Ranking search results based on the frequency of access on the search results by users of a social-networking system

• US 8,914,392 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lunt, Christopher, Galbreath, Nicholas, Winner, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Cheyne D
• Application Number:
  US13/603,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20120330945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 833 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/727, 707/732, 707/758, 707/781, 707/784
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

Particular embodiments access a search query submitted by a first user of a social-networking system; identify one or more web pages in response to the search query; for each of the one or more web pages, determine a value indicating a number of user clicks associated with the web page by one or more second users of the social-networking system who are connected to the first user within the social-networking system; and send a set of hyperlinks for the one or more web pages, wherein hyperlinks for web pages where the value is greater than zero are visually emphasized over other hyperlinks.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by one or more first computing devices associated with a search engine, a search query submitted by a first user associated with a social-networking system;

retrieving, by the one or more first computing devices, one or more search results in response to the search query, each of the one or more search results being associated with one or more hyperlinks;

determining, by the one or more first computing devices, for each of the one or more search results, a number of relevant clicks associated with the search result, wherein each relevant click is associated with a second user connected to the first user within a specified degree of separation within the social-networking system;

ranking, by the one or more first computing devices, the one or more search results based on the respective number of relevant clicks for each search result, wherein the number of relevant clicks for each search result is based at least in part on a number of prior clicks on a hyperlink divided by a number of times that the hyperlink was displayed; and

sending, by the one or more first computing devices, information associated with the one or more search results.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified degree of separation between a first user and a second user is a minimum number of hops required to traverse a social graph associated with the social-networking system from a node associated with the first user to a node associated with the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified degree of separation may be specified by an individual user in a profile for the individual user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified degree of separation may be set by an operator associated with the social-networking system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a degree of separation between the first user and a second user within the social-networking system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining the degree of separation further comprises sending a request to an external server associated with the social-networking system using an API call.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the request to the external server comprises identifying information for the first user and identifying information for the second user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the search results is associated with personal information of a third user of the social-networking system, further comprising:

determining an access preference of the third user; and

removing the at least one of the search results from the search results, wherein a degree of separation between the first user and the third user is not in accordance with the access preference of the third user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a number of relevant clicks associated with a search result, wherein each relevant click is associated with a second user connected to the first user within a specified degree of separation within the social-networking system further comprises:

determining, by the one or more first computing devices, that the second user clicked on the search result in association with a second search query matching the search query submitted by the first user.

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

access, by one or more first computing devices associated with a search engine, a search query submitted by a first user associated with a social-networking system;

retrieve, by the one or more first computing devices, one or more search results in response to the search query, each of the one or more search results being associated with one or more hyperlinks;

determine, by the one or more first computing devices, for each of the one or more search results, a number of relevant clicks associated with the search result, wherein each relevant click is associated with a second user connected to the first user within a specified degree of separation within the social-networking system;

rank, by the one or more first computing devices, the one or more search results based on the respective number of relevant clicks for each search result, wherein the number of relevant clicks for each search result is based at least in part on a number of prior clicks on a hyperlink divided by a number of times that the hyperlink was displayed; and

send, by the one or more first computing devices, information associated with the one or more search results.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein at least one of the search results is associated with personal information of a third user of the social-networking system, further embodying software operable when executed to:

determine an access preference of the third user; and

remove the at least one of the search results from the search results, wherein a degree of separation between the first user and the third user is not in accordance with the access preference of the third user.

12. The media of claim 10, further embodying software operable when executed to:

determine for each relevant click associated with a second user, that the second user clicked on the search result in association with a second search query matching the search query submitted by the first user.

13. A system comprising:

one or more processors associated with a search engine; and

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

access a search query submitted by a first user associated with a social-networking system;

retrieve one or more search results in response to the search query, each of the one or more search results being associated with one or more hyperlinks;

determine, for each of the one or more search results, a number of relevant clicks associated with the search result, wherein each relevant click is associated with a second user connected to the first user within a specified degree of separation within the social-networking system;

rank the one or more search results based on the respective number of relevant clicks for each search result, wherein the number of relevant clicks for each search result is based at least in part on a number of prior clicks on a hyperlink divided by a number of times that the hyperlink was displayed; and

send information associated with the one or more search results.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the specified degree of separation was specified by an individual user in a profile for the individual user.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the specified degree of separation was set by an operator associated with the social-networking system.

16. The system of claim 13, the processors further operable when executing the instructions to determine a degree of separation between the first user and a second user within the social-networking system.

17. The system of claim 16, the processors further operable when executing the instructions to:

send a request to an external server associated with the social-networking system using an API call; and

receive information comprising the degree of separation between the first user and a second user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the request to the external server comprises identifying information for the first user and identifying information for the second user.