Display screen with a graphical user interface
Granted: September 6, 2016
Patent Number:
D765691
Member time zone inference
Granted: August 30, 2016
Patent Number:
9432466
Techniques for inferring a time zone of a user (e.g., a member of an online social network service) are described. According to various embodiments, it is determined that a particular member of an online social networks service is currently located in a particular country. Responsive to determining that a single time zone is associated with the particular country, it is determined that the particular member is currently located in the single time zone. Responsive to determining that…
Delivery time optimization
Granted: August 16, 2016
Patent Number:
9420062
Techniques for optimizing a delivery time for the delivery of messages are described. According to various embodiments, members of an online social network service that are currently located in a particular geographic location (e.g., a particular time zone) are identified. Thereafter, messages (e.g., e-mails) are transmitted to the members at multiple local times (e.g., multiple times of the day). It is then determined that one or more of the messages that were transmitted at a…
Viral invitations for social networks
Granted: August 16, 2016
Patent Number:
9419818
A system and method for virally growing a social network. The social network system receives a member account sign-up message for a first social network from a first member. The social network system then posts a member sign-up notification to the first member's event wall on a second social network; wherein the first member has one or more social contacts through the second social network. For at least a second respective member in the one or more social contacts, the social network…
Graph-based system and method of information storage and retrieval
Granted: August 16, 2016
Patent Number:
9418176
Structure of a resultant Every Document as a Graph (EVG) graph may be outlined using an EVG query. First metadata for a first data source may be retrieved. At least one entity key may be determined for a first entity, the entity key coming directly from the EVG query or from an entity on a preceding level of the EVG graph. Based on the first metadata and entity key, an edge may be created in the EVG graph beginning at the first entity, wherein the edge contains information retrieved from…
Method and system to determine a category score of a social network member
Granted: August 16, 2016
Patent Number:
9418119
A method and system to determine a category score of a social network member is described. An example system comprises a sample selector, a weight value module, a storing module, an access module, and a category score module. The sample selector selects a sample of member profiles from the profiles maintained by an on-line social network system. The weight value module obtains respective weight values associated with various phrases present in the sample of member profiles. The access…
Methods and systems for team searches in a social networking service
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9411891
Techniques for team searches within a social graph are described. Consistent with some embodiments, a search request initiated by a searching member profile is received. The search request includes search criteria. A team membership connection between the searching member profile and a team profile is then detected. Based on the detected team membership connection, profile connections between member profiles and teammates of the searching member profile are identified. The teammates are…
Second-pass ranker for push notifications in a social network
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9413838
Systems and methods for providing push notifications of social network content items include determining first and second engagement values for first and second content items, respectively, provided by first and second content item sources, respectively, based on previous interactions with content items. First and second utility values are determined for the first and second content items, respectively, based on a mathematical operation applied to the first and second engagement values,…
Pinning users to user groups
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9413706
A score is generated for each of a plurality of potential user groups in which to add the first user, each potential user group containing a plurality of users, the score based on a location of the first user. The first user is added to a first user group based on the score generated for the first user group. A pinning action by the first user pinning the first user to the first user group is then received. A change in location of the first mobile device is detected, and the score of…
Determining membership in a group based on loneliness score
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9413705
Systems and methods for the forming of user device groups are presented. In one example, potential membership of a first user in a first group of users is determined, the first group of users containing a plurality of users, by selecting the first group from a plurality of possible groups, the selecting being based on scores generated, for each of the plurality of possible groups, the scores based at least partially on the a loneliness score for the first user, the loneliness score being…
Methods and apparatus for targeting communications using social network metrics
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9411858
A method for a computer system includes receiving a first user communication, determining a first group of users, determining a target number of users, determining whether the first group of users includes the target number of users, and if not, providing the communication to the first group of users, determining a hierarchal mapping of groups of users in response to user memberships, determining a second group of users from the hierarchal mapping, determining a plurality of social…
Maintaining channels lists
Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number:
9411816
A method is provided for maintaining a list of content channels that a user of a multi-channel content service subscribes to or has followed, and a client device for operation by the user to receive the content. If a list on the user's device has been modified, the device (e.g., an applet provided by the service) informs a synchronization server by uploading the list. The server synchronizes it with a master list and downloads a copy to the device. A channels list includes an entry for…
Batch connect
Granted: August 2, 2016
Patent Number:
9407719
Disclosed in some examples is a method including determining a set of recommended connections for a member of a social networking service based upon a recommendation criteria; presenting the set of recommended connections to the member; receiving from the member a selection of a set of target members; and for each particular member in the set of target members: determining a second set of recommended connections for the particular target member, the second set of recommended connections…
Using attributes on a social network for decision-making support
Granted: August 2, 2016
Patent Number:
9407708
A first member of a social network service provides a set of desired attributes and a designation of the type of a candidate having the desired attributes that is desired as a recommendation. The attributes of the profiles of other members of the social networks are searched for entities having the set of desired attributes. At least one of the entities having the desired attributes that result from the search is presented to the first member as the recommendation of a candidate. The…
Navigating with a camera device
Granted: July 12, 2016
Patent Number:
9389087
A navigation system and method are described. A destination may be determined for a user. A starting location may be determined for the user using data obtained via a mobile device of the user. The user may be enabled to establish a route from the starting location to the destination using the mobile device. Route information that details the established route may be stored in a database for subsequent display to other users. In some embodiments, a value total for each user may be…
Social network interaction via games
Granted: July 5, 2016
Patent Number:
9381434
Techniques for enabling members to learn about and interact with their social network via games are described. According to various embodiments, it is determined that a content item or entity associated with an online social network service is relevant to a member of the online social network service. An online game including a game question and a correct game answer is generated based on the content item or entity. The game question is then displayed to the member, and a member response…
Representing compound relationships in a graph database
Granted: June 28, 2016
Patent Number:
9378303
In order to facilitate efficient storage and extraction of data, a system may represent a compound relationship in a graph stored in a graph database. In particular, the system (or a user) may define the compound relationship based on two or more predicates associated with two or more edges between two or more nodes in the graph. Then, the system may generate, in the graph, a hub node that corresponds to the compound relationship and that has an identifier that is hidden from users of…
Concatenated queries based on graph-query results
Granted: June 28, 2016
Patent Number:
9378241
In order to request desired information from a graph database, a system executes a query against the graph database. The graph database may store a graph that includes nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the query may identify a first edge associated with a predicate that specifies one or more of the nodes in the graph. In response to the query, the system receives a result that includes a subset of the graph.…
Verifying graph-based queries
Granted: June 28, 2016
Patent Number:
9378239
In order to request desired information from a graph database, a system executes a query against the graph database. The graph database may store a graph that includes nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the query may identify a first edge associated with a predicate that specifies one or more of the nodes in the graph. In response to the query, the system receives a result that includes a subset of the graph.…
Generating a supplemental description of an entity
Granted: June 21, 2016
Patent Number:
9372930
A statistically overrepresented token in the descriptions of users associated with a target entity may be descriptive of the target entity. This may be true regardless of whether a primary description of the entity includes the overrepresented token. Accordingly, the entity description machine may access multiple descriptions of multiple users associated with the target entity. A portion of the multiple descriptions may each include a token descriptive of the target entity and of a…
