Methods and systems for leveraging social information, including a social graph, to identify and present content of interest

A system comprising:

• a processor to execute instructions;
• a memory device in communication with the processor and storing executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor cause the system to, at least:
• receive, from a client computing device, a request for web content to be presented in association with a web page presented at the client computing device;
• determine a topic to which the web page presented at the client computing device relates;
• identify a set of social graph content items relating to the topic, each of the set of social graph content items including a content portion and social information portion;
• for each social graph content item of the set of social graph content items, perform at least the following operations:
• generate a popularity score for the social graph content item based on an analysis of the social information portion, the analysis popularity score representing a measure of expressions of interest by users of a social network service with respect to the content portion, the expressions of interest corresponding to a particular activity undertaken by viewers of the social graph content item, the particular activity being any one of “liking” of the social graph content item, sharing of the social graph content item, or “tweeting” of social graph web content item;
• generate a relevance score for the social graph content item based on an analysis of the content portion, the relevance score representing a measure of relatedness between the topic to which the web page relates and a topic to which the content portion relates;
• and
• derive a social score for the social graph content item based on a combination of the relevance score and the popularity score;
• and
• select a predetermined number of the set of social graph content items based on their respective social scores;
• and
• communicate the predetermined number of the set of social graph content items as the web content to be presented in association with the web page presented at the client computing device.

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a client computing device, a request for web content to be presented in association with a web page presented at the client computing device;
• determining a topic to which the web page presented at the client computing device relates;
• using information identifying the viewing-user of the web page presented at the client-computing device, communicating request to a social network service for a set of social graph content items associated with a social graph of the viewing-user, the social graph of the viewing-user including members of a social networking service with whom the viewing user is connected or following via the social networking service, each of the set of social graph content items including a content portion and social information portion, a topic to which each of the social graph content items relates having a relevance score with respect to the topic to which the web page presented at the client computing device relates and a popularity score representing a measure of expressions of interest by users of a social network service with respect to the content portion, the expressions of interest corresponding to a particular activity undertaken by viewers of the social graph content item, the particular activity being any one of “liking” of the social graph content item, sharing of the social graph content item, or “tweeting” of social graph web content item;
• receiving the set of social graph content items associated with the social graph of the viewing-user;
• selecting a predetermined number of the set of social graph content items based on their respective social scores;
• and
• communicating one or more of the set of social graph content items to the client computing device as the web content for presentation in association with the web page presented at the client computing device.