Search system for temporally relevant social data

A system for providing a relevant informational item to a user, comprising:

• a processing unit;
• and
• a memory, including computer readable instructions, which when executed by the processing unit is operable to provide a temporally relevant social data search system operative to:
• mine a plurality of social networking data sources for collecting social data items;
• parse the collected social data items for detecting entities;
• generate a graph knowledgebase storing a first node representing a first entity, wherein the first entity is a social data item from the collected social data items, a second node representing a second entity, wherein the second entity is associated with the social data item, and an edge representing a relationship connecting the first node and the second node;
• calculate a relatedness score between the first entity and the second entity based at least in part on an amount of and recency of social activity associated with the first entity and the second entity;
• responsive to receiving an exploratory query by the user for information associated with the second entity, query the graph knowledgebase for identifying social data items related to the second entity;
• increase the relatedness score of identified social data items related to the second entity that include information relevant to the user based on personalization information;
• select a social data item related to the second entity based on the relatedness score;
• generate a response to the user including the information parsed from the selected social data item;
• and
• deliver the response to the user via a communication channel.

A computer readable storage device including computer readable instructions, which when executed by a processing unit is operable to:

• mine a plurality of social networking data sources for collecting social data items;
• parse the collected social data items for detecting entities;
• generate a graph knowledgebase storing a first node representing a first entity, wherein the first entity is a social data item from the collected social data items, a second node representing a second entity, wherein the second entity is associated with the social data item, and an edge representing a relationship connecting the first node and the second node;
• calculate a relatedness score between the first entity and the second entity based at least in part on an amount of and recency of social activity associated with the first entity and the second entity;
• responsive to receiving an exploratory query by the user for information associated with the second entity, query the graph knowledgebase for identifying social data items related to the second entity;
• increase a relatedness score of identified social data items related to the second entity that include information relevant to the user based on personalization information;
• select a social data item related to the second entity based on the relatedness score;
• generate a response to the user including the information parsed from the selected social data item;
• and
• deliver the response to the user via a communication channel.