Automatically generating user-customized notifications of changes in a social network system

• US 20080162510A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baio, Andrew, Lin, Leonard H., Luk, Gordon
• Granted Patent: US 7,844,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Techniques are described herein for notifying a member of a social network system of those changes, within the social network system, that are of most interest to the member. In one embodiment, change records are generated for changes in the social network system. The change records are stored in an activities log. To notify a particular user of changes that would be of interest to the user, a subset of the change records contained in the activities log is selected based on user-specific selection criteria. Once the subset of change records has been selected, a set of notification records is generated based on the subset of change records. To reduce the possibility of information overload, the subset of change records is consolidated by removing duplicates and merging related notifications. The consolidated list of user-specific notifications may then be sent to the user. A variety of mechanisms may be used to send the notifications to the user, including streaming the notifications to a user (e.g. via an RSS feed), placing the notifications in a web page that is sent to the user, and sending the user an email that lists the notifications.

Claims

1. A method comprising performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions, wherein said instructions are instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform certain steps including:

storing, for a user, first data that indicates events of interest to the user;

storing, for the user, second data that indicates people of interest to the user;

detecting a change related to an event;

determining, based on the first data, whether the event is an event of interest to the user;

determining, based on the second data, whether the change relates to a person that is of interest to the user;

including a notification for the change in a change listing that is provided to the user if the event is an event of interest to the user and the change relates to a person that is of interest to the user; and

excluding the event from the change listing that is provided to the user if the event is an event of interest to the user and the change relates to a person that is not of interest to the user;

wherein the machine-executed operation is at least one of (a) sending said instructions over transmission media, (b) receiving said instructions over transmission media, (c) storing said instructions onto a machine-readable storage medium, or (d) executing the instructions.

2. The method of claim 1 further wherein:

the steps of

determining whether the event is an event of interest to the user; and

determining whether the change relates to a person that is of interest to the user,

are performed in response to a request to provide said change listing to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to detecting the change related to the event, storing a change record that records said change in an activities log that includes a plurality of change records;

determining which change records, of the plurality of change records, represent changes that would be of interest to the user; and

including, within the change listing, notifications for the changes that would be of interest to the user.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of determining which change records, of the plurality of change records, represent changes that would be of interest to the user is performed based, at least in part, on notification preferences that have been specified by the user.

14. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 1.

15. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 2.

16. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 3.

17. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 4.

5. A method comprising performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions, wherein said instructions are instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform certain steps including:

storing a plurality of objects that represent a plurality of events;

storing, for a user, data that indicates which, of said plurality of events, are events of interest to the user;

detecting a change related to an event;

storing a change record for said change, wherein said change record includes a reference to the object that represents the event;

determining, based on the data, that the change represented by the change record is a change that would be of interest to the user;

retrieving information using the reference, wherein said information is not information contained in the change record;

including a notification for the change in a change listing that is provided to the user; and

including, within said notification, the information that was retrieved using the reference;

wherein the machine-executed operation is at least one of (a) sending said instructions over transmission media, (b) receiving said instructions over transmission media, (c) storing said instructions onto a machine-readable storage medium, or (d) executing the instructions.

18. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 5.

6. A method comprising performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions, wherein said instructions are instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform certain steps including:

storing, for a user, first data that indicates events of interest to the user;

detecting changes related to events;

storing change records that record said changes in an activities log;

selecting a subset of change records from said activities log based, at least in part, on the first data;

generating a consolidated list of notifications to present to said user, wherein at least one notification in said consolidated list of notifications represents a plurality of change records in said subset of change records; and

providing said consolidated list of notifications to said user;

wherein the machine-executed operation is at least one of (a) sending said instructions over transmission media, (b) receiving said instructions over transmission media, (c) storing said instructions onto a machine-readable storage medium, or (d) executing the instructions.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of generating said consolidated list of notifications includes ordering listings within the consolidated list based on when the changes occurred.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein:

the method further includes

detecting changes that are not related to events; and

storing change records for the changes that are not related to events in the activities log; and

the subset of change records includes change records for changes related to events, and change records for changes that are not related to events.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the changes that are not related to events include changes to private social networks.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the changes that are not related to events include changes relating to groups that have been established by users within the social network system.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing a user interface control which, when selected, causes an expanded view of the changes in the subset of change records to be provided to the user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the consolidated list includes at least one notification that is represented by a plurality of notifications in the expanded view.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein:

the consolidated list includes a notification relating to a comment on an event, but does not include text of the comment; and

the expanded view includes a notification relating to said comment, and includes text of the comment.

19. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 6.

20. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 7.

21. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 8.

22. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 9.

23. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 10.

24. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 11.

25. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 12.

26. A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method recited in claim 13.