Alex S Jaffe

US Patent:

20090319288, Dec 24, 2009

Filed:

Jun 24, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/145436

Inventors:

Malcolm Slaney - Sunnyvale CA, US
Alex Jaffe - Seattle WA, US
Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar - Berkeley CA, US
Aris Anagnostopoulos - San Francisco CA, US
Michael Mahoney - Redwood City CA, US
Mohammad Mahdian - Santa Clara CA, US
Matthew Rothenberg - Oakland CA, US
Arpita Ghosh - Santa Clara CA, US

Assignee:

Yahoo Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

G06Q 99/00

US Classification:

705 1

Abstract:

A social network is managed by applying connectivity and similarity measures to social network information to identify possible new relationships between social network users, and then automatically suggest those identified relationships to the social network users. The social network information can include user profile information and indicate existing social relationships between the users in the social network. Users can provide feedback regarding the suggestions, including indications whether the relationship was accepted, consummated, or declined. The social network information can be updated using the feedback. Similarity measures can be based on one or more of shared contacts, or common interests or activities, or content associated with social network users, or ratings within the social network of users and/or their content. Possible relationships having similarity measures that suggest the users likely to already know each other, can be omitted and not suggested.