Ranking notifications in a social network feed

A method, comprising:

• determining, via hardware processing circuitry, characteristics of a plurality of user accounts based on content viewing activity of the plurality of user accounts over a first time period;
• clustering, via the hardware processing circuitry, the characteristics of a plurality of users to generate a plurality of value sets, each value set defining value ranges for at least some of the characteristics, and each value set based on characteristics of at least two accounts of a social network;
• associating, via the hardware processing circuitry, a content ranking with each of the plurality of value sets;
• establishing, via the hardware processing circuitry, a session for a first account of the social network;
• storing a user specific database for the first account, the user specific database separately maintaining a set of long term affinity scores for a plurality of categories of content and a set of short term affinity scores for the plurality of categories of content,
• the set of long term affinity scores being determined based on disconnected activity of the first account and represents the characteristics of the plurality of user accounts,
• the short term affinity scores being determined based content viewing activity performed by the first account during the established session;
• matching, via the hardware processing circuitry, one of the plurality of value sets to the first account based on characteristics of the first user account;
• determining, via the hardware processing circuitry, based on the set of long term affinity scores, a first ranking for the first account associated with the matching one of the plurality of value sets prior to receiving a request for content from the first account;
• determining, via the hardware processing circuitry, in response to receiving the request for content from the first account, a second set of characteristics of the first account based on the content viewing activity of the first account over a second time period,
• the second set of characteristics representing current content viewing preferences associated with the first account comprising the short term affinity scores for the plurality of categories of content;
• modifying the first ranking, determined prior to receiving the request for content from the first account, based the second set of characteristics that represent the current content viewing preferences associated with the first account comprising affinity scores for the categories of content;
• and
• displaying, via the session, the content based on the modified first ranking.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed configure hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:

• determining, via hardware processing circuitry, characteristics of a plurality of user accounts based on content viewing activity of the plurality of user accounts over a first time period;
• clustering, via the hardware processing circuitry, the characteristics of a plurality of users to generate a plurality of value sets, each value set defining value ranges for at least some of the characteristics, and each value set based on characteristics of at least two accounts of a social network,
• associating, via the hardware processing circuitry, a content ranking with each of the plurality of value sets;
• establishing, via the hardware processing circuitry, a session for a first account of the social network;
• storing a user specific database for the first account, the user specific database separately maintaining a set of long term affinity scores for a plurality of categories of content and a set of short term affinity scores for the plurality of categories of content, the set of long term affinity scores being determined based on disconnected activity of the first account and represents the characteristics of the plurality of user accounts, the short term affinity scores being determined based content viewing activity performed by the first account during the established session;
• matching, via the hardware processing circuitry, one of the plurality of value sets to the first account based on characteristics of the first user account;
• determining, via the hardware processing circuitry, based on the set of long term affinity scores, a first ranking for the first account associated with the matching one of the plurality of value sets prior to receiving a request for content from the first account;
• determining, via the hardware processing circuitry, in response to receiving the request for content from the first account, a second set of characteristics of the first account based on the content viewing activity of the first account over a second time period, the second set of characteristics representing current content viewing preferences associated with the first account comprising the short term affinity scores for the plurality of categories of content;
• modifying the first ranking, determined prior to receiving the request for content from the first account, based the second set of characteristics that represent the current content viewing preferences associated with the first account comprising affinity scores for the categories of content;
• and
• displaying, via the session, the content based on the modified first ranking.