Content Federator for Social Network Relevance

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Solution Overview

Problem

Social networks face challenges in balancing content from diverse sources, as poor quality content sources can overwhelm users with irrelevant or low-quality content, and existing systems lack sensitivity to the quality and relevance of content items from various sources.

Innovation Solution

A content source federator assesses the quality and reliability of content sources, adjusts the perceived value of content items, and prioritizes their display based on user interactions and engagement metrics, ensuring a balanced and relevant user experience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If content items are obtained from multiple content item sources and displayed to users, then the quantity and diversity of content is improved, but the quality and relevance of content deteriorates due to poor quality sources overwhelming users with irrelevant content

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequantity of content itemsVSAvoidquality and relevance of content

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

A federator module is introduced as an intermediary between multiple content item sources and the user interface. The federator obtains content items from various sources, assesses their quality and reliability using quality metrics, and selectively federates high-quality content to users. This mediator filters out poor quality content while maintaining access to diverse sources, resolving the contradiction between content quantity and content quality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where user interactions with content items (such as clicks, likes, shares) are tracked and used to adjust quality metrics of content sources. The federator continuously learns from user behavior patterns and refines its selection criteria, improving content relevance over time while maintaining diverse sourcing. This feedback loop ensures that high-quality content is prioritized without reducing overall content availability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Ease of operation

If content items from various sources are displayed without quality assessment, then the ease of operation and content availability is improved, but the user experience deteriorates due to overwhelming irrelevant content

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent availabilityVSAvoiduser experience quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The federator performs preliminary quality assessment of content items before they are displayed to users. Quality metrics are calculated in advance based on source reliability, content characteristics, and user preferences. This preliminary filtering ensures that only high-quality content reaches the user interface, preventing the harmful effect of irrelevant content overwhelming users while maintaining easy access to relevant content.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system applies different quality assessment criteria and weighting factors to different content sources and content types. Each content source is evaluated with customized quality metrics appropriate to its nature (e.g., sponsored content vs. organic recommendations). This localized quality approach allows the system to maintain high standards across diverse sources while preserving the ease of content availability through automated, source-specific evaluation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Adaptability or versatility

If sponsored content and organic content are mixed without differentiation, then the versatility of content display is improved, but the ability to detect and measure content value deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent display flexibilityVSAvoidcontent value measurement

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The system visually differentiates between sponsored content and organic content recommendations in the user interface, using distinct visual indicators or styling. This visual differentiation allows users to easily distinguish content types while the backend maintains unified quality assessment. The federator assigns different value metric calculations to sponsored versus organic content, enabling precise measurement of each type's value while preserving display versatility through visual cues.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #32Color changes

Data Source

PatentUS10395260B2Federation of content items in a social network based on personalized relevance

Publication Date: 2019.08.27 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

A system and method for the federation of content items of a social network based on personalized relevance includes obtaining content items from first and second content item sources. Profile data for a member of the social network is obtained from the electronic data storage. A relevance score of the content item to the profile data of the member is determined for each of the content items. A utility value is determined based on the selection value, the value metric for content items from the first content item source, and the relevance score. A user device associated with the member displays the content items based on their respective utility values.