Social Network News Ticker Content Diversity
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Social networking systems face challenges in presenting relevant actions to users, often resulting in an overload of less relevant content due to the real-time display of actions from all connected users, leading to a lack of diversity and user interest.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a news ticker system that selects and organizes stories based on diversity criteria, user affinities, and time relevance, allowing for aggregated representations and dynamic updates, while also considering the value of different content types for presentation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If real-time display of stories from all connected users is implemented, then the quantity of content displayed increases, but the relevance and diversity of content decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the news ticker content into different types (connection stories, photo stories, event stories, etc.) and applies different selection criteria to each type. This segmentation allows the system to manage the quantity of content while maintaining relevance by curating each segment separately based on user interests and engagement patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes parameters such as the number of stories displayed from each user, the time window for story selection, and the diversity thresholds based on user behavior. This allows the quantity of content to be adjusted while maintaining optimal relevance and engagement levels.
2Quantity of substance
If real-time display of stories from all connected users is implemented, then the quantity of content displayed increases, but the diversity of content types decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides content into distinct segments or types (connection stories, photo stories, event stories, recommendation stories, etc.) and ensures each type is represented in the news ticker. This segmentation guarantees diversity by systematically including multiple content types while allowing the overall quantity of content to increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies asymmetric weighting to different content types based on user preferences and engagement patterns. Some content types may be displayed more frequently or prominently while others are shown less often, creating a diverse yet personalized content mix that adapts to individual user interests.
3Loss of information
If news stories are selected based on user interest factors, then the relevance of displayed content improves, but inaccuracies in story selection may arise
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors user interactions with news stories (clicks, shares, comments, scrolling behavior) and uses this feedback to refine story selection algorithms. This feedback loop allows the system to improve relevance over time while correcting selection inaccuracies by learning from actual user behavior patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-categorizes and pre-ranks potential news stories based on user profiles, connection strength, and historical engagement patterns before they are displayed. This preliminary action allows the system to prepare multiple candidate stories with different relevance scores, enabling it to select the most accurate and relevant stories while minimizing selection errors.
4Quantity of substance
If aggregated representations of multiple stories are generated, then the information density increases, but the detail of individual stories decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments aggregated story representations into hierarchical levels: summary views that show multiple stories in a condensed format, and detailed views that expand individual stories when users show interest. This segmentation allows information density to increase in the overview while preserving story details for users who want to read more.
Solution Approach 2:
The system displays partial information (aggregated summaries) for multiple stories simultaneously, and only provides full details for selected stories that users interact with. This partial action approach maintains high information density while preserving complete story details for users who need them, rather than displaying all details for all stories.
Data Source
AI summary
A social networking system displays stories describing actions to a user in a news ticker. The stories may be selected so that a variety of types of stories, stories associated with a variety of users, or stories associated with a variety of actions are presented via the news ticker. Additionally, stories having a common characteristic, such as being associated with a common user, may be aggregated and a description of the aggregated stories is presented in the news ticker. For example, stories aggregated based on acting user may identify the user common to the stories and a description of the aggregated stories may be displayed. Further, the value to the social networking system of displaying different types of content may be used to modify how different types of content are displayed in the news ticker.