# US 2018/0322122 A1 · Recommendations for online system groups

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- Number: US 2018/0322122 A1
- Document ID: US20180322122A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/585,628
- Filed: 2017-05-03
- Published: 2018-11-08
- Earliest claimed: 2017-05-03
- Assignees: Facebook, Inc.
- Applicants: Facebook, Inc.
- Inventors: Yi Miao; Kelly Jayne Mayes; Eric Carl Ertmann; Li Ju; Congle Zhang
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20180322122A1

## CPC

- G06N 5/046: Forward inferencing; Production systems
- G06F 16/24578: {using ranking}
- G06F 16/287: {Visualization; Browsing}
- G06F 16/9535: Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
- G06N 20/00: Machine learning
- G06Q 10/42: Determination of affinities or common interests between users
- G06Q 10/44: Identification of trends within social networks, e.g. identification of trending topics
- G06Q 10/48: using social graphs
- G06Q 30/0631: {Recommending goods or services}
- H04L 67/52: specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
- G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)

## Abstract

An online system provides group recommendations by applying a set of sourcing rules to identify a plurality of candidate groups and then generating scores for the candidate groups. The sourcing rules can be configured to identify a relatively small subset of the groups maintained by the online system. After the candidate groups are identified, the online system generates a score for each candidate group, ranks the candidate groups based on the scores, and sends high-ranking candidate groups to the target user to be displayed as recommended groups. As a result, the online system generates a smaller number of scores, which advantageously allows for the online system to provide group recommendations to users in a more computationally efficient manner.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
maintaining a user account for each of a plurality of users of an online system;
maintaining a plurality of groups in the online system, each group enabling the users of the online system to interact with other users who are members of the group;
identifying a target user of the plurality of users to recommend to join one or more selected groups of the plurality of groups;
selecting a plurality of groups as candidate groups for recommending to the target user, the selection of the plurality of groups based on a plurality of sourcing rules;
for each of the candidate groups, computing a score for the candidate group for the target user by providing features extracted from the candidate group as input to a model generated based on machine learning, the score for the candidate group representing a likelihood of the target user joining the group if a recommendation to join the group is displayed to the target user;
selecting one or more of the candidate groups for display to the viewing user, the selection of a candidate group based on the score for the candidate group; and
sending a recommendation to join the selected groups for display to the target user.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if a user connected to the target user is a member of the group.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group is associated with a location less than a threshold distance from a location of the target user.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group has an activity level exceeding a threshold activity level.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group is associated with one or more attributes that match attributes of the target user.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the selected groups are displayed in a user interface in a plurality of categories, wherein the selected groups displayed in each category were identified as candidate groups by a sourcing rule corresponding to the category.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of groups in the online system is associated with one or more topics representing the subject matter of the group, and wherein each selected group is displayed in a category matching a topic associated with the selected group.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, further comprising:
for each of the plurality of categories, computing a score for the category, the score representing a prediction of the target user's interest in the category;
determining an ordering for the plurality of categories based on the score for each of the plurality of categories,
wherein the plurality of categories are displayed in the user interface in the determined ordering.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein computing the score for a category comprises determining the target user's interest in the category based on connections between the target user and a plurality of brand pages and groups related to the category.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the score for a category is computed based on an average score for groups in the category.

### Claim 11 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the score for a category is computed based on the score for the group having the highest score of the groups in the category.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of a candidate group is further based on one or more diversity rules.

### Claim 13

A method comprising:
maintaining a user account for each of a plurality of users of an online system;
maintaining a plurality of groups in the online system, each group enabling the users of the online system to interact with other users who are members of the group;
identifying a target user of the plurality of users to recommend to join one or more selected groups of the plurality of groups;
selecting a plurality of groups as candidate groups for recommending to the target user, the selection of the plurality of groups based on a plurality of sourcing rules;
for each of the candidate groups, computing a score for the candidate group for the target user, the score for the candidate group representing a likelihood of the target user joining the group if a recommendation to join the group is displayed to the target user;
selecting one or more of the candidate groups for display to the viewing user, the selection of a candidate group based on the score for the candidate group; and
sending a recommendation to join the selected groups for display to the target user.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if a user connected to the target user is a member of the group.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group is associated with a location less than a threshold distance from a location of the target user.

### Claim 16 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group has an activity level exceeding a threshold activity level.

### Claim 17 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein one of the sourcing rules identifies a group as a candidate group if the group is associated with one or more attributes that match attributes of the target user.

### Claim 18 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein the selected groups are displayed in a user interface in a plurality of categories, wherein the selected groups displayed in each category were identified as candidate groups by a sourcing rule corresponding to the category.

### Claim 19 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of groups in the online system is associated with one or more topics representing the subject matter of the group, and wherein each selected group is displayed in a category matching a topic associated with the selected group.

### Claim 20 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein the selection of a candidate group is further based on one or more diversity rules.