Methods and systems for the display and navigation of a social network
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsOrkut Buyukkokten, Adam Douglas Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for the display and navigation of a social network or set forth. According to one embodiment a method comprising identifying a first profile in a social network, identifying associated profiles associated with the first profile, ranking the associated profiles, wherein ranking is not based exclusively on a degree of separation, and outputting the associated profiles based at least in part on the ranking is set forth. According to another embodiment a method comprising identifying a user profile, identifying a member profile, determining an association path for the user profile and the member profile, and outputting the association path is set forth.
Claims28
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- identifying by a server device a first profile in a social network, the social network comprising a computer network connecting the server device and a plurality of client devices, the profiles maintained in a database;
- identifying by the server device associated profiles associated with the first profile;
- ranking by the server device the associated profiles, wherein the ranking is independent of a relationship to the first profile and is based on at least one of:
- availability for instant messaging and availability for email contact;
- determining by the server device relationships between the first profile and the ranked associated profiles;
- and
- transmitting to a display device the associated profiles based on the ranking and on the relationships between the first profile and the ranked associated profiles.
A computer-readable storage medium containing program code to be used on a computer comprising program code that instructs one or more computer processors to:
- identify a first profile in a social network;
- identify associated profiles associated with the first profile;
- rank the associated profiles, wherein the ranking is independent of a
- relationship to the first profile and is based on at least one of:
- popularity of each of the associated profiles, activity levels of the associated profiles, recency of activity of each of the associated profiles, frequency of updating of each of the associated profiles, recency of updating of each of the associated profiles, availability for instant messaging, and availability for email contact;
- determine relationships between the first profile and the ranked associated profiles;
- and
- transmit the associated profiles based on the ranking and on the relationships between the first profile and the ranked associated profiles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.