Compatibility scoring of users

• US 9,600,583 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2013
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhu, Xiao Ming, Lunt, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US14/028,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20140019470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11-912, 705/319
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The compatibility score of members of a social network is based on the compatibility of their expressed interests. The compatibility score between any two interests is calculated as the log of the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express both interests divided by the product of: (i) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the first of the two interests and (ii) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the second of the two interests. The compatibility score between two individuals is calculated as the sum of the compatibility scores between each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the first of the two individuals and each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the second of the two individuals.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more processors associated with one or more computing devices of an online social network:

receiving, at an application server of the online social network from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a request comprising search criteria specifying one or more expressed interests of the first user;

normalizing, by the application server, the one or more expressed interests of the first user received from the client device of the first user based on an interest classification process to obtain one or more normalized interests of the first user;

selecting, by the application server, one or more second users of the online social network who meet the search criteria, the selecting of each second user being based on;

(1) the one or more normalized interests of the first user,

(2) a plurality of normalized interests of the second user, wherein the normalized interests are based on expressed interests of the second user retrieved from a member database of the online social network, and

(3) an estimated probability of compatibility of each pair of interests in a matrix of the normalized interests of the first and second users, each pair of interests in the matrix including a first interest from the one or more normalized interests and a second interest from the one or more normalized interests of the second user, wherein the estimated probability of compatibility for the first interest and second interest is based at least in part on a frequency of occurrence of express interests corresponding to the first interest and second interest occur in the member database; and

sending, to the client system for display to the first user responsive to the request, a search results interface comprising information retrieved from the member database associated with the one or more second users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting is based on an interest compatibility score for each pair of interests.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the interest compatibility score for a pair of interests is based on the estimated probability of compatibility calculated for the pair of interests divided by the product of the estimated probability of compatibility calculated for a first interest of the pair of interests and the estimated probability of compatibility calculated for a second interest of the pair of interests.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search criteria is received in relation to the first user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search criteria is received in relation to a third-party website, application, or web service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more second users are connected to the first user within the online social network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the application server for each of the one or more second users, an interest compatibility score between the first user and the second user, wherein the sent information associated with the second user comprises the interest compatibility score between the first user and the second user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, by the application server, an interest compatibility score between each pair of interests, the interest compatibility score for each pair of interests being based on the estimated probability of compatibility of the pair of interests.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining, by the application server, one or more compatible interests, wherein each compatible interest has an interest compatibility score in relation to a first interest that exceeds a pre-determined threshold score.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the selecting of each second user is further based on:

(4) the one or more compatible interests.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the search criteria is received from the client system via an application programming interface of the online social network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the sent information associated with the one or more second users comprises one or more search results identifying one or more of the second users, respectively.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the sent information associated with the one or more second users is presented to the first user at the client system.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the application server, a query to a social graph server of the online social network for information indicating a degree of separation between the first and one or more other users of the online social network, wherein a relationship database of the social graph server stores a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of one or more of the nodes being associated with one of a plurality of users of an online social network, each connection between two nodes representing a relationship between the two nodes and establishing a single degree of separation between the two nodes.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the first user is associated with a first node of the plurality of nodes; and

the one or more second users are associated with one or more second nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the selecting of each second user is further based on:

(4) a degree of separation between the first user and the second user in the social graph, wherein information indicating the degree of separation between the first user and the second user is received by the application server from the social graph server responsive to the query.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein normalizing the one or more interests comprises classifying each interest of the search criteria to a corresponding normalized interest, wherein each normalized interest corresponds to a plurality of interests.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated probability of compatibility of a pair of interests represents the probability that a user of the social network will express both interests of the pair of interests among the interests of the user.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying logic that is operable when executed by one or more computing devices of an online social network to:

receive, at an application server of the online social network from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a request comprising search criteria specifying one or more expressed interests of the first user;

normalize, by the application server the one or more expressed interests of the first user received from the client device of the first user based on an interest classification process to obtain one or more normalized interests of the first user;

select, by the application server, one or more second users of the online social network who meet the search criteria, the selecting of each second user being based on;

(1) the one or more normalized interests of the first user,

(2) a plurality of normalized interests of the second user, wherein the normalized interests are based on expressed interests of the second user retrieved from a member database of the online social network, and

(3) an estimated probability of compatibility of each pair of interests in a matrix of the normalized interests of the first and second users, each pair of interests in the matrix including a first interest from the one or more normalized interests and a second interest from the one or more normalized interests of the second user, wherein the estimated probability of compatibility for the first interest and second interest is based at least in part on a frequency of occurrence of express interests corresponding to the first interest and second interest occur in the member database; and

send, to the client system for display to the first user responsive to the request, a search results interface comprising information retrieved from the member database associated with the one or more second users.

20. A system of an online social network, comprising:

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media encoded with instructions; and

one or more processors operable to execute the instructions to;

receive, at an application server of the online social network from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a request comprising search criteria specifying one or more expressed interests of the first user;

normalize, by the application server, the one or more expressed interests of the first user received from the client device of the first user based on an interest classification process to obtain one or more normalized interests of the first user;

select, by the application server, one or more second users of the online social network who meet the search criteria, the selecting of each second user being based on;

(1) the one or more normalized interests of the first user,

(2) a plurality of normalized interests of the second user, wherein the normalized interests are based on expressed interests of the second user retrieved from a member database of the online social network, and

(3) an estimated probability of compatibility of each pair of interests in a matrix of the normalized interests of the first and second users, each pair of interests in the matrix including a first interest from the one or more normalized interests and a second interest from the one or more normalized interests of the second user, wherein the estimated probability of compatibility for the first interest and second interest is based at least in part on a frequency of occurrence of express interests corresponding to the first interest and second interest occur in the member database; and

send, to the client system for display to the first user responsive to the request, a search results interface comprising information retrieved from the member database associated with the one or more second users.