Identifying Highly Valued Recommendations Of Users In A Media Recommendation Network

A server comprising:

• a server network communication interface for communicating over a network with a plurality of devices;
• at least one server processor;
• and
• server software containing software executable by the at least one server processor whereby the server is operative to
• receive a notification of the playback of a media item from a device of the plurality of devices, wherein the playback of the media item is based on a media item recommendation received by the device of the plurality of the devices for a first user account;
• determine whether a playback count of the media item is greater than a threshold;
• designate the media item recommendation as a highly valued recommendation if the playback count of the media item is greater than the threshold;
• and
• discover a second user account in the social network using a recommendation path for a highly valued recommendation by:
• identifying the recommendation path for the highly valued recommendation of the media item recommendation, where in the recommendation path comprises an originating user account in the social network and at least one intermediate user account in the social network through which the recommendation was propagated to the first user account;
• determining that one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account is not already linked to the first user account;
• and
• identifying the one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account that is not already linked to the first user account as the second user account.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program, executable by a machine, for operating a server, the computer program comprising executable instructions for

• receiving, from a device, a notification of the receipt of a media item recommendation for a media item by the device;
• determining whether the recommendation count of the media item is greater than a threshold;
• designating the media item recommendation as a highly valued recommendation if the recommendation count of the media item is greater than the threshold;
• and
• discovering a second user account in the social network using a recommendation path for a highly valued recommendation by:
• identifying the recommendation path for the highly valued recommendation of the media item recommendation, where in the recommendation path comprises an originating user account in the social network and at least one intermediate user account in the social network through which the recommendation was propagated to the first user account;
• determining that one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account is not already linked to the first user account;
• and
• identifying the one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account that is not already linked to the first user account as the second user account.

A server comprising:

• a server network communication interface;
• at least one server processor in communication with the network communication interface;
• and
• server memory containing software executable by the at least one server processor whereby the server is operative to:
• receive, from a device, a notification of the receipt of a media item recommendation for a media item by the device for a first user account;
• determine whether the recommendation count of the media item is greater than a threshold;
• designate the media item recommendation as a highly valued recommendation if the recommendation count of the media item is greater than the threshold;
• discover a second user account in the social network using a recommendation path for a highly valued recommendation by:
• identifying the recommendation path for the highly valued recommendation of the media item recommendation, where in the recommendation path comprises an originating user account in the social network and at least one intermediate user account in the social network through which the recommendation was propagated to the first user account;
• determining that one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account is not already linked to the first user account;
• and
• identifying the one of the originating user account and the at least one intermediate user account that is not already linked to the first user account as the second user account.