Patent · US Active

Automatically generating user-customized notifications of changes in a social network system

US7844604B2 · kind B2 · utility

147Cited by
6References
28Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 28, 2006
Grant dateNov 30, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 12, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06Q30/02
  • WIPO fieldIT methods for management
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Techniques are described herein for notifying a member of a social network system of those changes, within the social network system, that are of most interest to the member. In one embodiment, change records are generated for changes in the social network system. The change records are stored in an activities log. To notify a particular user of changes that would be of interest to the user, a subset of the change records contained in the activities log is selected based on user-specific selection criteria. Once the subset of change records has been selected, a set of notification records is generated based on the subset of change records. To reduce the possibility of information overload, the subset of change records is consolidated by removing duplicates and merging related notifications. The consolidated list of user-specific notifications may then be sent to the user. A variety of mechanisms may be used to send the notifications to the user, including streaming the notifications to a user (e.g. via an RSS feed), placing the notifications in a web page that is sent to the user, and sending the user an email that lists the notifications.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.