Intelligent, mobile, location-aware news reader application for commuters

• US 9,680,907 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Redfern, Joff, Sharma, Manish Mohan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ibrahim, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US13/833,474
• Publication Number:
  US 20140244750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A method of generating alerts pertaining to a commute by the user and selecting content items to be presented to the user in conjunction with the alerts is disclosed. A pattern in a commuting by a user is detected. A content item is selected based on a correspondence between the content item and other users and a similarity between the user and the other users. An alert is generated pertaining to a milestone in the pattern of the commuting by the user. The content item and the alert are transmitted for presentation in combination to the user during the commuting by the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

incorporating one or more modules of a news reader system into a social network system, the one or more modules configuring one or more computer processors of the social network system to perform operations for simultaneously notifying a user of the social networking system of an upcoming milestone in a pattern of a commute of the user and of a content item that is consumable by the user during an anticipated time frame of a portion of the pattern of the commute, the operations including;

detecting the pattern in the commute of the user based on a comparison of location information received from a device of the user with a history of location information received from the device of the user;

determining a similarity between the pattern of the commute of the user and patterns of commutes of other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of a direction of travel and a time of day;

selecting the content item from a plurality of content items based on a similarity between the user and a subset of the other users who consumed the content item during the patterns of the commutes of the other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of educational background or professional experience;

determining that the content item is consumable by the user during the anticipated time frame of the portion of the pattern of commute based on a rate at which the user previously consumed other content items during the portion of the pattern of the commute;

generating an alert pertaining to the upcoming milestone; and

transmitting the content item and the alert for presentation in combination to the user on the device of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the similarity between the user and the subset of the other users is based on a comparison between a profile of the user maintained with respect to a social networking system and profiles of the other users maintained with respect to the social networking system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the milestone in the pattern of the commute pertains to a change in a geographical direction by the user during the commute.

4. A system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

one or more modules of a news reader system incorporated into a social network system, the one or more modules configuring the one or more processors to perform operations for simultaneously notifying a user of the social networking system of an upcoming milestone in a pattern of a commute of the user and of a content item that is consumable by the user during an anticipated time frame of a portion of the pattern of the commute, the operations including;

detecting the pattern in the commute of the user based on a comparison of location information received from a device of the user with a history of location information received from the device of the user;

determining a similarity between the pattern of the commute of the user and patterns of commutes of other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of a direction of travel and a time of day;

selecting the content item from a plurality of content items based on a similarity between the user and a subset of the other users who consumed the content item during the patterns of the commutes of the other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of educational background or professional experience;

determining that the content item is consumable by the user during the anticipated time frame of the portion of the pattern of commute based on a rate at which the user previously consumed other content items during the portion of the pattern of the commute;

generating an alert pertaining to the upcoming milestone; and

transmitting the content item and the alert for presentation in combination to the user on the device of the user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the similarity between the user and the subset of the other users is based on a comparison between a profile of the user maintained with respect to a social networking system and profiles of the other users maintained with respect to the social networking system.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the milestone in the pattern of the commute pertains to a change in a geographical direction by the user during the commute.

7. A non-transitory machine readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:

simultaneously notifying a user of a social networking system of an upcoming milestone in a pattern of a commute of the user and of a content, item that is consumable by the user during an anticipated time frame of a portion of the pattern of the commute, the simultaneous notifying including;

detecting the pattern in the commute of the user based on a comparison of location information received from a device of the user with a history location information received from the device of the user;

determining a similarity between the pattern of the commute of the user and patterns of commutes of other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of a direction of travel and a time of day;

selecting the content item from a plurality of content items based on a similarity between the user and a subset of the other users who consumed the content item during the patterns of the commutes of the other users, the similarity pertaining to at least one of educational background or professional experience;

determining that the content item is consumable by the user during the anticipated time frame of the portion of the pattern of commute based on a rate at which the user previously consumed other content items during the portion of the pattern of the commute;

generating an alert pertaining to the upcoming milestone; and

transmitting the content item and the alert for presentation in combination to the user on the device of the user.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the similarity between the user and the subset of the other users is based on a comparison between a profile of the user maintained with respect to a social networking system and profiles of the other users maintained with respect to the social networking system.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7, wherein the milestone in the pattern of the commute pertains to a change in a geographical direction by the user during the commute.