Augmented news feed in an on-line social network

A computer-implemented system comprising:

• a request detector, implemented using at least one processor, to detect a request to generate a news feed web page for a focus member represented by a focus profile in an on-line social network system, the focus profile associated with one or more links representing respective connections between the focus profile and profiles of connections of the focus member in the on-line social network system;
• a cohort detector, implemented using at least one processor, to identify a cohort associated with the focus profile, the cohort comprising those member profiles in the on-line social network system that are characterized by a set of defining features;
• a leaderboard evaluator, implemented using at least one processor, to evaluate additional updates that are being presented to cohort members represented by profiles from the cohort and select a leaderboard set of updates from the additional updates based on their respective popularity with the cohort members;
• a second pass ranker, implemented using at least one processor, to generate a rank for each update in an inventory of updates, the inventory of updates comprising the leaderboard set of updates and updates from the connections of the focus member;
• and
• a news feed updates selector, implemented using at least one processor, to generate a final subset of updates based on the respective generated ranks for each update in the inventory of updates.

A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data executable by a machine to cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• detecting a request to generate a news feed web page for a focus member represented by a focus profile in an on-line social network system, the focus profile associated with one or more links representing respective connections between the focus profile and profiles of connections of the focus member in the on-line social network system;
• identifying a cohort associated with the focus profile, the cohort comprising those member profiles in the on-line social network system that are characterized by a set of defining features;
• evaluating additional updates that are being presented to cohort members represented by profiles from the cohort and selecting a leaderboard set of updates from the additional updates based on their respective popularity with the cohort members;
• generating a rank for each update in an inventory of updates, the inventory of updates comprising the leaderboard set of updates and updates from the connections of the focus member;
• and
• generating a final subset of updates based on the respective generated ranks for each update in the inventory of updates.