Self-regulating social news feed

• US 9,002,956 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2011
• Issued: 04/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Karam, Joseph F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phillips, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wei, Siren
• Application Number:
  US13/075,385
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00

Abstract

A system and method for self-regulating social news feeds includes a user interface module, data storage, a loudness controller, a quality engine, and an output or news feed module. The user interface module is adapted to receive input from the user including a loudness value associated with a particular message. The loudness value is associated with an originally generated message or a response (reply) to an existing message. The messages and their associated loudness values are provided to the loudness controller. The loudness controller sorts the messages in order of loudness. The loudness values are also modified based upon input from the quality engine. The quality engine modifies the loudness values based upon a quality rating associated with the user. The output of the loudness controller is provided for presentation to the user via the output or news feed module. The present disclosure also describes a number of methods including a method for posting a message with loudness points, a method for replying with loudness points, a method for modifying the point value for message, and a method for modifying a point total of the user.

Claims

1. A method for sending messages with loudness points to self regulate transmission of messages, the method comprising:

receiving a message from a first user having a predefined number of available loudness points;

receiving one or more loudness points associated with the message;

determining the available loudness points for the first user;

determining whether the available loudness points exceed or equal the one or more loudness points associated with the message;

responsive to the available loudness points being less than the one or more loudness points associated with the message, scheduling to automatically send the message at a future time when the first user accumulates the one or more loudness points associated with the message;

responsive to the available loudness points for the first user being greater than the one or more loudness points associated with the message, sending the message, the message remaining unsent when unassociated with the one or more loudness points;

receiving a reply message from a second user, the second user having a predefined number of available loudness points;

receiving one or more loudness points associated with the reply message; and

modifying the one or more loudness points associated with the message by the one or more loudness points associated with the reply message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the available loudness points for the first user is modified by a quality rating.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the quality rating is based on one or more from the group of a first user'"'"'s reputation, expertise, number of messages sent, number of replies to the first user'"'"'s messages, frequency of messages sent, quality of message sent, length of messages sent, and a social graph of the first user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the first user that the message will not be sent if the available loudness points for the first user is less than the one or more loudness points associated with the message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an audience for delivery of the message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reviewing the message by a second user, the second user having a predefined number of available loudness points;

receiving one or more loudness points associated with a review of the message; and

modifying the loudness points associated with the message by the one or more loudness points associated with the review of the message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising decreasing the one or more loudness points associated with the message after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more loudness points associated with the message are decreased by one point for each day since the message was sent.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising increasing the available loudness points for the first user based on passage of time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising increasing the available loudness points for the first user based upon one from the group of a reputation of the first user, an expertise of the first user, and a number of replies received for messages sent by the first user.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a multiplier associated with a quality rating of the first user; and

modifying the one or more loudness points associated with the message using the multiplier value.

11. A method for modifying loudness points for a message, the method comprising;

receiving a first message;

receiving one or more loudness points from an originator of the first message, the originator having a predefined number of available loudness points;

setting loudness points for the first message to the one or more loudness points from the originator of the first message;

scheduling to automatically send the first message at a future time when the originator accumulates the one or more loudness points for the first message based on the one or more loudness points for the first message being greater than the available loudness points of the originator;

sending the first message based on the one or more loudness points for the first message being equal or less than the available loudness points of the originator, the message remaining unsent when unassociated with the one or more loudness points;

receiving a reply message to the first message from a recipient of the first message and associated loudness points for the reply message from the recipient; and

adjusting the loudness points for the first message based on the associated loudness points received for the reply message from the recipient.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein adjusting is performed by adding the associated loudness points for the reply message to the loudness points for the first message.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein adjusting includes multiplying the associated loudness points for the reply message by a quality rating value to generate a product and then adding the product to the loudness points for the first message.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving another reply message and other associated loudness points; and

adjusting the loudness points for the first message by the other associated loudness points to the loudness points for the first message.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving loudness points from review of the first message; and

adjusting the loudness points for the first message by the received loudness points from review of the first message.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined time has elapsed; and

reducing the loudness points for the first message by a set value if the predetermined time has elapsed.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the predetermined time is a day and the set value is one loudness point.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the first message and the loudness points for the first message.

19. A method for modifying a loudness point total of a first user, the method comprising:

retrieving a predefined number of loudness points available to the first user;

determining a quality rating of the first user;

adjusting the loudness points available based upon the quality rating of the first user;

determining whether the first user has sent any messages, a message remaining unsent when unassociated with one or more loudness points and scheduling to automatically send the message at a future time when the first user accumulates the one or more loudness points associated with the message based on the one or more loudness points associated with the message being greater than the loudness points available to the first user;

determining loudness points associated with any sent messages, each sent message associated with the one or more loudness points;

reducing the loudness points available to the first user by the determined loudness points associated with any sent messages;

receiving a reply message to each sent message from a second user, the second user having a predefined number of available loudness points;

receiving one or more loudness points associated with the reply message; and

modifying the one or more loudness points associated with each sent message by the one or more loudness points associated with the reply message.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining whether a predetermined time has elapsed;

and

increasing the loudness points available to the first user by a set amount.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the predetermined time is a day and the set amount is three loudness points.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether the first user sent any replies;

determining loudness of points associated with any replies; and

reducing the loudness of points available to the first user by the determined loudness points associated with any replies.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether the first user sent any reviews;

determining loudness of points associated with any reviews; and

reducing the loudness of points available to the first user by the determined loudness points associated with any reviews.

24. An apparatus for sending messages with loudness points to self regulate transmission of messages, the apparatus comprising:

a user interface module for generating and sending messages, the user interface module for receiving an input including a number of loudness points associated with a message from a first user, wherein the number is one or more, the message remaining unsent when unassociated with one or more loudness points;

a loudness controller coupled to the user interface module for receiving the message and the one or more loudness points associated with the message, the loudness controller determining whether to send the message based upon the availability of the one or more loudness points associated with the message in a pool of loudness points available to the first user, the loudness controller scheduling to automatically send the message at a future time when the first user accumulates the one or more loudness points associated with the message based upon the unavailability of the one or more loudness points associated with the message in the pool of loudness points available to the first user, the loudness controller receiving a reply message from a second user, the second user having a pool of available loudness points, the loudness controller receiving one or more loudness points associated with the reply message, the loudness controller outputting messages sorted by associated loudness points, the loudness controller adjusting the one or more loudness points associated with the message based upon a quality rating and the one or more loudness points associated with the reply message; and

a quality engine adapted to receive quality information and output quality ratings for users, the quality engine coupled to the loudness controller to provide the quality ratings.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising a data store for storing messages and associated loudness points and for storing user information including the quality rating and a number of available loudness points.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the loudness controller filters the messages based upon relevance to the first user and sorts the filtered messages from a message having a highest number of loudness points to a message having a gross number of loudness points.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the output of the loudness controller is provided to one from the group of a news feed module, a social network module, a micro-blogging module, and a self-regulation module.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the quality engine generates the quality ratings from one or more from the group of a user'"'"'s reputation, expertise, number of messages sent, number of replies to the user'"'"'s messages, frequency of messages sent, quality of message sent, length of messages sent, and a social graph of the user.