Suggestions from a messaging platform

• US 9,043,397 B1
• Filed: 10/02/2012
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Ravichandran, Ram, Laraki, Othman, Leibert, Florian
• Primary Examiner(s): ALGIBHAH, HAMZA N
• Application Number:
  US13/633,323
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/14 Balancing the load in a network

Abstract

A method for providing suggestions from a messaging platform. The method includes: identifying, by a computer processor, a set of website-account pairs, wherein each of the set of website-account pairs represents an account of the messaging platform and a website; for each website-account pair of the set of website-account pairs: selecting, by the computer processor, connected accounts having a graph relationship with the account of the website-account pair, and creating an association between at least a subset of the connected accounts and the website of the website-account pair; receiving a set of websites associated with a user, wherein at least one of the set of websites is referenced by a first association of the created associations; and providing, by the computer processor, one or more account suggestions for the user based at least on the first association.

Claims

1. A method for providing suggestions from a messaging platform, comprising:

identifying, by a computer processor, a plurality of website-account pairs, wherein each of the plurality of website-account pairs represents an account of the messaging platform and a website;

for each website-account pair of the plurality of website-account pairs;

selecting, by the computer processor, connected accounts having a graph relationship with the account of the website-account pair, and

creating an association between at least a subset of the connected accounts and the website of the website-account pair;

receiving a set of websites associated with a user, wherein at least one of the set of websites is referenced by a first association of the created associations; and

providing, by the computer processor, one or more account suggestions for the user based at least on the first association.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a whitelist identifying a plurality of verified accounts of the messaging platform, wherein the plurality of website-account pairs are generated using the plurality of verified accounts.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the associations represent a number of the subset of connected accounts associated with visits to the website of the website-account pair, and wherein the method further comprises:

calculating, for each of the plurality of website-account pairs, a connection score based on the number, wherein providing the account suggestions is based on the calculated connection scores.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

identifying a numerical recognition score for each of the plurality of verified accounts, wherein calculating the connection scores is further based on the numerical recognition scores.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a context data item indicating that the user is not a member of the messaging platform; and

positively weighting the connection scores by the numerical recognition scores based on the context data item.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein each connection score is normalized using

7. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of verified accounts has a number of core followers exceeding a predefined minimum, and wherein each of the plurality of verified accounts has a number of followees less than a predefined maximum.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the account suggestions comprises;

sorting the connection scores in decreasing order to create a sorted list; and

identifying, from the sorted list, a predefined number of accounts having the highest connection scores.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the account suggestions comprises;

sorting the connection scores in decreasing order to create a sorted list;

selecting, from the sorted list, a top set of connection scores for each website of the set of websites to create a balanced sorted list; and

identifying a predefined number of accounts in the balanced sorted list having the highest connection scores.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the associations represent one selected from a group consisting of a number of visits to the website associated with the subset of the connected accounts, a demographic profile of the website matched to the subset of the connected accounts, a business category of the website matched to the subset of the connected accounts, and a descriptive keyword of the website matched to the subset of the connected accounts.

11. A system for providing suggestions from a messaging platform, comprising:

a computer processor;

a data repository storing a plurality of website-account pairs, wherein each of the plurality of website-account pairs represents an account of the messaging platform and a website; and

a suggestion engine executing on the processor and configured to;

access the plurality of website-account pairs;

for each website-account pair of the plurality of website-account pairs;

select connected accounts having a graph relationship with the account of the website-account pair, and

create an association between at least a subset of the connected accounts and the website of the website-account pair;

receive a set of websites associated with a user, wherein at least one of the set of websites is referenced by a first association of the created associations; and

provide one or more account suggestions for the user based at least on the first association.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the suggestion engine is further configured to:

access a whitelist identifying a plurality of verified accounts of the messaging platform, wherein the plurality of website-account pairs are generated using the plurality of verified accounts.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the associations represent a number of the subset of connected accounts associated with visits to the website of the website-account pair, and wherein the suggestion engine is further configured to:

calculate, for each of the plurality of website-account pairs, a connection score based on the number, wherein providing the account suggestions is based on the calculated connection scores.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the suggestion engine is further configured to:

identify a numerical recognition score for each of the plurality of verified accounts;

identify a context data item indicating that the user is a member of the messaging platform; and

negatively weight the connection scores by the numerical recognition scores based on the context data item.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of verified accounts has a number of core followers exceeding a predefined minimum, and wherein each of the plurality of verified accounts has a number of followees less than a predefined maximum.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein selecting the subset of the connected accounts comprises;

sorting the connection scores in decreasing order to create a sorted list;

selecting, from the sorted list, a top set of connection scores for each website of the set of websites to create a balanced sorted list; and

identifying a predefined number of accounts in the balanced sorted list having the highest connection scores.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the data repository resides on a client computing device of the user.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for providing suggestions from a messaging platform, the instructions, when executed by a computer processor, comprising functionality to:

identify a plurality of website-account pairs, wherein each of the plurality of website-account pairs represents an account of the messaging platform and a website;

for each website-account pair of the plurality of website-account pairs;

select connected accounts having a graph relationship with the account of the website-account pair, and

create an association between at least a subset of the connected accounts and the website of the website-account pair;

receive a set of websites associated with a user, wherein at least one of the set of websites is referenced by a first association of the created associations; and

provide one or more account suggestions for the user based at least on the first association.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, the instructions further comprising functionality to:

access a whitelist identifying a plurality of verified accounts of the messaging platform, wherein the plurality of website-account pairs are generated using the plurality of verified accounts.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the associations represent a number of the subset of connected accounts associated with visits to the website of the website-account pair, and wherein the instructions further comprise functionality to:

calculate, for each of the plurality of website-account pairs, a connection score based on the number, wherein providing the account suggestions is based on the calculated connection scores.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein providing the account suggestions comprises;

sorting the connection scores in decreasing order to create a sorted list; and

identifying, from the sorted list, a predefined number of accounts having the highest connection scores.