Sending Notifications to Members of Social Group in a Social Networking System

• US 20140172996A1
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• 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 Taro, Kao, Wayne, Lien, Andy, Chen, Sizhe, Letuchy, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 10,397,162 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A social networking system notifies its users of different events and actions taking place inside the social networking system. To present notifications that are most likely to be of interest to the user, the social networking system observes the interactions of the user with notifications presented to the user and suggests an option to opt-out of notifications associated with a source based on the observed interactions. The option to opt-out of notifications associated with the source may be presented if the users interactions with the notifications presented are below a threshold. Notifications associated with a social group are presented to the user based on factors describing the group and the relation between the user and other users of the social group, for example, seniority of the user, size of the group, and the rate at which user actions associated with the group are received.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a group having a plurality of members, each member a user of the social networking system;

receiving one or more posts from one or more members of the group, the posts directed to the group;

identifying a subject user of the members of the group for sending a notification about one or more of the received posts;

determining whether to send the notification to the subject user based on at least one of;

a size of the group, a seniority of the subject user in the group, an affinity of the subject user for the group, an affinity of the subject user for one or more other members of the group, a frequency of the subject user'"'"'s interaction with the group, a frequency of posts directed to the group, and any combination thereof; and

sending the notification about the post to the subject user conditionally based on the determining.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the seniority of the subject user is measured as a rank of the subject user based on a number of members who joined the group before the subject user, the method further comprising:

responsive to the rank of the subject user being below a threshold value, sending the post to the subject user.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

responsive to the rank of the subject user exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user based on whether of the member sending the post is connected to the subject user in the social networking system.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to size of the group being below a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to size of the group exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user if the member sending the post is connected to the subject user in the social networking system.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to send a notification to a subject user is based on a click through rate of the post based on past interactions of the members of the group.

7. A computer implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a group having a plurality of members, each member a user of the social networking system;

receiving one or more posts from one or more members of the group, the posts directed to the group;

identifying a subject user of the members of the group for sending a notification about one or more of the received posts;

determining whether to send the notification to the subject user based on information about a relationship between the subject user and one or more other members of the group; and

sending the notification about the post to the subject user conditionally based on the determining.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the relationship between the subject user and the other members of the group comprises a seniority of the subject user in the group.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the seniority of the subject user is measured as a rank of the subject user based on a number of members who joined the group before the subject user, the method further comprising:

responsive to the rank of the subject user being below a threshold value, sending the post to the subject user.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

responsive to the rank of the subject user exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user if the member sending the post is connected to the subject user in the social networking system.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the information about a relationship between the subject user and one or more other members of the group comprises an aggregate measure of frequency of interactions among members of the group.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to the aggregate measure of frequency of interactions exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a size of the group.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

responsive to group size being below a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

responsive to group size exceeding a threshold value, determining to send the post to the subject user based on whether the member sending the post is connected to the user in the social networking system.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a click through rate of the post based on past interactions of members of the group.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein determining whether to send the notification to the subject user is further based on a rate at which the members post content to the group.