DISPLAYING NEWS TICKER CONTENT BASED ON DIVERSITY IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20140164503A1
• Filed: 12/09/2012
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Deeter, Ken, Cathcart, Robert William
• Granted Patent: US 9,826,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A social networking system displays stories describing actions to a user in a news ticker. The stories may be selected so that a variety of types of stories, stories associated with a variety of users, or stories associated with a variety of actions are presented via the news ticker. Additionally, stories having a common characteristic, such as being associated with a common user, may be aggregated and a description of the aggregated stories is presented in the news ticker. For example, stories aggregated based on acting user may identify the user common to the stories and a description of the aggregated stories may be displayed. Further, the value to the social networking system of displaying different types of content may be used to modify how different types of content are displayed in the news ticker.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sending for display to a target user of a social networking system a news ticker presenting a plurality of stories each describing an action performed by a user of the social networking system connected to the target user and identifying the user performing the action;

retrieving candidate stories each describing an action associated with a user connected to the target user and each associated with a story type;

selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories;

sending an updated news ticker including the selected one or more candidate stories to the target user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories comprises:

determining a number of different story types associated with the plurality of stories displayed by the news ticker;

selecting a candidate story associated with a story type so that a number of different story types displayed by the updated news ticker is at least a threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories comprises:

determining a number of stories from the plurality of stories displayed by the news ticker having a specified story type;

selecting a candidate story associated with the specified story type so that a number of stories displayed by the updated news ticker is at least a threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with a specified story type; and

removing a story from the plurality of stories displayed by the news ticker associated with the specified story type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with a specified story type so a number of different story types associated with stories in the updated news ticker is less than or equal to a threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on story types associated with the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with a specified story type so a number of stories associated with the specified story type is at least a threshold value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the acting users associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

determining affinities between the target user and each of the acting users associated with a candidate story; and

selecting candidate stories based on the affinities.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting candidate stories based on the affinities comprises:

selecting candidate stories associated with acting users associated with at least a threshold affinity.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting candidate stories based on the affinities comprises:

selecting candidate stories associated with acting users associated with a highest affinity.

7. A method comprising:

sending for display to a target user of a social networking system a news ticker presenting a plurality of stories each describing an action performed by a user of the social networking system connected to the target user and identifying the user performing the action;

retrieving candidate stories each describing an action associated with an acting user connected to the target user;

selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the acting users associated with each of the candidate stories; and

sending an updated news ticker including the selected one or more candidate stories to the target user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving candidate stories comprises:

retrieving candidate stories associated with actions associated with a time within a threshold time of a current time.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the acting users associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

determining a number of different users of the social networking system associated with the plurality of stories displayed in the news ticker; and

selecting a candidate story associated with an acting user so that a sum of the number of different users of the social networking system associated with the plurality of stories displayed in the news ticker and the acting user is at least a threshold value.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein electing one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the acting users associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an acting user specified story type; and

removing a story from the plurality of stories displayed by the news ticker associated with the acting user.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the acting users associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an acting user different than users of the social networking system performing an action described by the plurality of stories.

15. A method comprising:

sending for display to a target user of a social networking system a news ticker presenting a plurality of stories each describing an action performed by a user of the social networking system connected to the target user and identifying the user performing the action;

retrieving candidate stories each describing an action associated with an acting user connected to the target user;

selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories; and

sending an updated news ticker including the selected one or more candidate stories for display to the target user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an action not described in the plurality of stories displayed by the news ticker.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an action having a specified type so that at least a threshold of types of actions are associated with stories included in the updated news ticker.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting one or more candidate stories based at least in part on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories comprises:

determining affinities between the target user and each of the acting users; and

selecting a candidate story based on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories and based on the affinities.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the candidate story based on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories and based on the affinities comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an acting user associated with at least a threshold affinity.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the candidate story based on the actions associated with each of the candidate stories and based on the affinities comprises:

selecting a candidate story associated with an action having a specified type;

responsive to the plurality of stories presented by the news feed including at least a threshold number of stories describing the specified type of action, determining whether an affinity associated with an acting user associated with the selected candidate story is at least a threshold affinity; and

responsive to the affinity associated with the acting user associated with the selected candidate story being at least a threshold affinity, including the selected candidate story in the updated newsfeed.