Typeahead using messages of a messaging platform

• US 9,424,359 B1
• Filed: 03/17/2014
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• 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: Ghassemi Hamadani, Babak, Trueman, Timothy, Gade, Krishna, Li, Yu-shuang, Gupta, Pankaj, Jhala, Pradhuman
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US14/217,318
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• Field of Search: 707/722, 707/769, 707/798, 707/723, 707/751, 707/767, 707/771, 707/748, 707/749, 707/755, 707/728, 707/772, 707/779, 705/319, 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0237 using prediction or retrieval techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating typeahead. The method can include: identifying a set of topics and/or connected accounts; storing, based on one or more signals associated with a user account, a portion of the topics and/or connected accounts in a cache; and using the cache to provide typeahead suggestions to a client in response to a request associated with the user account.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating typeahead, the method comprising:

identifying a user account of a messaging platform;

identifying a predefined degree of separation value;

identifying, by a computer processor at a client accessing the messaging platform, connected accounts within the predefined degree of separation value of the user account;

selecting, by the computer processor, a subset of the connected accounts for inclusion in a cache stored on the client accessing the messaging platform, wherein selecting the subset of the connected accounts is based at least on a graph relationship signal of each of the subset of the connected accounts;

receiving a first character entered by a user after the subset of the connected accounts are stored in the cache;

accessing the subset of the connected accounts in the cache;

comparing the first character to the subset of the connected accounts to identify a plurality of matching accounts from the cache; and

generating, at the client and using data from the cache, a plurality of typeahead suggestions based on the plurality of matching accounts and displaying the plurality of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions in a user interface of the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second character entered by the user;

determining that a string comprising the first character followed by the second character does not match any of the subset of the connected accounts;

performing a broader search for matching accounts using a broader graph relationship signal;

identifying a broader set of connected accounts based on the broader search;

comparing the string to the broader set of connected accounts to identify a new plurality of matching accounts; and

displaying the new plurality of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions in the user interface of the client.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the cache is stored on the client and the client includes a mobile device of the user, and wherein the first character and the second character are entered into a user interface of the mobile device by the user.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting a request to a server, the request corresponding to performing a broader search for matching accounts using a broader graph relationship signal;

receiving a broader set of connected accounts based on the broader search;

comparing the string to the broader set of connected accounts to identify a new plurality of matching accounts; and

displaying the new plurality of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions in the user interface of the client.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying a broader set of connected accounts includes using a plurality of signals that are independent of the graph relationships associated with the user account.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the graph relationship signal is one selected from a group consisting of number of direct graph connections, number of common connections with the user account, number of interactions with the user account, a calculated credibility value, connection velocity depicting a rate at which graph connections are made, common interest values with the user account, a trending account signal, location proximity to an originating device, language and a promoted account signal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of the connected accounts comprises:

calculating a score for each of the connected accounts using a predefined scoring algorithm, wherein the predefined scoring algorithm uses the graph relationship signal and a credibility signal as inputs; and

selecting a highest scoring subset of the connected accounts for inclusion in the subset.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the messaging platform, data for the cache, the data including, a plurality of records, each including a name, a numerical identifier, a username, and a token set.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one update to the cache is performed by the messaging platform and provided to the client, in response to receiving a user request to update the cache.

10. A method for facilitating typeahead, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer processor, a character entered by a user in a user interface hosted by a messaging platform;

obtaining, by the computer processor and based on the character, a set of matching personalized topics from a cache stored on a client accessing the messaging platform;

obtaining, by the computer processor and based on the character, a set of matching accounts from the cache; and

displaying, by the computer processor and in the user interface, at least a portion of the set of matching personalized topics in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions;

wherein the cache includes a plurality of personalized topics and accounts selected based at least in part on a graph relationship signal of each of the plurality of accounts connected to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the portion of the set of matching personalized topics is displayed in a first contiguous list of the user interface and wherein the portion of the set of matching topics is displayed in a second contiguous list of the user interface.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

calculating a score for each of a set of trending topics using a first scoring algorithm;

designating a highest scoring subset of the set of trending topics as matching personalized topics;

calculating a score for each of a set of connected accounts using a second scoring algorithm, wherein each of the set of connected accounts has a graph relationship with a user account of the user;

designating a highest scoring subset of the set of connected accounts as matching accounts; and

generating, from the highest scoring subset of the set of trending topics and the highest scoring subset of the set of connected accounts, an ordered list comprising the portion of the matching personalized topics and the portion of the matching accounts, wherein the ordered list is used to present typeahead suggestions in a specified order to the user.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the cache is configured to store data associated with a plurality of personalized topics and a plurality of accounts, each associated with the user, the data selected for storage based at least in part on a ranking determined using a plurality of text attributes and identifiers associated with the plurality of personalized topics and the plurality of accounts.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the computer processor is further configured to:

designate, based on at least one signal associated with the user, a subset of trending topics as personalized topics; and

display, by the computer processor and in the user interface, the designated personalized topics in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the computer processor is further configured to:

identify at least one matching topic without receiving the character entered by the user; and

display, by the computer processor and in the user interface, the at least one matching topic in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions.

16. A client system for facilitating typeahead, comprising:

a display screen;

a computer processor; and

a client typeahead module executing on the computer processor and configured to;

receive a character entered by a user in a user interface hosted by a messaging platform;

obtain, based on the character, a set of matching personalized topics from a cache stored on a client accessing the messaging platform;

obtain, based on the character, a set of matching accounts from the cache; and

display, in the user interface, at least a portion of the set of matching personalized topics in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions;

wherein the cache includes a plurality of personalized topics and accounts selected based at least in part on at least one conversation graph associated with each of the plurality of accounts connected to the user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the portion of the set of matching personalized topics is displayed in a first contiguous list of the user interface and wherein the portion of the set of matching topics is displayed in a second contiguous list of the user interface.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the cache is configured to store data associated with a plurality of personalized topics and a plurality of accounts, each associated with the user, the data selected for storage based at least in part on a ranking determined using a plurality of text attributes and identifiers associated with the plurality of personalized topics and the plurality of accounts.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer processor is further configured to:

designate, based on at least one signal associated with the user, a subset of trending topics as personalized topics; and

display, by the computer processor and in the user interface, the designated personalized topics in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer processor is further configured to:

identify at least one matching topic without receiving the character entered by the user; and

display, by the computer processor and in the user interface, the at least one matching topic in conjunction with at least a portion of the set of matching accounts as typeahead suggestions.