Displaying social opportunities by location on a map

• US 9,691,073 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2011
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tseng, Erick, Cahill, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Application Number:
  US13/198,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20130036165A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,154 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking system provides relevant content objects at the request of social networking system users. Relevance scores are determined for content objects by matching user location, user interests, and other social information to the content, location, and timing associated with content objects. A ranked list of content objects can be provided to the user, where the content objects are relevant to them based on their interests, location, and other social information. The system provides a user interface that displays a map containing pins, where each pin represents a content object in actionable proximity to a user. The content objects selected to be presented as pins to the user are those content objects with sufficiently high relevance scores. Multiple pins for a nearby area can be clustered. The user can switch between zoom levels for the map, thereby showing pins at varying distances from the user'"'"'s current location.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining social information for a user, the social information comprising the user'"'"'s interests;

accessing a plurality of content objects, each content object associated with a geographic location, a category, and a delivery time range;

receiving a request for information from a user device;

receiving a user location from the user device;

determining a relevance score for the content objects, where determining the relevance score for at least one of the content objects comprises;

determining that the user location is within a proximity of the content object'"'"'s geographic location;

determining that the user'"'"'s interests from the maintained social information for the user matches the content object'"'"'s category; and

determining that a current time is within the content object'"'"'s delivery time range;

ranking the content objects by theft relevance scores;

determining a zoom level of a map to display to the user;

determining a relevance score threshold based on the zoom level of the map;

selecting one or more of the content objects by applying the relevance scores of the content objects to the threshold; and

sending the map with the selected content objects displayed on the map at the zoom level to the user device for display to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the social information further comprises:

maintaining a plurality of connections between the user and other users of the social networking system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the relevance score for the at least one of the content objects further comprises:

determining a connection value for the content object, the connection value based on a number of the user'"'"'s plurality of connections associated with the content object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the content objects has an action associated with it, and wherein determining that the current time is within the content object'"'"'s delivery time range comprises determining that the action can be performed by the user within the delivery time range.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request received from the user includes the user location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a user exposure to one of the at least one content objects.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising adjusting the relevance score of the content object for which a user exposure was stored.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving indication of an action by the user associated with one of the content objects; and

storing an association between the user and the content object in response to the received indication.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a highest ranked content object from the ranked content objects to the user device for display to the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content objects comprises third-party content objects provided by third-parties, and content objects formed based on interactions of users with the social networking system.

11. A method comprising:

transmitting from a user device at a user location and a request for information to a social networking system configured to determine a relevance score for a plurality of content objects associated with a geographic location, a category, and a delivery time range, the social networking system determining the relevance score for at least one of the content objects comprising determining that the user location is within a proximity of the content object'"'"'s geographic location, determining that the user'"'"'s interests from social information of the user matches the content object'"'"'s category, and determining that a current time is within the content object'"'"'s delivery time range;

receiving at the user device a ranked list of content objects based on the relevance score, each content object comprising;

the geographic location that is within a proximity of the user location;

the category that matches a user interest stored by the social networking system;

the delivery time range where a current time is within the delivery time range;

identifying a zoom level of a map to display;

displaying a map comprising a plurality of pins displaying the geographic locations of the content objects, wherein each pin is associated with one of the content objects, each pin displays the rank of the content object, and content objects are selected for display by applying relevance scores of the content objects to a relevance score threshold based on a zoom level.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

displaying a plurality of selectable zoom levels that change the zoom level.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of selectable zoom levels are based on fixed distances.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of selectable zoom levels are based on geographical regions.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of selectable zoom levels are based on relevance score thresholds.

16. The method of claim 11, comprising:

displaying a group pin representing the locations of a plurality of associated content objects, wherein the content objects associated with the group pins are located within a proximity of each other.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the group pin displays the number of content objects it is associated with.