Graph Server Querying for Managing Social Network Information Flow

• US 20160110463A1
• Filed: 12/30/2015
• Published: 04/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• 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, Predosin, Mirko
• Granted Patent: US 9,703,879 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

An online social network is managed using one server for database management tasks and another server, preferably in a distributed configuration, for CPU-intensive computational tasks, such as finding a shortest path between two members or a degree of separation between two members. The additional server has a memory device containing relationship information between members of the online social network and carries out the CPU-intensive computational tasks using this memory device. With this configuration, the number of database lookups is decreased and processing speed is thereby increased.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at one or more computing systems, a query associated with a first user of a social network;

retrieving, using one or more processors associated with the one or more computing systems, information based on the query, the information representing a user profile associated with a second user of the social network;

determining, using the one or more processors, a profile format for the user profile based on a visibility preference of the second user; and

transmitting information, based on the profile format, representing the user profile associated with the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the query comprises an identifier for the second user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the visibility preference is 1, 2, 3, or All.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the profile format comprises retrieving a visibility preference of the second user from a database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the visibility preference is set to All, further comprising setting the profile format to full profile.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the visibility preference is set to some value other than “

All”

, further comprising;

determining, using the one or more processors, a degree of separation between the first user and the second user; and

comparing the degree of separation to the visibility preference of the second user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the degree of separation is greater than the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to mini-profile.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the degree of separation is less than or equal to the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to full profile.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining the degree of separation between the first user and the second user is based on a social graph stored in a dedicated memory device.

10. One or more machine-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed by one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems to:

receive, at the one or more computing systems, a query associated with a first user of a social network, wherein the query requests a user profile associated with a second user of the social network;

retrieve, from a database, information representing the user profile of the second user based on the query;

retrieve a degree of separation between the first user and the second user by accessing a social graph stored in a dedicated memory device;

determine, using the one or more processors, a profile format for the user profile based on a visibility preference of the second user and the degree of separation between the first user and the second user; and

transmit information, based on the profile format, representing the user profile associated with the second user.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the degree of separation is greater than the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to mini-profile.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein the degree of separation is less than or equal to the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to full profile.

13. A system comprising:

a database;

a graph server comprising;

a dedicated memory device;

a processor; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising software for causing the processor to execute instructions to;

receive information identifying a first user of a social network and a second user of a social network;

access a social graph stored on the dedicated memory device; and

determine a degree of separation between the first user and the second user based on the social graph; and

an application server comprising;

a processor; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising software for causing the processor to execute instructions to;

receive a query associated with a first user of a social network, wherein the query requests a user profile associated with a second user of the social network;

retrieve, from the database, based on the query, information representing the user profile of the second user and information representing a visibility preference of the second user;

retrieve, from the graph server, a degree of separation between the first user and the second user;

determine a profile format for the user profile based on the visibility preference of the second user and the degree of separation between the first user and the second user; and

transmit information, based on the profile format, representing the user profile associated with the second user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the query comprises an identifier for the second user.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the visibility preference is 1, 2, 3, or All.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the visibility preference is set to All, further comprising setting the profile format to full profile.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the visibility preference is not set to “

All”

, wherein the storage media of the application server further comprises instructions to;

determine, using the one or more processors, a degree of separation between the first user and the second user; and

compare the degree of separation to the visibility preference of the second user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the degree of separation is greater than the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to mini-profile.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the degree of separation is less than or equal to the visibility preference, further comprising setting the profile format to full profile.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the storage media of the graph server further comprises instructions to:

retrieve updates to relationship information from the database; and

update the social graph based on the updates to relationship information.