SOCIAL NETWORK USER LIST DETECTION AND SEARCHING
First Claim
1. A method of identifying, within a social network having user profiles of respective users, where at least one user publishes at least one message, a user list comprising at least one member, the method performed on a device having a processor and comprising:
- executing on the processor instructions configured to;
upon receiving from a first user a message;
examine the message to identify a list identifier of a user list, andupon identifying a list identifier;
request the social network to identify the members of the user list, andupon receiving from the social network at least one member of the user list, store in the user profile of the member the list identifier of the user list; and
for respective user lists;
poll the social network for updates of the user list, andupon receiving from the social network an update of a user list involving at least one second user, update the user profile of the second user regarding the update of the user list.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Within a social network, users may define user lists comprising users who share a semantic nexus. The creation and updating of user lists may be detected by monitoring the messages of users to detect list identifiers (e.g., names) indicating new user lists, and by polling the social network to detect changes in the membership of respective user lists. The list identifiers may be recorded in the user profiles of respective members of the user lists. Moreover, when a user posts a message to the social network, the message may be annotated with the list identifiers recorded in the user profile of the user. These techniques may permit the restriction of a search query over messages to those posted by members of a particular user list, e.g., by searching for messages having annotations that match the list identifiers of the user lists specified in the search query.
48 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of identifying, within a social network having user profiles of respective users, where at least one user publishes at least one message, a user list comprising at least one member, the method performed on a device having a processor and comprising:
executing on the processor instructions configured to; upon receiving from a first user a message; examine the message to identify a list identifier of a user list, and upon identifying a list identifier; request the social network to identify the members of the user list, and upon receiving from the social network at least one member of the user list, store in the user profile of the member the list identifier of the user list; and for respective user lists; poll the social network for updates of the user list, and upon receiving from the social network an update of a user list involving at least one second user, update the user profile of the second user regarding the update of the user list. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system having access to a social network having user profiles of respective users, where at least one user publishes at least one message, and the system configured to identify within the social network a user list comprising at least one member, the system comprising:
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a list detecting component configured to, upon receiving from a first user a message, examine the message to identify a list identifier of a user list; a list exploring component configured to, for respective list identifiers identified by the list detecting component; request the social network to identify the members of the user list, and upon receiving from the social network at least one member of the user list, store in the user profile of the member the list identifier of the user list; and a list updating component configured to, for respective user lists; poll the social network for updates of the user list, and upon receiving from the social network an update of a user list involving at least one second user, update the user profile of the second user regarding the update of the user list.
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20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a processor of a device having access to a social network having user profiles of respective users, where at least one user publishes at least one message, identify at least one user list comprising at least one member by:
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upon receiving from a first user a message; examining the message to identify a list identifier of a user list, and upon identifying a list identifier; requesting the social network to identify the members of the user list, and upon receiving from the social network at least one member of the user list, storing in the user profile of the member the list identifier of the user list; and for respective user lists; polling the social network for updates of the user list by; selecting a polling frequency indicating a frequency of polling the social network for updates of the user list, the polling frequency associated with at least one polling frequency indicator selected from a set of polling frequency indicators comprising; an age of the user list; a popularity of at least one owner of the user list; a user list reference frequency to the user list by users of the social network; a user list search frequency to the user list by users of the social network; and an update frequency of the user list; and polling the social network for updates of the user list according to the polling frequency of the user list; upon receiving from the social network an update of a user list involving at least one second user, updating the user profile of the second user regarding the update of the user list; upon receiving a second message from a member of at least one user list; from the user profile of the member, selecting the list identifiers of at least one user list including the member; and storing with the second message the list identifiers of the at least one user list; upon presenting the second message to a third user, presenting to the third user with the second message the at least one list identifier stored with the second message; upon detecting an update comprising an adding of the second user as a member to a user list; selecting at least one previous message from the second user, and storing with the at least one previous message the list identifiers of the at least one user list; upon detecting an update comprising a removing of the second user as a member from a user list; selecting at least one previous message from the second user, and removing from the at least one previous message the list identifiers of the at least one user list; and upon receiving from a searching user a search query restricted to messages from the members of at least one user list; selecting at least one matching message that matches the search query and that is stored with a list identifier identifying at least one user list specified in the search query, and upon identifying at least one matching message, presenting the at least one matching message to the searching user as a search result of the search query.
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Specification