Querying social networks

• US 7,702,685 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2006
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Swami, Sunil, Shrufi, Adel A., Mahajan, Sameer, Anderson, Glen H., Kishore, Ajitesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital; Pierre M
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIAO, JASON G
• Application Number:
  US11/275,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2448 for particular applications; for extensibility, e.g. user defined types
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A data model models a social network. The data model can be embodied as a person profile schema and a connector profile schema. The person profile schema defines properties of persons in the social network. The connector profile schema defines connectivity properties of persons that connect a searcher to the persons in social network that the searcher desires to find. Query languages can be based on the data model and can be used to express queries of social networks. Queries can be for persons, for connecting persons, or for both.

Claims

1. One or more volatile or nonvolatile computer readable media storing information for enabling a computing device to perform a process for using a schema defining a data model of arbitrary social networks, where a social network comprises persons and relations between the persons,

storing a schema, the schema modeling the social network and comprising:

a schema definition of person nodes, the definition of person nodes defining a person node as a data type comprising information identifying a person represented by the person node, properties of the person, and keywords corresponding to that person, the properties including stored properties that are independent of other person nodes and also computed properties that comprise properties of the person node that are computed from and depend on values of properties of other person nodes connected with the person node; and

a schema definition of connectors, the definition of connectors defining a connector data type as including information identifying a first person node and a second person node and representing connectivity information about how the connector is related to the first person node or the second person node, the schema definition defining the first person node and the second person node as person node data types, the connectivity information comprising information allowing a connector to be any of a plurality of arbitrary types of connections; and

searching a representation of a social network stored in a database in a form that does not conform with the schema, where the searching is performed by;

receiving query requests comprised of strings of a social-network query language that maps to the schema, where the query requests specify queries of the representation of the social network as modeled by the schema;

translating the query requests of the social-network query language to query requests in a query language implemented by the database;

searching the database by submitting the translated query requests to the database to be executed by the database;

receiving from the database results that satisfy the translated query requests, the results in a form provided by the database that does not conform to the schema; and

translating the results of the searching the database from the form provided by the database to a form that conforms to the schema.

2. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the connectivity information comprises indication whether there is or is not a knows-relationship with the first person node or the second person node such that two person nodes can be connected when the corresponding persons do not know each other.

3. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the keywords of a person node describe knowledge of a person represented by the person node.

4. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the definition of the person nodes further defines a person node as having anonymity information indicating whether personally identifiable information of the node should be revealed.

5. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 4, wherein the definition of the person nodes further defines a person node'"'"'s anonymity information as indicating whether a node is anonymous or not with respect to various of the person node'"'"'s keywords.

6. One or more volatile or non-volatile device readable media according to claim 1, wherein the person node definition further defines person nodes as having a relationship strength to a person requesting a search.

7. One or more computer readable media storing information to enable a computing device to process a search request specifying a search of a representation of a social network, the representation of the social network comprising nodes representing persons in the social network and comprising connections between the nodes that represent social connections between the persons, the process comprising:

receiving the search request, the search request comprising a string in a query language other than a query language implemented by a database that stores the representation of the social network, the query language having structure that corresponds to a schema, the schema including a person schema modeling person nodes and properties thereof and including a connector schema modeling connector nodes and properties thereof including one or more properties that comprise instances of the person nodes modeled by the schema, the person and the connector schema defining one or more fields as computed fields that do not have a corresponding field stored in the database, the search request comprising;

person information indicating properties of persons to be searched for; and

connection information indicating properties of persons who directly or indirectly connect, within the social network, a person making the search request to the persons specified by the properties of the persons to be searched for, the search request thereby specifying that the search only be satisfied by nodes that both (1) satisfy the person information and (2) are connected to the person making the request by nodes that satisfy the connection information, where specified connecting nodes do not themselves satisfy the search request; and

searching the representation of a social network which is stored in a database, where the searching is performed by a search engine in communication with the database, the searching comprising;

receiving the query request, validating the query request against the schema, and using the schema to translate the query request into a query request in a query language implemented by the database, wherein both the indicated properties of the persons to be searched for and the specified properties of the persons who directly or indirectly or connect are mapped using the person schema defined in the schema; and

receiving results satisfying the translated query from the database, and using the schema to translate the results of the searching the database to results structured to conform to the schema.

8. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the person information comprises a privacy indicator, and where a property of the connection information comprises information indicating whether a result match is to be provided to the searcher based on privacy settings of a result match.

9. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a distance through the social network from a person making the request to a person matching the person information specified by the request.

10. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a strength of a relationship in the social network between a person connecting the searcher to a person matching the person information.

11. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the connection information specifies a list of persons who contributed to connecting, in the social network, the searcher with a person matching the person information in the request.

12. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, where the person information specifies a social distance, within the social network, between the searcher and a person that otherwise matches the search request.

13. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 7, wherein the request is formatted according to schema information that defines a query language.

14. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 13, wherein the schema information comprises a person profile and a connector profile, the person information is formatted according to the person profile, and the connector information is formatted according to the connector profile.

15. One or more computer readable media storing a search request according to claim 14, further storing, either during or after storing the request, a response containing a search result corresponding to the request, where the search result is formatted according to the schema information.

16. One or more computer readable media storing information to allow a computer to send or receive queries for searching a social network or responses to such queries, where the computer performs a process comprising:

sending or receiving query statements of a query language not implemented by an underlying database that stores the social network, the database storing the social network according to a database schema, where the query language allows a query statement to specify target persons in the social network based on first properties of the target persons and allows the query statement to specify one or more second properties of persons that directly or indirectly connect, within the social network, the searcher to the target persons, where execution of the query statement will return only target persons that have the first properties and that are connected to the searcher by other persons that have the second properties, where persons that satisfy the second properties but not the first properties are not returned if the query statement is executed against the social network; and

performing searches for the query statements by receiving the query statements, using the social network schema to map the query statements to a queries in a query language implemented by the database, submitting the queries to the database and in response receiving results structured in accordance with the database schema, where the social network schema defines a person node data type and a connector data type, the connector data type comprising properties including a connector property typed as the person node data type, where the specified first properties and second properties are mapped according to the person node data type.

17. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, where a property of a person that connects the searcher to the target persons comprises either a social distance in the social network from the searcher to the connecting person, or a strength of matching the target persons, or a visibility of a target person to the connecting person.

18. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the process further comprises sending or receiving responses to the query statements, where the responses conform to the query language.

19. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the query statements are instances of schema information that defines the query language.

20. One or more computer readable media storing information according to claim 16, wherein the query statements comprise keywords that specify the target persons.