Ranking Seach Results Using Social-Networking Information

• US 20110093346A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Galbreath, Nicholas, Lunt, Christopher, Winner, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,924,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• 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 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

Particular embodiments access a search query submitted by a first user; identify one or more sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein each sponsored web page is associated with a hyperlink; determine whether one or more of the sponsored web pages has been accessed by one or more second users, wherein the one or more second users are connected in a graph structure to the first user within a threshold degree of separation; and send a response comprising a hyperlink for at least one of the sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein the response further includes a visual tag or a reference to the visual tag for the hyperlink if the sponsored web page has been accessed by at least one of the one or more second users.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, at one or more computing devices, a search query submitted by a first user;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices, one or more sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein each sponsored web page is associated with a hyperlink;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, whether one or more of the sponsored web pages has been accessed by one or more second users, wherein the one or more second users are connected in a graph structure to the first user within a threshold degree of separation; and

sending, by the one or more computing devices, a response comprising a hyperlink for at least one of the sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein the response further includes a visual tag or a reference to the visual tag for the hyperlink if the sponsored web page has been accessed by at least one of the one or more second users.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking the sponsored web pages in accordance with corresponding bid amounts associated with each sponsored web page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual tag is a text string.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual tag is an image.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a graph of a plurality of members of the social-networking system, wherein the graph comprises a plurality of nodes and one or more edges, wherein each node corresponds to a member, and two nodes are connected by an edge if the two corresponding members are directly connected within the social-networking system; and

determining the one or more second users who are connected to the first user within the threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system using the graph, wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph from one node to the other node.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the search query has been previously submitted to the one or more computing devices by one or more members of a social-networking system and the first user is a member of the social-networking system, then;

retrieving, from the social-networking system, the one or more second users who are members of the social-networking system connected to the first user within the threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system;

determining a number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more second users in connection with the search query; and

ranking the one or more sponsored web pages based on the number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more second users in connection with the search query; and

sending one or more ranked hyperlinks respectively associated with the one or more ranked sponsored web pages to the first user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein retrieving, from the social-networking system, the one or more second users who are members of the social-networking system connected to the first user within a threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system comprises:

sending, to the social-networking system, a request comprising an identifier of the first user and the threshold degree of separation; and

receiving, from the social-networking system, one or more identifiers of the one or more second users.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold degree of separation is specified by the first user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the search query has been previously submitted to the one or more computing devices by the one or more members of the social-networking system and the first user is not a member of the social-networking system, then:

determining a number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more members of the social-networking system in connection with the search query; and

ranking the one or more sponsored web pages based on the number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more members of the social-networking system in connection with the search query.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the search query has not been submitted to the one or more computing devices by any member of the social-networking system, then ranking the one or more sponsored web pages based on a bid received with each sponsored web page.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each sponsored web page is an online advertisement submitted by an advertiser.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising maintaining a database comprising a plurality of sponsored web pages, and for each sponsored web page, an advertiser submitting the sponsored web page, a bid received with the sponsored web page, and one or more keywords associated with the sponsored web page.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a database comprising a plurality of search queries submitted by a plurality of members of the social-networking system, and for each search query, one or more sponsored web pages clicked on by the member submitting the search query.

14. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions executable by one or more processors; and

the one or more processors coupled to the memory and operable to execute the instructions, the one or more processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

access a search query submitted by a first user;

identify one or more sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein each sponsored web page is associated with a hyperlink;

determine whether one or more of the sponsored web pages has been accessed by one or more second users, wherein the one or more second users are connected in a graph structure to the first user within a threshold degree of separation; and

send a response comprising a hyperlink for at least one of the sponsored web pages in response to the search query, wherein the response further includes a visual tag or a reference to the visual tag for the hyperlink if the sponsored web page has been accessed by at least one of the one or more second users.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to rank the sponsored web pages in accordance with corresponding bid amounts associated with each sponsored web page.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the visual tag is a text string.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the visual tag is an image.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

access a graph of a plurality of members of the social-networking system, wherein the graph comprises a plurality of nodes and one or more edges, wherein each node corresponds to a member, and two nodes are connected by an edge if the two corresponding members are directly connected within the social-networking system; and

determine the one or more second users who are connected to the first user within the threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system using the graph, wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph from one node to the other node.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

if the search query has been previously submitted to the one or more computing devices by one or more members of a social-networking system and the first user is a member of the social-networking system, then;

retrieve, from the social-networking system, the one or more second users who are members of the social-networking system connected to the first user within the threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system;

determine a number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more second users in connection with the search query; and

rank the one or more sponsored web pages based on the number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more second users in connection with the search query; and

send one or more ranked hyperlinks respectively associated with the one or more ranked sponsored web pages to the first user.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein retrieving, from the social-networking system, the one or more second users who are members of the social-networking system connected to the first user within a threshold degree of separation within the social-networking system comprises:

send, to the social-networking system, a request comprising an identifier of the first user and the threshold degree of separation; and

receive, from the social-networking system, one or more identifiers of the one or more second users.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the threshold degree of separation is specified by the first user.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to if the search query has been previously submitted to the one or more computing devices by the one or more members of the social-networking system and the first user is not a member of the social-networking system, then:

determine a number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more members of the social-networking system in connection with the search query; and

rank the one or more sponsored web pages based on the number of times each sponsored web page has been clicked on by the one or more members of the social-networking system in connection with the search query.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to if the search query has not been submitted to the one or more computing devices by any member of the social-networking system, then rank the one or more sponsored web pages based on a bid received with each sponsored web page.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein each sponsored web page is an online advertisement submitted by an advertiser.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to maintain a database comprising a plurality of sponsored web pages, and for each sponsored web page, an advertiser submitting the sponsored web page, a bid received with the sponsored web page, and one or more keywords associated with the sponsored web page.

26. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors are further operable when executing the instructions to maintain a database comprising a plurality of search queries submitted by a plurality of members of the social-networking system, and for each search query, one or more sponsored web pages clicked on by the member submitting the search query.