Search Result Ranking Using Social Graph Connections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current internet search technologies fail to effectively leverage a user's social graph to provide relevant and trustworthy search results, often presenting unstructured and unreliable information, making it difficult for users to find interesting entities and unknown sources.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that receives a search query, identifies points of interest, determines associated persons from the user's social graph based on their presence or past presence at those points, and generates search results including the point of interest and information about the associated persons, such as their messages and profiles, to enhance the relevance and trustworthiness of search results.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional search technologies are used to provide search results, then the search process is simple and fast, but the results are unstructured, unreliable, and do not leverage user's social graph information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges traditional search engine results with social graph data by integrating person information, relationships, and social context into the search result presentation. This combination allows the system to leverage both the structured search capabilities and the trustworthiness of social connections, resolving the contradiction between result reliability and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces social graph data as an intermediary layer between the user and search results. By using social connections as a mediator to filter and present information, the system enhances trustworthiness while maintaining a manageable complexity through the use of existing social graph infrastructure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If search results include information from user's social graph, then the results become more relevant and trustworthy, but the processing and integration complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and structuring social graph data before it is needed for search results. Social connections, person information, and relationship data are organized in advance, allowing the search system to quickly integrate this pre-processed information without adding significant complexity to the real-time search processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the search result generation process into distinct modules: traditional search result generation, social graph data retrieval, person information extraction, and integrated result presentation. This segmentation allows each component to be developed and optimized independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high adaptability.
3Productivity
If the system integrates social graph data into search results, then user interest and engagement increase, but the data processing requirements and system resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by selectively integrating social graph information only for search results that benefit from it, rather than processing all search results uniformly. The system identifies when social context adds value and applies the enhanced processing only in those cases, reducing overall computational resource consumption while maintaining high user productivity for relevant queries.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are systems, methods, and computer-readable media for providing search results having contacts from a user's social graph are provided herein. A search query is received from a user of client computer, and a point of interest responsive to the search query is determined. A person associated with the point of interest is identified, and a relationship in a social graph between the person and the user is identified. A search result that includes the point of interest and information about the person in the user's social graph associated with the point of interest is generated, and the search result is transmitted over a network to the client computer.


