Analyzing social proximity of users of a digital magazine server

• US 9,372,878 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Flipboard Incorporated
• Inventors: van Hoff, Arthur Anthonie, Breunig, Markus Manfred
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US14/024,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20140074934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications

Abstract

Connections between an online system user and one or more social networking system users maintained by various social networking systems are analyzed to determine social proximity between the online system user and social networking system users connected to the online system user via a social networking system. Social networking system users connected to the online system user via each of a plurality of social networking systems are identified. Based on a number of social networking system users connected to both the online system user and to a social networking system user connected to the online system user, a social proximity score indicating relative social “closeness” of the digital magazine server user and the social networking system user connected to the digital magazine server user is generated.

Claims

1. A method for determining social proximity between users of an online system, the method comprising:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a first plurality of additional users of a social networking system connected to the user via the social networking system;

identifying a user of the first plurality of additional users of an identified social networking system;

identifying a second plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system via the identified social networking system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users;

generating a social proximity score based at least in part on a number of users in the second plurality of additional users connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users; and

recommending a content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with the content item and the generated social proximity score.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with the content item and the generated social proximity score comprises:

recommending the content item to the identified user of the online system if the generated social proximity score has at least a threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with the content item and the generated social proximity score comprises:

recommending the content item to the user of the online system if the generated social proximity score has at least a threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified second plurality of additional users connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users comprises:

determining a number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

determining a ratio of a number of the identified second plurality of additional users connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users to the number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified second plurality of additional users connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users comprises:

determining a number of the first plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system;

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users;

determining a weighted average of the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system and the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users; and

determining a ratio of a number of the identified second plurality of additional users connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users to the weighted average.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the social proximity score based on a directionality of a connection between the user of the online system and the identified user of the first plurality of additional users, wherein a social proximity score for a bidirectional connection is greater than a social proximity score for a unidirectional connection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the social proximity score comprises:

identifying a group maintained by the identified social networking system including the identified user of the first plurality of additional users based on a profile of the user of the online system maintained by the identified social networking system; and

adjusting the social proximity score based on at least one of a name of the group and a set of social networking system users in the group.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adjusting the social proximity score based on the name of the group comprises:

selecting a class of the group from a plurality of classes of groups based at least in part on the name of the group, each class of groups associated with a distribution of social proximity scores for users within the group; and

normalizing the social proximity score to the distribution of the group.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third plurality of users of a second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users through the second social networking system;

wherein generating the social proximity score further comprises generating the social proximity score based on the identified third plurality of additional users of the second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users through the second social networking system.

11. A computer program product for determining social proximity between users of an online system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a first plurality of additional users of a social networking system connected to the user via the social networking system;

identifying a user of the first plurality of additional users of an identified social networking system;

identifying a second plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system via the identified social networking system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users;

generating a social proximity score based at least in part on a number of users in the second plurality of additional users connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users; and

recommending a content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with the content item and the generated social proximity score.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer program code for:

monitoring an interaction of the user of the online system with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer program code for:

monitoring an interaction of the identified user of the first plurality of additional users with respect to a content item in the online system; and

recommending the content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on the generated social proximity score.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer program code for:

receiving a search query from the user of the online system; and

ranking search results for the search query based at least in part on interactions of the identified user with one or more of the search results and the generated social proximity score.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified first plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system through the identified social networking system comprises:

determining a number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system via the identified social networking system;

determining a ratio of a number of users in the identified first plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified social networking system to the number of users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein generating the social proximity score based at least in part on the identified second plurality of additional users connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users comprises:

determining a number of the first plurality of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system;

determining a number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users;

determining a weighted average of the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the user of the online system and the number of additional users of the identified social networking system connected to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users; and

determining a ratio of a number of the identified second plurality of additional users connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users to the weighted average.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein generating the social proximity score comprises:

identifying a group maintained by the identified social networking system including the identified user of the first plurality of additional users based on a profile of the user of the online system maintained by the identified social networking system; and

adjusting the social proximity score based on at least one of a name of the group and a set of social networking system users in the group.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein adjusting the social proximity score based on the name of the group and a set of social networking system users in the group comprises:

selecting a class of group from a plurality of classes of groups based at least in part on the name of the group, each class of groups associated with a distribution of social proximity scores for users within the group; and

normalizing the social proximity score to the distribution of the group.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising computer program code for:

identifying a third plurality of additional users of a second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the first plurality of additional users through the second social networking system;

wherein generating the social proximity score further comprises generating the social proximity score based on the identified third plurality of additional users of the second social networking system connected to both the user of the online system and to the identified user of the identified first plurality of additional users through the second social networking system.

20. A method for determining social proximity between two users of an online system, the method comprising:

accessing a profile of a user of the online system maintained by each of a plurality of social networking systems, each profile specifying a plurality of additional users of an identified social networking system connected to the user via the corresponding social networking system;

identifying for a user of the identified social networking system, a set of additional users of one or more of the social networking systems connected to the user of the identified social networking system and connected to the user of the online system via at least one of the plurality of social networking systems;

generating a social proximity score between the user of the online system and the user of the identified social networking system based at least in part on the identified set of additional users connected to the user of the social networking system and connected to the user of the online system via at least one of the plurality of social networking systems, the social proximity score indicating a relative social proximity of the user of the online system to the user of the identified social networking system; and

recommending a content item to the user of the online system based at least in part on an interaction of the identified user of the identified social networking system with the content item and the generated social proximity score.