Social Affinity Score for Notification Prioritization

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Solution Overview

Problem

In social networking environments, users receive notifications about connections asymmetrically, leading to frequent delivery of low-priority notifications that can degrade the user experience for active users, as existing systems do not prioritize notifications based on social affinity between users.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that calculate a social affinity score between users based on their interaction history, behavior, and relationship information, allowing for the prioritization and scheduling of notification delivery, such as delaying or bundling notifications for users with low affinity.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Speed

If notifications are delivered immediately upon connection events, then notification delivery speed is improved, but user experience deteriorates due to frequent low-priority notifications

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenotification delivery speedVSAvoiduser experience

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system calculates social affinity scores in advance before notification events occur. By pre-computing affinity metrics based on user profiles, interaction history, and network relationships, the system prepares prioritization data ahead of time, enabling immediate notification delivery with proper prioritization without degrading user experience

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameter of notification delivery from binary (immediate/delayed) to multi-level prioritization. By introducing social affinity scores that range across different values, the system can deliver notifications immediately with varying priority levels, allowing high-priority notifications to be prominent while low-priority ones are deferred or bundled

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Quantity of substance

If all notifications are delivered immediately, then information completeness is improved, but information quality deteriorates due to low-relevance notifications

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenotification volumeVSAvoidinformation relevance

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different quality standards to different notifications based on their specific characteristics. By calculating unique social affinity scores for each user pair and notification type, the system tailors the delivery timing and prominence to the local context of each notification, ensuring high-relevance notifications receive immediate attention while low-relevance ones are handled differently

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Loss of information

If notification prioritization based on social affinity is implemented, then notification relevance is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenotification relevanceVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the notification processing into distinct modules: user profile data retrieval, interaction history analysis, social affinity score calculation, and prioritized delivery scheduling. By dividing the complex prioritization task into separate functional segments, the system manages complexity through modular design while maintaining high notification relevance

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS10084732B1Ranking to determine relevance of social connections

Publication Date: 2018.09.25 GOOGLE LLC

AI summary

In one aspect, a method includes receiving an indication that a first user has interacted with a second user in a social network, calculating a social affinity score between the first user and the second user based on first user information, second user information, or relationship information between the first user and the second user and scheduling delivery of a notification to the recipient based on the social affinity score. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.