Providing context relevant search for a user based on location and social information

• US 9,978,022 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• 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, Braginsky, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Shew Fen
• Application Number:
  US12/976,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20120166432A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,708 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11, 707728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• 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 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system provides relevant third-party content objects to users by matching user location, interests, and other social information with the content, location, and timing associated with the content objects. Content objects are provided based on relevance scores specific to a user. Relevance scores may be calculated based on the user'"'"'s previous interactions with content object notifications, or based on interests that are common between the user and his or her connections in the social network. Context search is also provided for a user, wherein a list of search of results is ranked according to the relevance score of content object associated with the search results. Notifications may also be priced and distributed to users based on their relevance. In this way, the system can provide notifications that are relevant to user'"'"'s interests and current circumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find content objects of interest.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining social information for a social networking system user;

receiving a search query from a user device associated with the user;

receiving a location of the user device;

determining a list of search results based on the search query, each search result comprising a search value, the search value indicating a quality of a match between the search query and the search result;

associating each search result with a third-party content object;

for each of the associated third-party content objects,

identifying a set of connected users of the user associated with the third-party content object, a connected user being associated with a third-party content object when the connected user takes an action with respect to the third-party content object;

for each connected user in the set of connected users, determining a weighing factor for the connected user based on characteristics of the user'"'"'s relationship to the connected user, the weighing factor indicating a likelihood that the user will share an interest in the third-party content object with the connected user; and

determining a connection value for the third-party content object based on the weighing factors of the connected users in the set of connected users;

calculating a relevance score for each search result by matching the user location, social information, and search value to the third-party content object associated with the search result, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises;

determining a location value for the third-party content object, the location value based on a proximity between a location assigned to the third-party content object and the user location;

determining an interest value for the third-party content object, the interest value based on whether a category assigned to the third-party content object is included in one or more categories associated with affinity information for the user;

determining a time value for the third-party content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within a delivery time range assigned to the third-party content object; and

combining the search value, location value, interest value, connection value, and time value to determine the relevance score;

adjusting the relevance score for each search result to determine an adjusted relevance score based on the connection value for the third-party content object associated with the search result;

ranking the list of search results by the adjusted relevance scores of the third-party content objects associated with the search results; and

providing the ranked list of search results to a notification controller.

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

maintaining the affinity information for the user according to one or more categories; and

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

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location is received from the user device when the search query is received from the user device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

appending social information to the ranked list of search results to additionally comprise social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

indications of affinity from friends of the user, comments regarding the search result, or friends currently located at the search result.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the ranked list of search results based on a filter criteria received from the user, the filter criteria based on social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

quantity of friends who have indicated affinity for the search result, quantity of friends who have commented on the search result, quantity of friends currently located at the search result.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the connected users that vary the weighing factor comprise a connection type.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the weighing factor varies for a connection type of a friend and a connection type of a work colleague.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the connected users that vary the weighing factor comprise a degree of separation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the weighing factor decreases as the degree of separation to the one or more connected users increases.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having executable computer program instructions embodied therein, the computer program instructions comprising:

maintaining social information for a social networking system user;

receiving a location of the user device;

assigning each of a plurality of third-party content objects a location, a category, and a delivery time range;

for each of the third-party content objects,

identifying a set of connected users of the user associated with the third-party content object, a connected user being associated with a third-party content object when the connected user takes an action with respect to the third-party content object;

for each connected user in the set of connected users, determining a weighing factor for the connected user based on characteristics of the user'"'"'s relationship to the connected user, the weighing factor indicating a likelihood that the user will share an interest in the third-party content object with the connected user; and

determining a connection value for the third-party content object based on the weighing factors of the connected users in the set of connected users;

calculating a relevance score for the user for each third-party content object by matching the user location and social information to the location, category, and delivery time range for the third-party content object, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises;

determining a location value for the third-party content object, the location value based on a proximity between the location assigned to the third-party content object and the user location;

determining an interest value for the third-party content object the interest value based on whether the category assigned to the third-party content object is included in one or more categories associated with affinity information for the user;

determining a time value for the third-party content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within the delivery time range assigned to the third-party content object; and

combining the search value, location value, interest value, connection value, and time value to determine the relevance score;

receiving a search query from a user device associated with the user, each search result comprising a search value, the search value indicating a quality of a match between the search query and the search result;

determining a list of search results based on the search query;

associating each search result with a third-party content object;

adjusting the relevance score for each third-party content object to determine an adjusted relevance score based on the search value and the connection value for the third-party content object associated with the search result;

ranking the list of search results by the adjusted relevance scores of the third-party content objects associated with the search results; and

providing the ranked list of search results to a notification controller.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having executable computer program instructions embodied therein, the computer program instructions comprising:

maintaining social information for a social networking system user;

receiving a search query from a user device associated with the user;

receiving a location of the user device;

determining a list of search results based on the search query, each search result comprising a search value, the search value indicating a quality of the match between the search query and the search result;

associating each search result with a third-party content object;

for each of the associated third party content objects,

identifying a set of connected users of the user associated with the third-party content object, a connected user being associated with a third-party content object when the connected user takes an action with respect to the third-party content object;

for each connected user in the set of connected users, determining a weighing factor for the connected user based on characteristics of the user'"'"'s relationship to the connected user; and

determining a connection value for the third-party content object based on the weighing factors of the connected users in the set of connected users;

calculating a relevance score for each search result by matching the user location, social information, and search value to the third-party content object associated with the search result, wherein calculating the relevance score comprises;

determining a location value for the third-party content object, the location value based on a proximity between a location assigned to the third-party content object and the user location;

determining an interest value for the third-party content object, the interest value based on whether a category assigned to the third-party content object is included in one or more categories associated with affinity information for the user;

determining a time value for the third-party content object, the time value based on whether a current time is within a delivery time range assigned to the third-party content object; and

combining the search value, location value, interest value, connection value, and time value to determine the relevance score;

adjusting the relevance score for each search result to determine an adjusted relevance score based on the connection value for the third-party content object associated with the search result;

ranking the list of search results by the adjusted relevance scores of the third-party content objects associated with the search results; and

providing the ranked list of search results to a notification controller.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein maintaining the social information further comprises:

maintaining the affinity information for the user according to one or more categories; and

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

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the location is received from the user device when the search query is received from the user device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, the computer program instructions further comprising:

appending social information to the ranked list of search results to additionally comprise social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

indications of affinity from friends of the user, comments regarding the search result, or friends currently located at the search result.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, the computer program instructions further comprising:

filtering the ranked list of search results based on a filter criteria received from the user, the filter criteria based on social information, wherein the social information comprises at least one from the group of;

quantity of friends who have indicated affinity for the search result, quantity of friends who have commented on the search result, quantity of friends currently located at the search result.