Creation of real-time conversations based on social location information

• US 9,412,136 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2012
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gertzfield, Ben, Zhang, Lucy Congyun, Davenport, Benjamin Peter, Perlow, Jonathan David, Garcia, David Harry
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Scott, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US13/544,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20140012927A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A social networking system determines common location information included in a set of posts between a set of users. Using the determined common location information, the social networking system generates a message interface for grouping a set of messages into a conversation thread. For example, the messages may be grouped into a conversation thread based on common location information in the messages and being associated with participants sharing a social relationship. When a group conversation is created, the social networking system presents a message interface containing the conversation thread to one or more participants of the thread. The social networking system adds the set of messages to the conversation thread based on social information about the social relationships among the participants of the conversation thread. The social networking system then presents the message interface for display to one or more of the participants.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a first set of one or more messages between a first set of participants from a plurality of message channels associated with a social networking system, each message channel having a message channel type, wherein the first set of participants are users of the social networking system;

receiving a second set of one or more messages between a second set of participants from the plurality of message channels, wherein the second set of participants are users of the social networking system;

determining common location information from the first and second sets of messages;

selecting messages having common location information from the first and second sets of messages based on the determining;

combining the selected messages from the first and the second sets of messages into a conversation thread;

identifying one or more messages from the conversation thread associated with participants from the first set or from the second set who have established a social relationship with a viewing participant of the conversation thread in the social networking system;

sorting the identified messages based on a social relationship between the viewing participant and two or more participants associated with identified messages;

adding the identified messages to a message interface for presentation to the viewing participant of the conversation thread, the message interface enabling further communications between the participants associated with the identified messages in the conversation thread, the message interface providing an indication of a message channel type associated with each identified message; and

providing the message interface for display to the viewing participant of the conversation thread.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining common location information based on content included in the first and second sets of messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user location information associated with one or more the first or second sets of participants; and

determining common location information based on the received user location information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

combining the first and second sets of messages into the conversation when the first and second sets of messages are associated with a threshold number of users and received over a predetermined threshold period of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the conversation thread is a previously existing conversation thread that includes messages from a subset of the first and second sets of participants.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sorting the messages included in the message interface based on social information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the social information comprises a type of connection between two or more participants associated with messages included in the message interface.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the social information comprises historical information about an interaction between a participant associated with one or more messages included in the message interface and an object included in the social networking system.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the social information comprises an affinity between two or more participants associated with messages included in the message interface.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the messages included in the message interface based on common location information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the message interface includes a list of conversation threads.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the message interface is a chat interface.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one conversation thread;

responsive to receiving the selection of the at least one conversation thread, presenting one or more message included in the at least one conversation thread; and

receiving, from an additional participant, a message to include in the at least one conversation thread, the received message including common location information and being associated with the additional participant.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the additional participant having one degree of separation from a first subset of the first and second sets of participants, and having greater than one degree of separation from a second subset of the first and second sets of participants.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the message channel type is a web-chat.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the message channel type is a text message.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the message channel type is a post.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the message channel type is selected from a group consisting of a web-chat, a text message, an e-mail, and a post.

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a first set of one or more messages between a first set of participants from a plurality of message channels associated with a social networking system, each message channel having a message channel type, wherein the first set of participants are users of the social networking system;

receive a second set of one or more messages between a second set of participants from the plurality of message channels, wherein the second set of participants are users of the social networking system;

determine common location information from the first and second sets of messages;

identify one or more messages from the conversation thread associated with participants from the first set or from the second set who have established a social relationship with a viewing participant of the conversation thread in the social networking system;

add the identified messages from the conversation thread to a message interface for presentation to the viewing participant of the conversation thread, the message interface enabling further communications between the participants associated with identified messages in the conversation thread, the message interface providing an indication of a message channel type associated with each identified message; and

provide the message interface for display to the viewing participant of the conversation thread.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

determine common location information based on content included in the first and second sets of messages.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive user location information associated with one or more the first and second sets of participants; and

determine common location information based on the received user location information.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

combine the first and the second sets of messages into the conversation when the first and second sets of messages are associated with a threshold number of users and received over a predetermined threshold period of time.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further has instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive a selection of at least one conversation thread;

responsive to receiving the selection of the at least one conversation thread, present one or more message included in the at least one conversation thread; and

receive, from an additional participant, a message to include in the at least one conversation thread, the received message including common location information and being associated with the additional participant.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the additional participant have one degree of separation from a first subset of the first and second sets of participants, and have greater than one degree of separation from a second subset of the first and second sets of participants.