Method and system to determine a member profile associated with a reference in a publication

A computer-implemented system comprising:

• a share event detector, implemented using at least one processor, to detect a publication that was shared by a member of an on-line social networking system;
• a name phrase detector, implemented using at least one processor, to determine that the publication includes a name entity, the name entity comprising a string of characters;
• a candidate list generator, implemented using at least one processor, to select one or more candidate profiles from a plurality of member profiles in the on-line social networking system, based on the name entity;
• and
• a disambiguation module, implemented using at least one processor, to select a matching profile from the candidate profiles, utilizing one or more disambiguation techniques, the one or more disambiguation techniques comprising utilizing data from a candidate profile from the one or more candidate profiles;
• a name recognition module, implemented using at least one processor, to identify the matching profile from the candidate profiles as a member profile in the on-line social networking system that represents a member referenced by the name entity;
• and
• a notification delivery module, implemented using at least one processor, to deliver a notification of the publication to members represented by the respective one or more profiles of connections of the candidate profile.

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

• detecting a publication that was shared by a member of an on-line social networking system;
• determining that the publication includes a name entity, the name entity comprising a string of characters;
• selecting one or more candidate profiles from a plurality of member profiles in the on-line social networking system, based on the name entity;
• selecting a matching profile from the candidate profiles, utilizing one or more disambiguation techniques, the one or more disambiguation techniques comprising utilizing data from a candidate profile from the one or more candidate profiles;
• identifying, using at least one processor, the matching profile from the candidate profiles as a member profile in the on-line social networking system that represents a member referenced by the name entity;
• and
• delivering a notification of the publication to members represented by the respective one or more profiles of connections of the candidate profile.