Clustering a user's connections in a social networking system
US9846916B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 10, 2011 |
| Grant date | Dec 19, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 17, 2034 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q50/01
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A user's connections in a social networking system are grouped into a number of clusters based on a measure of the connections' relationships, or affinity, to each other. The affinities among the connections are based on the connections' own relationships and indicate a likelihood that the connections are in the same social circles. The clusters are formed based on the affinities among the user's connections, where the clusters tend to have connections that have relatively high affinities with the other connections the same cluster as compared to the connections who are not in the same cluster. An iterative hierarchical clustering algorithm may be used to collapse the connections into clusters based on affinities between pairs of the connections.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.