Aggregating News Events on Online Social Networks

• US 20160232241A1
• Filed: 02/06/2015
• Published: 08/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: de Assis, Igor Ribiero, Stoyanov, Veselin S., Perelygin, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 10,997,257 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a first set of posts that includes a number of posts of the online social network posted within a first timeframe. In particular embodiments, each post is associated with one or more topics of a number of topics of the online social network. The method also includes determining a trending topic from the plurality of topics of the online social network; and generating a news-event object associated with the trending topic. In particular embodiments, the news-event object includes a seed post from the first set of posts and a tagging-algorithm for identifying posts matching the trending topic. The method also includes identifying, by the tagging-algorithm, one or more posts from the first set of posts that match the trending topic; and generating one or more search-results modules. In particular embodiments, each search-results module includes one or more search results.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices of an online social network:

accessing a first set of posts comprising a plurality of posts of the online social network posted within a first timeframe, each post being associated with one or more topics of a plurality of topics of the online social network;

determining a trending topic from the plurality of topics of the online social network;

generating a news-event object associated with the trending topic, the news-event object comprising a seed post from the first set of posts and a tagging-algorithm for identifying posts matching the trending topic;

identifying, by the tagging-algorithm, one or more posts from the first set of posts that match the trending topic;

generating one or more search-results modules, each search-results module comprising one or more search results, each search result comprising a reference to an identified post that matches the trending topic; and

sending, to a client device of a user for display, a search-results page comprising one or more of the search-results modules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the trending topic from the plurality of topics is based on an increase in a number or frequency of posts, likes, mentions, or shares on the online social network that are associated with the trending topic within the second timeframe.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the news-event object comprises generating the tagging-algorithm by:

parsing a content of the seed post into one or more n-grams; and

determining one or more key topics based on one or more of the n-grams that match names of entities associated with the online social network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the news-event object comprises generating the tagging-algorithm by determining one or more co-visited topics based on identifying one or more topics having activity subsequent to activity associated with the trending topic within a second timeframe associated with the trending topic, wherein the activity comprises a click-through, like, mention, or share, and wherein the second timeframe is a subset of the first timeframe.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the news-event object comprises generating the tagging-algorithm by:

determining a location of the trending topic; and

identifying one or more posts within a second timeframe based on a location of each post matching the location of the trending topic, wherein the second timeframe is a subset of the first timeframe.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the news-event object comprises generating the tagging-algorithm by:

accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, and each node corresponding to an object associated with the online social network; and

identifying one or more topics based on identifying an entity corresponding to a node that is connected by an edge to a node associated with the trending topic.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing references to the identified posts with the news-event object and the tagging-algorithm.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more posts from the first set of posts are posts made within a second timeframe associated with the trending topic, the second timeframe being a subset of the first timeframe.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more of the posts comprises searching one or more verticals to identify one or more posts stored by the verticals that match the trending topic.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a reference to the news-event object to a search frontend.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the news-event object further comprises references to one or more of the identified posts.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the search results further comprise references to one or more comments, news articles, photos, videos, events, applications, or web pages stored on the online social network.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating an relevance score for each of the identified posts based at least in part on a relevance of each identified post to the trending topic.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each reference in one or more of the search-results modules corresponds to the identified post with the relevance score greater than a threshold score.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a reference to the seed post with the news-event object.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of the search-results modules is responsive to receiving a search query from the client device of the user.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the generation of the search-results modules is responsive to receiving a selection a link from the client device of the user.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the news-event object with a search query; and

sending the search results with the search query to a ranking backend.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

access a first set of posts comprising a plurality of posts of the online social network posted within a first timeframe, each post being associated with one or more topics of a plurality of topics of the online social network;

determine a trending topic from the plurality of topics of the online social network;

generate a news-event object associated with the trending topic, the news-event object comprising a seed post from the first set of posts and a tagging-algorithm for identifying posts matching the trending topic;

identify, by the tagging-algorithm, one or more posts from the first set of posts that match the trending topic;

generate one or more search-results modules, each search-results module comprising one or more search results, each search result comprising a reference to an identified post matching the trending topic; and

send, to a client device of a user for display, a search-results page comprising one or more of the search-results modules.

20. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

access a first set of posts comprising a plurality of posts of the online social network posted within a first timeframe, each post being associated with one or more topics of a plurality of topics of the online social network;

determine a trending topic from the plurality of topics of the online social network;

generate a news-event object associated with the trending topic, the news-event object comprising a seed post from the first set of posts and a tagging-algorithm for identifying posts matching the trending topic;

identify, by the tagging-algorithm, one or more posts from the first set of posts that match the trending topic;

generate one or more search-results modules, each search-results module comprising one or more search results, each search result comprising a reference to an identified post matching the trending topic; and

send, to a client device of a user for display, a search-results page comprising one or more of the search-results modules.