Customized presentation of event guest lists in a social networking system

• US 9,047,382 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baldwin, Robert Michael, Bridge, Henry, Morris, Robyn David
• Primary Examiner(s): BURGESS, BARBARA N
• Application Number:
  US13/584,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20140047045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A user creates an event in a social networking system specifying a location, a time, and a guest list of other users invited to the event. The social networking system generates a page associated with the event that provides information about the event and identifies whether users have responded to invitations to the event. The content of the page may be customized for the user viewing the page to encourage the viewing user to attend the event. For example, the viewing user'"'"'s relationship to and/or similar characteristics with other users on the guest list is determined and used by the social networking system to identify the users whose responses to invitations are shown to the viewing user via the page. Additionally, a notification method more prominently distributes acceptances of invitations to other users to encourage attendance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with the event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system who are invited to the event;

for each of the users identified by the guest list, determining, by a processor, an acceptance state for the user based on a response received from the user;

grouping, by the processor, the users identified by the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, each of the one or more groups comprising users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group from the one or more groups;

accessing a user profile associated with a viewing user;

accessing user profiles associated with the users in the selected group, the user profiles identifying characteristics of the users in the selected group;

ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group;

determining a display comprising a plurality of the users identified by the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

identifying users within the selected group connected to the viewing user; and

ranking users within the selected group connected to the viewing user based on affinity with the viewing user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

determining whether a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is a host associated with the event; and

responsive to determining a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is the host associated with the event, increasing a ranking associated with the host associated with the event.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

determining whether a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is a user that invited the viewing user to the event; and

responsive to determining a user within the selected group connected to the viewing includes the user that invited the viewing user to the event, increasing a ranking associated with the user that invited the viewing user to the event.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprises:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user;

for each user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user, determining a user connected to both the viewing user and to a user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on an affinity between the viewing user and the user connected to both the viewing user and to the user in the selected group that is not connected to the viewing user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprising:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user;

determining a number of mutual connections between the viewing user and each user within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the number of mutual connections with the viewing user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group comprising:

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user; and

ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein ranking the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user based on the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user comprises:

determining a relationship status of the viewing user from the user profile associated with the viewing user;

responsive to determining the relationship status of the viewing user is single, determining a preferred gender of the viewing user from the user profile associated with the viewing user; and

identifying users within the selected group that are not connected to the viewing user having a relationship status of single and the preferred gender of the viewing user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the display based on the ranking comprises:

selecting the identified users.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the determined display to the viewing user comprises:

generating a page associated with the event, the page including the determined display.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the page associated with the event for display to the viewing user comprises:

responsive to the selected group of users including users connected to the viewing user, retrieving an image and a user name for each of the selected set of users; and

responsive to the selected set of users not including users connected to the viewing user, retrieving the image for each of the selected set of users.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the images for each of the selected set of users are placed in a different order each time the viewing user accesses the page associated with the event.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the acceptance state is selected from a group consisting of:

an accepted state indicating a received response indicating a user is attending the event, a possible state indicating a received response indicating the user is uncertain regarding attending the event, an invited state indicating the user has received an invitation but has not responded to the invitation and a declined state indicating the user is not attending the event.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking comprises:

generating a display including a list of the users on the guest list, the list ordered based on the ranking.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list based on the ranking comprises:

generating a display including a subset of users within the selected group and the common acceptance state associated with the selected group.

16. A method comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with the event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system invited to the event;

for each of the users identified by the guest list, determining, by a processor, an acceptance state for the user based on a response received from the user;

grouping, by the processor, the users identified by the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, each of the one or more groups comprising users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group of users from the one or more groups;

ranking the users within the selected group based on interactions between a viewing user and the users within the selected group;

determining a display of at least a plurality of the users identified by the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the interactions between the viewing user and the users within the selected group comprise one or more selected from a group consisting of:

a connection between the viewing user and a user within the selected group, an interest common to the viewing user and the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the viewing user and communication between the viewing user and the user within the selected group.

18. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory having instructions for performing steps comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with an event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system who are invited to the event;

for each of the users identified by the guest list, determining, by a processor, an acceptance state for the user based on a response received from the user;

grouping, by the processor, the users identified by the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, each of the one or more groups comprising users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group of users from the one or more groups;

accessing a user profile associated with a viewing user;

accessing user profiles associated with the users in the selected group, the user profiles identifying characteristics of the users in the selected group;

ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group;

determining a display comprising a plurality of the users identified by the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

19. The computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 18, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

identifying users within the selected group connected to the viewing user; and

ranking users within the selected group connected to the viewing user based on affinity with the viewing user.

20. The computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 19, wherein ranking users within the selected group based on information from the user profile associated with the viewing user and the user profiles associated with the users in the selected group further comprises:

determining whether a user within the selected group connected to the viewing user is a user that invited the viewing user to the event; and

responsive to determining a user within the selected group connected to the viewing includes the user that invited the viewing user to the event, increasing a ranking associated with the user that invited the viewing user to the event.

21. The computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 18, wherein the acceptance state is selected from a group consisting of:

an accepted state indicating a received response indicating a user is attending the event, a possible state indicating a received response indicating the user is uncertain regarding attending the event, an invited state indicating the user has received an invitation but has not responded to the invitation and a declined state indicating the user is not attending the event.

22. The computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 18, wherein determining the display of at least a plurality of the users on the guest list is based on the ranking comprises:

generating a display including a list of the users on the guest list, the list ordered based on the ranking.

23. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory having instructions for performing steps comprising:

accessing a guest list associated with an event, the guest list identifying users of a social networking system invited to the event;

for each of the users identified by the guest list, determining, by a processor, an acceptance state for the user based on a response received from the user;

grouping, by the processor, the users identified by the guest list into one or more groups based on the acceptance state associated with each of the users, each of the one or more groups comprising users having a common acceptance state;

selecting a group of users from the one or more groups;

ranking the users within the selected group based on interactions between a viewing user and the users within the selected group;

determining a display comprising a plurality of the users identified by the guest list based on the ranking; and

presenting the determined display to the viewing user.

24. The computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 23, wherein the interactions between the viewing user and the users within the selected group comprise one or more selected from a group consisting of:

a connection between the viewing user and a user within the selected group, an interest common to the viewing user and the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the user within the selected group, prior events attended by the viewing user and communication between the viewing user and the user within the selected group.