SCALING NOTIFICATIONS OF EVENTS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20110161987A1
• Filed: 12/30/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: WARMAN, JONATHAN, HUANG, ANQI ANDREW, LETUCHY, EUGENE, WISEMAN, JOSH
• Application Number:
  US12/649,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20110161987A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages

Abstract

A social networking system notification system is scaled so a user is notified of an event when a unit or level of notification utility has been reached. For the average user, a single event may be noteworthy enough for which to receive a notification. However, when this user is especially important or highly connected (or received a large number of interactions), that user will have decreasing utility for each additional comment he has received. To manage these types of situations, and avoid inundating users with notifications that are of less utility to the user, the notifications are filtered/aggregated so that these users are notified less often. The notification scheme is optimized for each user, so the user is notified only when he has reached a level of notification utility.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a notification to a user of a social networking system, the method comprising:

detecting an event associated with the user of the social networking system, wherein a plurality of other events are already associated with the user;

referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level representing a specified number of events associated with a single user necessary to trigger a notification; and

responsive to determining that the number of events associated with the user has reached the specified number of events to trigger a notification, providing a notification of the event to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is selected from a group consisting of:

a comment from another user on content posted by the user, a comment from another user on text posted by the user, a connection request from another user, a post associated with the user by another user, an indication of a like or dislike associated with the user'"'"'s activity, and a message from another user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises providing the notification to the user on a web page of a social networking system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises providing the notification to the user via a message sent to a client device of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises providing a decreasing number of the notifications to the user for events as a total number of events associated with the user increases.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises providing a notification to the user for each new event up to a first level, providing a notification to the user for each group of new events of a first specified number up to a second level, and providing a notification to the user for each group of new events of a second specified number, which is larger than the first specified number, up to a third level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises aggregating a specified number of events that have occurred into a single summary notification to be provided to the user indicating that multiple new events have occurred since a last notification sent to the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting that the user has posted a particular content item, and wherein detecting a new event associated with a user comprises detecting that an event has occurred in response to the user posting of the particular content item.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the event comprises a comment or interaction with the posted content item by another user of the social networking system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises:

retrieving, for each of a plurality of event types, a stored notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events of the event type; and

responsive to the type of the event, using the notification scale for the event type to determine whether to provide notifications to the user regarding events of that event type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the event type is selected from a group consisting of:

a comment from another user on content posted by the user, a comment from another user on text posted by the user, a connection request from another user, a post associated with the user by another user, an indication of a like or dislike associated with the user'"'"'s activity, and a message from another user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises:

retrieving, for each of a plurality of specific content items associated with the user, a stored notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events occurring in response to the specific content item; and

according to the specific content item, using the notification scale for the content item to determine whether to provide notifications to the user regarding events related to the content item.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the specific content item is selected from a group consisting of:

a posted photo or video, a text entry, a wall post, a like or dislike, and a connection request.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises determining a current count of the number of events associated with the user that have occurred including the detected event.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises adjusting a stored notification scale to incorporate feedback from the user regarding prior notifications provided.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises adjusting a stored notification scale to incorporate affinity information indicating an interest of the user in the other user who created the event.

17. A computer system for providing a notification to a user of a social networking system, the system comprising:

an event detection module for detecting an event associated with the user of the social networking system, wherein a plurality of other events are already associated with the user;

a notification scale module for referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events associated with a single user necessary to trigger a notification;

a notification module for providing a notification of the event to the user responsive to determining that the number of events associated with the user has reached the specified number of events to trigger a notification.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the event is selected from a group consisting of:

a comment from another user on content posted by the user, a comment from another user on text posted by the user, a connection request from another user, a post associated with the user by another user, an indication of a like or dislike associated with the user'"'"'s activity, and a message from another user.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification module is further configured for providing a decreasing number of the notifications to the user for events as a total number of events detected for the user increases.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification module is further configured for aggregating a specified number of events that have occurred into a single summary notification to be provided to the user indicating that multiple events have occurred since a last notification to the user.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the event detection module is further configured for detecting that the user has taken an action regarding a particular content item, and the event detection module is further configured for detecting that a new event has occurred in response to the action regarding the particular content item, wherein the new event comprises a comment or interaction with the particular content item by another user of the social networking system.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured for:

storing, for each of a plurality of event types, a notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events of the event type; and

responsive to the type of the event, using the notification scale for the event type to determine whether to provide notifications to the user regarding events of that event type.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the event type is selected from a group consisting of:

a comment from another user on content posted by the user, a comment from another user on text posted by the user, a connection request from another user, a post associated with the user by another user, an indication of a like or dislike associated with the user'"'"'s activity, and a message from another user.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured for:

storing, for each of a plurality of specific content items associated with the user, a notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events occurring in response to the specific content item; and

responsive to the specific content item, using the notification scale for the content item to determine whether to provide notifications to the user regarding new events occurring in response to the content item.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the specific content item is selected from a group consisting of:

a posted photo or video, a text entry, a wall post, a like or dislike, and a connection request.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured for determining a current count of the number of events associated with the user that have occurred.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification module is further configured for providing notifications to the user for a first N events, and exponential decay is applied after the first N events for providing a notification for every X events, where X is a specified number of events.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured to restart a count of events for the user after a lapse of a specified period of time between events.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured for automatically applying different scales to different users to scale notifications provided to users according to a number of connections a user has to other users in the social networking system.

30. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification scale module is further configured for automatically applying different scales to different content items associated with different users to scale notifications sent to users according to a number of notifications a user has previously received regarding each of the content items.

31. A computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for providing a notification to a user of a social networking system, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for performing the steps comprising:

detecting an event associated with the user of the social networking system, wherein a plurality of other events are already associated with the user;

referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level associated with a specified number of events associated with a single user necessary to trigger a notification;

responsive to determining that the number of events associated with the user has reached the specified number of events to trigger a notification, providing a notification of the event to the user.

32. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein providing the notification to the user further comprises providing a decreasing number of the notifications to the user for new events as a total number of events detected for the user increases.

33. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, further comprising creating and storing different notification scales for different instances of events of an event type.

34. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein referencing a notification scale having a plurality of levels further comprises determining a current count of the number of events associated with the user that have occurred, wherein the current count indicates a current position on the notification scale, the current position indicating a number of events that must occur before the user receives a notification about an event.

35. A computer-implemented method for providing a notification to a user of a social networking system, the method comprising:

storing a first notification scale having a plurality of levels, each level representing a first specified number of events;

storing, for a second user connected to the first user in the social networking system, a second notification scale that is customized to reflect a higher degree of interest of the first user in the second user than in other users connected to first user, each level representing a second specified number of events that is fewer than the first specified number of events;

detecting, by the second user, an event associated with the first user; and

responsive to determining that the number of events associated with the user has reached the second specified number of events to trigger a notification, providing a notification of the event to the first user.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising providing, based on the second notification scale, more notifications to the first user regarding events by the second user than for events by other users in whom the first user has a lower degree of interest

37. The method of claim 35, wherein a fewer number of events are required to reach a next level of the second notification scale than for the first notification scale.