Identifying relevant data for pages in a social networking system

• US 8,935,299 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2012
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Marlow, Cameron Alexander, Cathcart, Robert William, Dunn, Jeffrey Scott, Sagula, Rafael Linden, Nandagopal, Venkataramanan Iyer, Kar, Siddharth, Chang, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): OBISESAN, AUGUSTINE KUNLE
• Application Number:
  US13/553,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20140025666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 908 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/804
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention improve the ability of a social networking system to determine which types of data—hereinafter referred to as “fields”—are relevant to which types of user pages. Specifically, a social networking system assigns page types to different user pages, and likewise stores information on different types of fields. By analyzing the relationships of different pages and fields, the social networking system determines which types of fields are particularly well-suited for inclusion on different types of pages. Using the learned information about page types and field types, the social networking system can better aid page administrators in specifying data to add to their pages. For example, the social networking system can recommend to administrators the addition of certain types of fields or automatically add the fields. Further, the social networking system can specialize a search for social networking system data to field types.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing an interface by a social networking system to a page administrator, the interface comprising controls for administering a page in the social networking system;

identifying a plurality of field objects added by page administrators to pages hosted by the social networking system and administered by the administrators;

identifying field types of the added field objects, wherein at least one of the field types is the field type for a plurality of the field objects;

identifying page types of the pages to which the field objects were added, wherein at least one of the page types is the page type for a plurality of the pages;

determining, based on the identified field types and on the identified page types, a degree of association of a first field type with a first page type;

determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than a threshold degree of association, some pages of the first page type lacking fields of the first field type;

determining, for a first page of the social network, that the first page lacks a field of the first field type; and

responsive to determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than the threshold degree of association, and that the first page lacks a field of the first type, initiating an addition of a field of the first field type to the first page without a request therefor from a first administrator of the first page.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the addition comprises automatically adding a field of the first field type to the first page.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the addition of the field to the first page is responsive to determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than the threshold degree of association and comprises adding a user interface element within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, the user interface element visually identifying the first type, and wherein administrator selection of the user interface element causes a field of the first type to be added to the first page.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the addition comprises:

providing, within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, a selector having an associated context that includes field types;

receiving textual input that was entered into the selector on a client device;

forming a result set by identifying field types matching the textual input; and

providing the result set to the client device for display in visual association with the selector.

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

determining whether the field types of the result set are associated with a page type of the first page; and

ranking the field types of the result set based on the determination.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the page types and the field types correspond to nodes in a type graph of related types.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the pages comprise a first page having a first one of the page types and a second page having the same first one of the page types, and wherein the first page comprises a field object having a field type that is not the field type of any field object of the second page.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type comprises determining a number of times that a field object of the first field type was added to a page of the first page type.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the first page has the first page type, wherein the initiating the addition of the field is performed responsive to determining that the first page has the first page type.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type comprises determining a percentage of times that a field object of the first field type was added to a page of the first page type.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable

computer program instructions comprising:

instructions for providing an interface by a social networking system to a page administrator, the interface comprising controls for administering a page in the social networking system;

instructions for identifying a plurality of field objects added by page administrators to pages hosted by the social networking system and administered by the administrators;

instructions for identifying field types of the added field objects, wherein at least one of the field types is the field type for a plurality of the field objects;

instructions for identifying page types of the pages to which the field objects were added, wherein at least one of the page types is the page type for a plurality of the pages;

instructions for determining, based on the identified field types and on the identified page types, a degree of association of a first field type with a first page type instructions for determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than a threshold degree of association, some pages of the first page type lacking fields of the first field type;

instructions for determining, for a first page of the social network, that the first page lacks a field of the first field type; and

instructions for, responsive to determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than the threshold degree of association, and that the first page lacks a field of the first type, initiating an addition of a field of the first field type to the first page without a request therefor from a first administrator of the first page.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11,

wherein initiating the addition comprises automatically adding a field of the first field type to the first page.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11,

wherein initiating the addition comprises adding a user interface element within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, the user interface element visually identifying the first type, and wherein administrator selection of the user interface element causes a field of the first type to be added to the first page.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein initiating the addition comprises:

providing, within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, a selector having an associated context that includes field types;

receiving textual input that was entered into the selector on a client device;

forming a result set by identifying field types matching the textual input; and

providing the result set to the client device for display in visual association with the selector.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

instructions for determining whether the field types of the result set are associated with a page type of the first page; and

instructions for ranking the field types of the result set based on the determination.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the page types and the field types correspond to nodes in a type graph of related types.

17. A computer system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer program executable by the computer processor, comprising;

instructions for providing a graphical user interface by a social networking system to a page administrator, the graphical user interface comprising controls for administering a page in the social networking system;

instructions for identifying a plurality of field objects added using the graphical user interface by page administrators to pages hosted by the social networking system and administered by the administrators;

instructions for identifying field types of the plurality of field objects added to the pages, wherein at least one of the field types is the field type for a plurality of the field objects, and wherein the at least one of the field types is added to some but not all of the pages;

instructions for identifying page types of the pages to which the field objects were added, wherein at least one of the page types is the page type for a plurality of the pages;

instructions for determining, based on the identified field types and on the identified page types, a degree of association of a first field type with a first page type;

determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than a threshold degree of association, some pages of the first page type lacking fields of the first field type;

instructions for determining, for a first page of the social network, that the first page lacks a field of the first field type; and

instructions for, responsive to determining that the degree of association of the first field type with the first page type is greater than the threshold degree of association, and that the first page lacks a field of the first type, initiating an addition of a field of the first field type to the first page without a request therefor from a first administrator of the first page.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein initiating the addition comprises automatically adding a field of the first field type to the first page.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein initiating the addition comprises adding a user interface element within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, the user interface element visually identifying the first type, and wherein administrator selection of the user interface element causes a field of the first type to be added to the first page.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein initiating the addition comprises:

providing, within a user interface used by the first administrator to administer the first page, a selector having an associated context that includes field types;

receiving textual input that was entered into the selector on a client device;

forming a result set by identifying field types matching the textual input; and

providing the result set to the client device for display in visual association with the selector.

21. The computer system of claim 20, the computer program further comprising:

instructions for determining whether the field types of the result set are associated with a page type of the first page; and

instructions for ranking the field types of the result set based on the determination.