Compatibility scoring of users in a social network

• US 7,451,161 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2005
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Friendster Incorporated (Mol.com Bhd.)
• Inventors: Lunt, Christopher, Zhu, Xiao Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Leslie
• Application Number:
  US11/117,793
• Publication Number:
  US 20060247940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,293 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/104.1, 706/21
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• 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: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The compatibility score of individuals in a social network is computed based on the compatibility of interests expressed by these individuals. The compatibility score between any two interests is calculated as the log of the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express both interests as his or her interests divided by the product of: (i) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the first of the two interests as his or her interest and (ii) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the second of the two interests as his or her interest. The compatibility score between two individuals is calculated as the sum of the compatibility scores between each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the first of the two individuals and each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the second of the two individuals.

Claims

1. A method of scoring compatibility between members of a social network, said method comprising the steps of:

preparing interest compatibility scores between expressed interests of the members of the social network that include a first member, a second member, and a plurality of other members of the social network, wherein each interest compatibility score represents a degree of compatibility between two expressed interests; and

computing a compatibility score between the first member of the social network and the second member of the social network based on expressed interests of the first member, expressed interests of the second member, and the interest compatibility scores between the expressed interests of the first member and the expressed interests of the second member,

wherein an interest compatibility score between a first expressed interest and a second expressed interest is derived based on a first estimated probability that the first expressed interest will appear as an expressed interest of a member of the social network, a second estimated probability that the second expressed interest will appear as an expressed interest of a member of the social network, and a third estimated probability that the first expressed interest and the second expressed interest will appear together as expressed interests of a member of the social network.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the interest compatibility score between the first expressed interest and the second expressed interest is a function of the third estimated probability divided by the product of the first estimated probability and the second estimated probability.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of computing includes the steps of:

for each expressed interest of the first member, retrieving interest compatibility scores between the expressed interest of the first member and each of the expressed interests of the second member; and

adding up the interest compatibility scores retrieved for each of the expressed interests of the first member and using the sum as the compatibility score.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting the compatibility score based on the number of members of the social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from both the first member and the second member.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting the compatibility score based on expressed interests of members of the social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the first member, and on expressed interests of members of the social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the second member.

6. A method of generating compatibility data pertaining to compatibility between a first individual in a social network and a number of other individuals in the social network, said method comprising the steps of:

preparing interest compatibility scores based on expressed interests of the individuals in the social network that include the first individual and a plurality of other individuals in the social network, wherein each interest compatibility score represents a degree of compatibility between two expressed interests;

selecting a set of individuals based on search criteria specified by the first individual, the search criteria including a degree of separation setting; and

computing a compatibility score between the first individual and each of the individuals in the set,

wherein an interest compatibility score between a first expressed interest and a second expressed interest is derived based on a first estimated probability that the first expressed interest will appear as an expressed interest of an individual in the social network, a second estimated probability that the second expressed interest will appear as an expressed interest of an individual of the social network, and a third estimated probability that the first expressed interest and the second expressed interest will appear together as expressed interests of an individual of the social network.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the degree of separation setting is three.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of transmitting a web page to be displayed, the web page containing hyperlinks to the individuals in the set that have been sorted in the order of the compatibility scores of the individuals.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the compatibility score between the first individual and an individual in the set is based on expressed interests of the first individual, expressed interests of the individual in the set, and the interest compatibility scores between the expressed interests of the first individual and the expressed interests of the individual in the set.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the interest compatibility score between the first expressed interest and the second expressed interest is a function of the third estimated probability divided by the product of the first estimated probability and the second estimated probability.

11. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of adjusting the compatibility score between the first individual and an individual in the set based on expressed interests of members of the social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the first individual, and on expressed interests of members of the social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the individual in the set.