Social discovery and ranking of pages

• US 8,935,261 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2011
• Issued: 01/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Piepgrass, Brian, Dhawan, Rohit, Bushak, Nicolas Andrij, Carriero, Thomas Giovanni
• Primary Examiner(s): Mamillapalli, Pavan
• Application Number:
  US13/339,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 707/748, 707/759
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph with a plurality of user nodes and a plurality of location nodes, receives a search query with location parameters, identifies a set of location nodes based on the search query, and determines a value for each location nodes in the set based on the edges connected to the location nodes in the social graph.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by one or more computing devices,

accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge between two nodes representing a single degree of separation between the two nodes, the plurality of nodes comprising;

a first user node corresponding to a first user of an online social network;

a plurality of second user nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users of the online social network, respectively; and

one or more location nodes corresponding to one or more locations, respectively,

wherein each location node is connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, respectively;

receiving from the first user a search query comprising location parameters;

identifying a first set of location nodes based on the search query, each location node of the first set of location nodes being connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, each edge having a particular attribute;

determining a value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on a number of edges connected to the location node and the attributes of the edges connected to the location node; and

ranking the location nodes of the first set of location nodes based at least in part on the determined value for the location nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting to the first user a value of one or more of the location nodes of the first set of location nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, responsive to the search query, a search-results page for display to the first user, the search-results page comprising a ranked list of one or more of the location nodes of the first set of location nodes, the ranked list being based on the rankings of the location nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a value for each location node of the first set of location nodes is further based on advertising sponsorship associated with the location node.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a value for each location node of the first set of location nodes is further based on time stamps associated with the edges connected to the location node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each second user node is within a threshold degree of separation from the first user node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on edges connected to the location node comprises, for each location node of the first set of location nodes:

identifying a first set of edges between the location node and the first user node;

identifying a second set of edges between the location node and one or more of the second user nodes; and

determining a value for the location node based on the first set of edges and the second set of edges.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on edges connected to the location node comprises, for each location node of the first set of location nodes:

identifying a first set of user nodes comprising one or more of the second user nodes that are connected by one or more edges, respectively, to the first user node;

identifying a first set of edges between the location node and one or more of the second user nodes of the first set of user nodes; and

determining a value for the location node based on the first set of edges.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each edge comprises one or more attributes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on edges connected to the location node comprises, for each location node of the first set of location nodes:

identifying the attributes for each edge connected to the location node; and

determining a value for the location nodes based on the attributes of the edges connected to the location node.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on edges connected to the location node comprises, for each location node of the first set of location nodes:

identifying a number of edges connected to the location node; and

determining a value for the location node based on the number of edges connected to the location node.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on edges connected to the location node comprises, for each location node of the first set of location nodes:

identifying an operating hours for the location corresponding to the location node; and

determining a value for the location node based on operating hours for the location corresponding to the location node.

13. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

access a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge between two nodes representing a single degree of separation between the two nodes, the plurality of nodes comprising;

a first user node corresponding to a first user of an online social network;

a plurality of second user nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users of the online social network, respectively; and

one or more location nodes corresponding to one or more locations, respectively,

wherein each location node is connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, respectively;

receive from the first user a search query comprising location parameters;

identify a first set of location nodes based on the search query, each location node of the first set of location nodes being connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, each edge having a particular attribute;

determine a value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on a number of edges connected to the location node and the attributes of the edges connected to the location node; and

ranking the location nodes of the first set of location nodes based at least in part on the determined value for the location nodes.

14. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

access a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge between two nodes representing a single degree of separation between the two nodes, the plurality of nodes comprising;

a first user node corresponding to a first user of an online social network;

a plurality of second user nodes corresponding to a plurality of second users of the online social network, respectively; and

one or more location nodes corresponding to one or more locations, respectively,

wherein each location node is connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, respectively;

receive from the first user a search query comprising location parameters;

identify a first set of location nodes based on the search query, each location node of the first set of location nodes being connected to one or more user nodes by one or more edges, each edge having a particular attribute;

determine a value for each location node of the first set of location nodes based on a number of edges connected to the location node and the attributes of the edges connected to the location node; and

ranking the location nodes of the first set of location nodes based at least in part on the determined value for the location nodes.