Location ranking using social graph information

• US 9,549,031 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2013
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Redstone, Joshua, Sharon, Eyal Michael, Narayanan, Srinivasa P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Hung
• Application Number:
  US13/749,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20130138741A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,454 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one embodiment, a user of a social networking system requests to check in a place near the user'"'"'s current location. The social networking system generates a list of places near the user'"'"'s current location, ranks the places in the list of places near the user'"'"'s current location by a distance between each place and the user'"'"'s current location, as well as activity of the user and the user'"'"'s social contacts for each place, and returns the ranked list to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by one or more computing devices, receiving a request comprising an identifier for a first user of a social-networking system and a geographic location, the social-networking system comprising a social graph that comprises a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing a relationship between two nodes;

by the one or more computing devices, identifying one or more places in a vicinity of the geographic location, each of the one or more places represented by a corresponding node of the social graph;

by the one or more computing devices, accessing for each place one or more location-based user-activity data items, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on (1) a relationship between a first node for the first user and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph, (2) a relationship between a second node and one or more of the corresponding nodes, the second node corresponding to a second user connected in the social-networking system to the first user, or (3) a relationship between a set of nodes for a global set of users and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph;

by the one or more computing devices, determining, for each place, a ranking score based on (1) a distance component indicative of a distance between the geographic location and the place and (2) a social-context component based on one or more location-based user-activity data items corresponding to the place, wherein the social-context component is weighted based on how recently an activity corresponding to the location-based user-activity data item occurred; and

by the one or more computing devices, sending, based on the ranking scores for the places, information associated with at least one of the places.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on a count of users that have been tagged in connection with an activity.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a user that has been tagged in connection with the check-in is included in the count only if the user approves or acknowledges the tag.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on an activity of one or more users of the social-networking system, wherein the one or more users have an indicated affinity with the geographic location.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises an indication by the one or more users that the one or more users like the geographic location.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises a comment posted by the one or more users on a web page associated with the geographic location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location is identified by a name, a description, a category, a tag, location information, or any combination thereof.

8. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive a request comprising an identifier for a first user of a social-networking system and a geographic location, the social-networking system comprising a social graph that comprises a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing a relationship between two nodes;

identify one or more places in a vicinity of the geographic location, each of the one or more places represented by a corresponding node of the social graph;

access for each place one or more location-based user-activity data items, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on (1) a relationship between a first node for the first user and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph, (2) a relationship between a second node and one or more of the corresponding nodes, the second node corresponding to a second user connected in the social-networking system to the first user, or (3) a relationship between a set of nodes for a global set of users and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph;

determine, for each place, a ranking score based on (1) a distance component indicative of a distance between the geographic location and the place and (2) a social-context component based on one or more location-based user-activity data items corresponding to the place, wherein the social-context component is weighted based on how recently an activity corresponding to the location-based user-activity data item occurred; and

send, based on the ranking scores for the places, information associated with at least one of the places.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on a count of users that have been tagged in connection with an activity.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein a user that has been tagged in connection with the check-in is included in the count only if the user approves or acknowledges the tag.

11. The media of claim 8, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on an activity of one or more users of the social-networking system, wherein the one or more users have an indicated affinity with the geographic location.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises an indication by the one or more users that the one or more users like the geographic location.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises a comment posted by the one or more users on a web page associated with the geographic location.

14. The media of claim 8, wherein the geographic location is identified by a name, a description, a category, a tag, location information, or any combination thereof.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

receive a request comprising an identifier for a first user of a social-networking system and a geographic location, the social-networking system comprising a social graph that comprises a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing a relationship between two nodes;

identify one or more places in a vicinity of the geographic location, each of the one or more places represented by a corresponding node of the social graph;

access for each place one or more location-based user-activity data items, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on (1) a relationship between a first node for the first user and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph, (2) a relationship between a second node and one or more of the corresponding nodes, the second node corresponding to a second user connected in the social-networking system to the first user, or (3) a relationship between a set of nodes for a global set of users and one or more of the corresponding nodes of the social graph;

determine, for each place, a ranking score based on (1) a distance component indicative of a distance between the geographic location and the place and (2) a social-context component based on one or more location-based user-activity data items corresponding to the place, wherein the social-context component is weighted based on how recently an activity corresponding to the location-based user-activity data item occurred; and

send, based on the ranking scores for the places, information associated with at least one of the places.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on a count of users that have been tagged in connection with an activity.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a user that has been tagged in connection with the check-in is included in the count only if the user approves or acknowledges the tag.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein a location-based user-activity data item is based on an activity of one or more users of the social-networking system, wherein the one or more users have an indicated affinity with the geographic location.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises an indication by the one or more users that the one or more users like the geographic location.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the indicated affinity of the one or more users with the geographic location comprises a comment posted by the one or more users on a web page associated with the geographic location.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the geographic location is identified by a name, a description, a category, a tag, location information, or any combination thereof.