Ranking algorithms using unique bucketing identifiers

• US 9,767,158 B1
• Filed: 11/14/2013
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Justin, Paun, Ruxandra Georgiana
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US14/079,862
• Time in Patent Office: 1,405 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking

Abstract

A user bucketing module on a server in a content sharing platform identifies, in the content sharing platform, a bucket comprising a plurality of associated content items and associates a bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items. The user bucketing module receives a request for the bucketing token from a ranking service and provides the bucketing token to the ranking service, the ranking service to apply the bucketing token to a ranking algorithm to determine a ranking score for a content item of the plurality of associated content items.

Claims

1. A method for a server computer system comprising:

identifying, by a processing device in a content sharing platform, a bucket comprising a plurality of content items associated with a group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

associating a bucketing token pertaining to the bucket with each of the plurality of content items, the bucketing token comprising a unique identifier that identifies the plurality of content items as being associated with the group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

receiving a request for the bucketing token from a ranking service; and

providing the bucketing token to the ranking service, the ranking service to use the bucketing token to determine, with respect to a first user of a social network platform, a ranking score for a content item of the plurality of associated content items in view of one or more interests of the first user of the social network platform that is separate from the content sharing platform.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the bucket comprises:

identifying the first user of the content sharing platform;

identifying a first set of content items previously viewed by the first user on the content sharing platform;

identifying a second set of content items previously viewed by a second user of the content sharing platform, wherein the second user also viewed the first set of content items;

determining if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items exists in the content sharing platform; and

if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items does not exist, creating a new bucket.

3. The method of claim 1, the plurality of associated content items are of interest to the group of users of the content sharing platform.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items comprises embedding the bucketing token in a metadata of each of the plurality of associated content items.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items comprises maintaining a data structure comprising mappings between the bucketing token and the plurality of associated content items.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request for the bucketing token from the ranking service comprises receiving a request for a content item of the plurality of associated content items, wherein the bucketing token is associated with the content item.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing the bucketing token to the ranking service comprises providing the requested content item to the ranking service, wherein the bucketing token is embedded in a metadata of the content item.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying, by a processing device in a content sharing platform, a bucket comprising a plurality of content items associated with a group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

associating a bucketing token pertaining to the bucket with each of the plurality of content items, the bucketing token comprising a unique identifier that identifies the plurality of content items as being associated with the group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

receiving a request for the bucketing token from a ranking service; and

providing the bucketing token to the ranking service, the ranking service to use the bucketing token to determine, with respect to a first user of a social network platform, a ranking score for a content item of the plurality of associated content items in view of one or more interests of the first user of the social network platform that is separate from the content sharing platform.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein identifying the bucket comprises:

identifying the first user of the content sharing platform;

identifying a first set of content items previously viewed by the first user on the content sharing platform;

identifying a second set of content items previously viewed by a second user of the content sharing platform, wherein the second user also viewed the first set of content items;

determining if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items exists in the content sharing platform; and

if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items does not exist, creating a new bucket.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the plurality of associated content items are of interest to the group of users of the content sharing platform.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein associating the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items comprises embedding the bucketing token in a metadata of each of the plurality of associated content items.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein associating the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items comprises maintaining a data structure comprising mappings between the bucketing token and the plurality of associated content items.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein receiving the request for the bucketing token from the ranking service comprises receiving a request for a content item of the plurality of associated content items, wherein the bucketing token is associated with the content item.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein providing the bucketing token to the ranking service comprises providing the requested content item to the ranking service, wherein the bucketing token is embedded in a metadata of the content item.

15. A server computer system comprising:

a processing device;

a memory coupled to the processing device; and

a user bucketing module, executable by the processing device from the memory, to;

identify, in a content sharing platform, a bucket comprising a plurality of content items associated with a group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

associate a bucketing token pertaining to the bucket with each of the plurality of content items the bucketing token comprising a unique identifier that identifies the plurality of content items as being associated with the group of users of the content sharing platform that have similar interests;

receive a request for the bucketing token from a ranking service; and

provide the bucketing token to the ranking service, the ranking service to use the bucketing token to determine, with respect to a first user of a social network platform, a ranking score for a content item of the plurality of associated content items in view of one or more interests of the first user of the social network platform that is separate from the content sharing platform.

16. The server computer system of claim 15, wherein to identify the bucket, the user bucketing module further to:

identifying the first user of the content sharing platform;

identifying a first set of content items previously viewed by the first user on the content sharing platform;

identifying a second set of content items previously viewed by a second user of the content sharing platform, wherein the second user also viewed the first set of content items;

determining if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items exists in the content sharing platform; and

if a bucket that contains both the first and second sets of content items does not exist, creating a new bucket.

17. The server computer system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of associated content items are of interest to the group of users of the content sharing platform.

18. The server computer system of claim 15, wherein to associate the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items, the user bucketing module to embed the bucketing token in a metadata of each of the plurality of associated content items.

19. The server computer system of claim 15, wherein to associate the bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items, the user bucketing module to maintain a data structure comprising mappings between the bucketing token and the plurality of associated content items.

20. The server computer system of claim 15, wherein to receive the request for the bucketing token from the ranking service, the user bucketing module to receive a request for a content item of the plurality of associated content items, wherein the bucketing token is associated with the content item, and wherein to provide the bucketing token to the ranking service, the user bucketing module to provide the requested content item to the ranking service, wherein the bucketing token is embedded in a metadata of the content item.