality of additional users of a social networking system including the profile that are connected to the user via the social networking system including the profile of the user of the online system;

identifying for a user of a social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the social networking system, a set of additional users of one or more of the social networking systems connected to the user of the social networking system and connected to the user of the online system via at least one of the plurality of social networking systems; and

generating a social proximity score between the user of the online system and the user of the social networking system based at least in part on the identified set of additional users connected to the user of the social networking system and connected to the user of the online system via at least one of the plurality of social networking systems, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the user of the social networking system.