Patent Application
20080065701
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
Degrees of separation in a social network are defined relative to an individual. For example, in ME's social network, H and ME are separated by 2 d/s, whereas in G's social network, H and G are separated by only 1 d/s. Accordingly, each individual will have their own set of first, second and third degree relationships.
As those skilled in the art understand, an individual's social network may be extended to include nodes to an Nth degree of separation. As the number of degrees increases beyond three, however, the number of nodes typically grows at an explosive rate and quickly begins to mirror the ALL set.
The application server 251 manages a user database 254, a relationship database 255, a search database 256, and other databases 257. The user database 254 contains profile information for each of the user in the online social network managed by the system 250. The profile information may include, among other things: a unique user identifier (user ID), name, age, gender, location, hometown, references to image files, listing of interests, attributes, and the like. The user database 254 also contains information about groups (e.g., organizations, school alumni associations, family, etc.) that users have defined. The group information may include, among other things: a unique group identifier (group ID), name, description of the group, and members of the group. The relationship database 255 stores for each user, the user IDs of all users with whom the user has a direct relationship, i.e., direct friends of the user who are users of the online social network. In addition, the contents of the user database 254 are indexed and optimized for search, and stored in the search database 256. The other databases 257 may include a database for storing testimonials, and various other information commonly stored in online social networks and communities. The user database 254, the relationship database 255, the search database 256, and the other databases 257 are updated to reflect inputs of new user information and edits of existing user information that are made through the remote computers 270.
The application server 251 also manages the information exchange requests that it receives from the remote computers 270. The graph servers 252 receive a query from the application server 251, process the query and return the query results to the application server 251. The graph servers 252 manage a representation of the social network for all users in the member database. The graph servers 252 have a dedicated memory device 253, such as a random access memory (RAM), in which an adjacency list that indicates all first degree relationships in the social network is stored. The graph servers 252 respond to requests from application server 251 to identify relationships and the degree of separation between users of the online social network.
In the embodiments of the present invention described below, users are respectively operating the remote computers 270 that are programmed to execute web browser programs, and access the web pages managed by the application server 251 using the web browser programs. The web pages that are displayed to a user are transmitted from the application server 251 to that user's remote computer and processed by the web browser program stored in that user's remote computer for display through the monitor of that user's remote computer.
The items stored in the queue 310 then undergo a filter process 320 one at a time on a first-in, first-out basis. The filter process 320 examines the items in the queue 310 and supplies them to updated content buckets 330, which represents a series of memory regions that have been allocated to the users of the online social network. The filter process 320 selectively supplies the items in the queue 310 to the updated content buckets 330 in accordance with rules 335 that have been defined for the users. For example, the filter process 320 selectively supplies the items in the queue 310 to the updated content bucket 330 of user A in accordance with rules 335 that have been defined for user A; the filter process 320 selectively supplies the items in the queue 310 to the updated content bucket 330 of user B in accordance with rules 335 that have been defined for user B; and so forth. For each user, the rules 335 include an identification of those users or groups whose content he or she desires to track and specify the type of content updates or changes that he or she desires to track. By applying these rules to the filter process 320, the items stored in the queue 310 are stored in an updated content bucket 330 of a user only if such items represent content updates or changes of another user or group that he or she desires to track and are of the type that he or she desires to track.
The items stored in the updated content buckets 330 undergo output processing 340. The output processing 340 is carried out separately for each of the different updated content buckets 330 and in accordance with the rules 335 defined by the user who is associated with the updated content bucket. For each user, the rules 335 specify the frequency of the output processing 340, and the method of notification, whether by e-mail 342, a web page 344, or an RSS feed 346.
In step 510, user inputs that reflect updates and changes to content are received and stored in a queue. The items stored in the queue are then processed one at a time and per user in accordance with steps 514-522. Step 514 represents the beginning of the loop. In this step, an item stored in the queue and a user are selected for processing. Each time through the loop, a next user is selected. If all users have been selected, then the first user and a next item stored in the queue are selected for processing.
In step 516, the selected user's rules are examined to see if the queue item being processed is of the type that the user is tracking. If it is, the process continues to step 518. If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop. In step 518, the selected user's rules are examined to see if the queue item being processed is an update made by a user or group that the selected user is tracking. If it is, the process continues to step 520. If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop. In step 520, the item being processed is stored in the selected user's updated content bucket. Step 522 checks to see if all items in the queue have been processed for all users. If this condition is true, the process ends. If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop.
While particular embodiments according to the invention have been illustrated and described above, those skilled in the art understand that the invention can take a variety of forms and embodiments within the scope of the appended claims.
