Creating a Customized News Collection Based on Social Networking Information

• US 20140195605A1
• Filed: 11/16/2011
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kallayil, Gopinath Neelambaran
• Granted Patent: US 8,903,910 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A system and machine-implemented method for generating a customized news collection based on social groups, the method comprising receiving an indication of one or more social groups associated with a user, wherein each of the one or more social groups is associated with the user'"'"'s account in a social networking service, determining, one or more contacts associated with each of the identified one or more social groups at a social networking service, selecting a set of news items including one or more news items associated with the one or more identified contacts and generating a news collection including a number of the one or more news items of the set of news items for provision to a user.

Claims

1. A method executed on one or more computing devices for generating a customized news collection based on social groups, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user for a customized news collection based on one or more social groups;

receiving a selection of the one or more social groups from a plurality of social groups by the user as part of the request, wherein each of the plurality of social groups is associated with the user'"'"'s account in a social networking service;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, one or more contacts associated with the one or more social groups selected by the user in response to receiving the selection of the one or more social groups;

identifying a plurality of news items available to the user, wherein at least one of the plurality of news items comprises a news item generated at a news service or provided for consumption at a news service, wherein the news service is distinct from the social networking service;

selecting a set of news items from the plurality of news items in response to receiving the selection of the one or more social groups, wherein the set of news items includes at least one news items selected based on the interaction of one or more contacts associated with at least one of the one or more social groups with the at least one news item; and

generating a news collection including one or more news items of the set of news items in response to the request from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request includes an indication of the one or more social groups.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining additional selection criteria, wherein the set of news items is further identified based one the additional selection criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection criteria includes one or more news item characteristics including at least one of a topic, category, news source, author, time or date.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional criteria is specified by the user.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional criteria is determined based on user profile information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more social groups are identified based on user profile information of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the one or more news items of the identified set of news items according to one or more sorting criteria; and

generating the news collection in response to the sorting.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sorting criteria include one or more priorities assigned to one or more news characteristics associated with a news item, and

wherein the sorting process comprises:

determining a priority assigned to one or more news characteristics associated with each of the one or more news items of the set of news items; and

ranking the one or more news items of the set of news items according to the priorities.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more priorities are assigned by the user.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the priorities are assigned based on the user'"'"'s interaction with news items.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the news collection for display to the user; and

receiving an indication of user activity with response to at least one news item of the news collection.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

updating at least one of the selection criteria or the sorting criteria in response to receiving the indication; and

generating an updated news collection according to the updated criteria.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the one or more contacts comprises:

sending a request for contacts associated with each of the one or more social groups to the social networking service associated with the social group; and

receiving the one or more contacts associated with each of the one or more social groups.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more news items associated with a the one or more identified contacts comprise at least a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards or a news article that is determined to be important based on characteristics of a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises one or more of opening the news item, reading the news item, endorsing the news item, recommending the news item, or sharing the news item.

17. A system for generating a customized news collection based on social groups, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving an indication of a request from a user for a customized news collection;

receiving a selection of the one or more social groups from a plurality of social groups by the user as part of the request, wherein each of the plurality of social groups is associated with user account of the user maintained at a social networking service;

selecting a set of news items according to one or more selection criteria in response to the request, the one or more selection criteria including the one or more social groups selected by the user, wherein the selection comprises;

determining one or more contacts associated with the one or more social groups at a social networking service in response to receiving the selection; and

identifying a set of news items including one or more news items that at least one of the one or more contacts interacted with from a plurality of news items available to the user in response to receiving the selection, wherein at least one of the one or more news items comprises a news item generated at a news service or provided for consumption at a news service, wherein the news service is distinct from the social networking service; and

generating a news collection including a number of news items of the set of news items for provision to a user.

18. The system of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

sorting the set of news items according to one or more sorting criteria; and

generating the news collection in response to the sorting.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more selection criteria further comprise one or more news item characteristics, and

wherein selecting the set of news items further comprises selecting one or more news items having the one or more news item characteristics.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more news items associated with a the one or more identified contacts comprise at least a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards or a news article that is determined to be important based on characteristics of a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards.

21. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request from a user to view a customized news collection;

determining one or more social groups based on the request, wherein each of the one or more social groups is selected by the user from a plurality of social groups with a user account of the user in a social networking service;

determining one or more contacts associated with each of the selected one or more social groups at a social networking service in response to the selection;

selecting a set of news items from a plurality of news items available for viewing by the user in response to the selection, the set of news items including one or more news items associated with the one or more identified contacts, wherein at least one of the one or more news items comprises a news item generated at a news service or provided for consumption at a news service and wherein the one or more news items associated with a the one or more identified contacts comprise at least a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards or a news article that is determined to be important based on characteristics of a news item that at least one of the one or more identified contacts has taken an action towards; and

generating a news collection including a number of news items of the set of news items for provision to a user in response to the request.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

determining one or more additional selection criteria associated with the user; and

selecting the set of news items further based on the one or more additional selection criteria.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

sorting the set of news items according to one or more sorting criteria; and

generating the news collection in response to the sorting.