Automated social message stream population

A method performed by a messaging system for automatically populating a stream of messages for a user, the method comprising:

• providing, by the messaging system and to a client device, for presentation to and selection by a user of the client device, multiple system-selected accounts, the multiple system-selected accounts being accounts selected by the messaging system, wherein the accounts of the messaging system include first accounts, and the system-selected accounts are selected from among the first accounts;
• receiving, by the messaging system, a request for content from the user of the client device, the request specifying two or more user-selected accounts, a user-selected account being an account selected by the user from among the multiple system-selected accounts provided by the messaging system to the client device;
• obtaining, for each of the two or more user-selected accounts, a respective feature vector, each respective feature vector representing those first accounts to which the user-selected account is interesting, wherein the respective feature vector is a vector of real numbers;
• generating, by the messaging system, a seed vector, comprising combining the respective feature vectors for each of the two or more user-selected accounts;
• determining, for each first account, a respective measure of relevance of the first account to the user based on a measure of similarity between a respective feature vector for the first account and the seed vector;
• providing, by the messaging system and to the client device, a message response to the request, wherein the message response includes messages authored by first accounts in a ranked order according to a ranking score of each message, wherein the ranking score of each message is computed as a function of at least the determined measure of relevance of the first account that authored the message;
• receiving, by the messaging system from the client device, an indication of affinity received from the user, the indication representing affinities of the user, the affinities being that the user has affinity for some of the messages in the response or is not interested in other messages in the response;
• and
• storing the indication of affinity received from the user and using the affinities in future relevance determinations by the messaging system.

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations performed by a messaging system for automatically populating a stream of messages for a user, the operations comprising:
• providing, by the messaging system and to a client device, for presentation to and selection by a user of the client device, multiple system-selected accounts, the multiple system-selected accounts being accounts selected by the messaging system, wherein the accounts of the messaging system include first accounts, and the system-selected accounts are selected from among the first accounts;
• receiving, by the messaging system, a request for content from the user of the client device, the request specifying two or more user-selected accounts, a user-selected account being an account selected by the user from among the multiple system-selected accounts provided by the messaging system to the client device;
• obtaining, for each of the two or more user-selected accounts, a respective feature vector, each respective feature vector representing those first accounts to which the user-selected account is interesting, wherein the respective feature vector is a vector of real numbers;
• generating, by the messaging system, a seed vector, comprising combining the respective feature vectors for each of the two or more user-selected accounts;
• determining, for each first account, a respective measure of relevance of the first account to the user based on a measure of similarity between a respective feature vector for the first account and the seed vector;
• providing, by the messaging system and to the client device, a message response to the request, wherein the message response includes messages authored by first accounts in a ranked order according to a ranking score of each message, wherein the ranking score of each message is computed as a function of at least the determined measure of relevance of the first account that authored the message;
• receiving, by the messaging system from the client device, an indication of affinity received from the user, the indication representing affinities of the user, the affinities being that the user has affinity for some of the messages in the response or is not interested in other messages in the response;
• and
• storing the indication of affinity received from the user and using the affinities in future relevance determinations by the messaging system.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations performed by a messaging system for automatically populating a stream of messages for a user, the operations comprising:
• providing, by the messaging system and to a client device, for presentation to and selection by a user of the client device, multiple system-selected accounts, the multiple system-selected accounts being accounts selected by the messaging system, wherein the accounts of the messaging system include first accounts, and the system-selected accounts are selected from among the first accounts;
• receiving, by the messaging system, a request for content from the user of the client device, the request specifying two or more user-selected accounts, a user-selected account being an account selected by the user from among the multiple system-selected accounts provided by the messaging system to the client device;
• obtaining, for each of the two or more user-selected accounts, a respective feature vector, each respective feature vector representing those first accounts to which the user-selected account is interesting, wherein the respective feature vector is a vector of real numbers;
• generating, by the messaging system, a seed vector, comprising combining the respective feature vectors for each of the two or more user-selected accounts;
• determining, for each first account, a respective measure of relevance of the first account to the user based on a measure of similarity between a respective feature vector for the first account and the seed vector;
• providing, by the messaging system and to the client device, a message response to the request, wherein the message response includes messages authored by first accounts in a ranked order according to a ranking score of each message, wherein the ranking score of each message is computed as a function of at least the determined measure of relevance of the first account that authored the message;
• receiving, by the messaging system from the client device, an indication of affinity received from the user, the indication representing affinities of the user, the affinities being that the user has affinity for some of the messages in the response or is not interested in other messages in the response;
• and
• storing the indication of affinity received from the user and using the affinities in future relevance determinations by the messaging system.