Selecting popular content on online social networks

• US 10,592,594 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2018
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tiu, Jr., William K, Roberto, Jeffrey J
• Primary Examiner(s): Won, Michael
• Application Number:
  US16/179,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20190073344A1
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 709203, 709217, 715201, 715203, 715204, 715234, 715235, 715236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications

Abstract

In particular embodiments, a method comprises receiving a request from a first user to access a landing page of an online social network, accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, calculating a popularity value for each of a plurality of content objects associated with one or more second users of the online social network, wherein the popularity value for each content object is based on a popularity of the content object among other users of the online social network associated with nodes within a threshold degree of separation of the first user, selecting from the plurality of content objects based on their popularity values, one or more content objects to feature on the landing page, and sending instructions for presenting the landing page comprising one or more of the selected content items to the first user.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more processors associated with one or more social-networking systems of an online social network:

receiving, at one or more of the social-networking systems from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a request to access a landing page of the online social network associated with the first user;

accessing, by one or more of the social-networking systems, 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 the 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, wherein the first user is associated with a first node of the plurality of nodes;

calculating, by one or more of the social-networking systems, a popularity value for each of a plurality of content objects retrieved from one or more third party sources that are separate from and external to the online social network, each content object being associated with one or more second users of the online social network, the one or more second users being associated with one or more second nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, wherein the popularity value for each content object is based on an adoption of the content object by one or more third users of the online social network on one or more landing pages of the online social network associated with the respective one or more third users, the one or more third users being associated with one or more third nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, each third node being within a threshold degree of separation of the first node;

selecting, by one or more of the social-networking systems, from the plurality of content objects based on their popularity values, one or more content objects to feature on the landing page of the online social network associated with the first user; and

sending, from one or more of the social-networking systems to the client system of the first user, instructions for presenting the landing page of the online social network associated with the first user, wherein the landing page comprises one or more of the selected content objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the popularity value for each content object is further based on viewership of the content object by one or more of the third users.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the popularity value for each content object is further based on viewership of the content object by one or more of the fourth users of the online social network, the one or more fourth users being associated with one or more fourth nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, wherein each fourth node is not within a threshold degree of separation of the first node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein calculating the popularity value for each content object comprises weighting the viewership of the content object by the one or more third users more than the viewership of the content object by the one or more fourth users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more selected content objects are presented on the landing page in ranked order based on their respective popularity values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold degree of separation is 1, 2, 3, or all.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the popularity value for each content object is weighted according to the degree of separation between the one or more third nodes associated with the one or more third users who adopted the content object and the second node associated with the second user associated with the content object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the one or more of the social-networking systems from the client system of the first user, a selection of one of the selected content objects from the landing page; and

sending, from one or more of the social-networking systems to the client system of the first user, instructions for presenting an external content object corresponding to the selected one of the selected content objects, wherein the external content object is retrieved from one of the third party sources that are separate from and external to the one or more social-networking systems.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the content objects correspond to one or more external content objects hosted on one or more of the third party sources that are separate from and external to the one or more social-networking systems.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, at the one or more of the social-networking systems from the client system of the first user, a selection of one of the selected content objects from the landing page;

sending, from one or more of the social-networking systems to one of the third party sources, a request for an external content object corresponding to the selected one of the selected content objects, wherein the request comprises authentication information of the first user;

receiving, at the one or more of the social-networking systems from the third party source, the external content object corresponding to the selected one of the selected content objects responsive to the third party source authenticating the first user based on the authentication information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the external content object further comprises a source ID identifying the third party source and a content ID identifying the external content object.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the source ID further identifies a configuration file that specifies a format of an embed code and has a variable field into which the content ID is inserted.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein each content object is received via an application programming interface (API) associated with one of the third party sources, and wherein the one or more of the social-networking systems stores information related to the content object item is stored in a data structure in association with a user ID identifying the first user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the landing page is a web page accessed via a web browser of the client system of the first user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each second node is within one degree of separation of the first node.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the third party sources is communicably connected with one or more of the social-networking systems.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the content objects of the plurality of content objects comprises a reference to an external content object of one of the third party sources that are separate from and external to the one or more social-networking systems, and wherein each reference is selectable to retrieve the respective external content object.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the reference to the external content object comprises an embed code generated using a source ID identifying the third party source and a content ID identifying the external content object.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the reference to the external content object comprises an embed code comprising HTML code that specified a URL of the third party source.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the content objects of the plurality of content objects comprises a portion of an external content object of one of the third party sources that are separate from and external to the one or more social-networking systems, and wherein each reference is selectable to retrieve the respective external content object.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the content objects of the plurality of content objects comprises a thumbnail image associated with an external content object of one of the third party sources that are separate from and external to the one or more social-networking systems, and wherein each thumbnail image is selectable to retrieve the respective external content object.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the popularity value for each content object is further based on adoption of the content object by one or more fourth users of the online social network on one or more landing pages of the online social network associated with the respective one or more fourth users, the one or more fourth users being associated with one or more fourth nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, wherein each fourth node is not within a threshold degree of separation of the first node.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein calculating the popularity value for each content object comprises weighting the adoption of the content object by the one or more third users more than the adoption of the content object by the one or more fourth users.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein adoption of a content object by a user of the online social network on a landing page of the online social network associated with the user comprises:

receiving, by one or more of the social-networking systems, from a client system of the user, a selection to feature the content object on a profile page of the online social network associated with the user; and

updating the profile page of the online social network associated with the user to include the content object.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein adoption of a content object by a user of the online social network on a landing page of the online social network associated with the user comprises:

storing a source ID and a content ID corresponding to the content object in a database managed by the online social network; and

generating an embed code for accessing the content object from the landing page associated with the user, wherein the embed code is generated based at least in part on the stored source ID and content ID corresponding to the content object.

26. A social-networking system of an online social network, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

receive, at one or more of the social-networking systems from a client system of a first user of the online social network, a request to access a landing page of the online social network associated with the first user;

access, by one or more of the social-networking systems, 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 the 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, wherein the first user is associated with a first node of the plurality of nodes;

calculate, by one or more of the social-networking systems, a popularity value for each of a plurality of content objects retrieved from third party sources that are separate from and external to the online social network, each content object being associated with one or more second users of the online social network, the one or more second users being associated with one or more second nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, wherein the popularity value for each content object is based on an adoption of the content object by one or more third users of the online social network on one or more landing pages of the online social network associated with the respective one or more third users, the one or more third users being associated with one or more third nodes of the plurality of nodes, respectively, each third node being within a threshold degree of separation of the first node;

select, by one or more of the social-networking systems, from the plurality of content objects based on their popularity values, one or more content objects to feature on the landing page of the online social network associated with the first user; and

send, from one or more of the social-networking systems to the client system of the first user, instructions for presenting the landing page of the online social network associated with the first user, wherein the landing page comprises one or more of the selected content objects.