Identifying viral videos

Abstract

The present invention enables methods and systems that identify viral videos. A viral video is a video which received a percentage of its views from one person sharing the video with another person. That is, a viral video received most of its views from person to person sharing. A video hosting server determines whether a video is a viral video based at least in part on views the video received through person to person sharing and the total number of views the video has received.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for identifying a viral video hosted on a video hosting website, the method comprising:
 determining a first number of social views received by the video during a first time period;   determining a second number of social views received by the video during a second time period;   calculating, by one or more computing devices, a difference between the first number of social views received during the first period and the second number of social views received during the second period; and   responsive to the difference exceeding a threshold, classifying the video as a viral video.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the video for analysis based on a total number of views received by the video exceeding a threshold total number of views.   
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying a plurality of views received by the video; and   for each of the plurality of views, classifying the view as a social view or a non-social view based on a source that referred the video to a viewer, the classification of the plurality of views identifying a plurality of social views received by the video, the plurality of social views including the first number of social views the second number of social views.   
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that a reference to the video was provided to the viewer. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 4 , wherein the reference comprises a uniform resource locator (URL). 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that the video was embedded on a web page of a third party website. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that a link to the video was sent in an email message. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that a nature of the source is indeterminate. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a non-social source in response to determining that a reference to the video was provided by a search engine. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a non-social source in response to determining that a reference to the video was provided on a webpage of a video hosting website. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 updating metadata associated with the video indicating that the video is a viral video responsive to identifying the video as a viral video.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 displaying on a view page of the video an indication that the video is a viral video.   
     
     
         13 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for controlling one or more computer processors to perform a method for identifying a viral video hosted on a video hosting website, the code when executed causes the one or more computer processors to perform steps comprising:
 determining a first number of social views received by the video during a first time period;   determining a second number of social views received by the video during a second time period;   calculating a difference between the first number of social views received during the first period and the second number of social views received during the second period; and   responsive to the difference exceeding a threshold, classifying the video as a viral video.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 13 , wherein the code when executed causes the one or more computer processors to perform further steps comprising:
 identifying a plurality of views received by the video; and   for each of the plurality of views, classifying the view as a social view or a non-social view based on a source that referred the video to a viewer, the classification of the plurality of views identifying a plurality of social views received by the video, the plurality of social views including the first number of social views the second number of social views.   
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that a reference to the video was provided to the viewer. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the reference comprises a uniform resource locator (URL). 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that the video was embedded on a web page of a third party website. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 14 , wherein the source that referred the video to a viewer is classified as a social source in response to determining that a link to the video was sent in an email message. 
     
     
         19 . A system for identifying a viral video hosted on a video hosting website, the system comprising:
 at least one server computer comprising a computer processor and a storage database comprising videos, the computer processor configured to execute instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the instructions when executed by the computer processor cause the processor to:
 determine a first number of social views received by the video during a first time period; 
 determine a second number of social views received by the video during a second time period; 
 calculate a difference between the first number of social views received during the first period and the second number of social views received during the second period; and 
 responsive to the difference exceeding a threshold, classify the video as a viral video. 
   
     
     
         20 . A computer-implemented method for identifying a viral video hosted on a video hosting website, the method comprising:
 determining a set of views received by the video;   classifying, for each of the views in the set, a source that referred the video to a viewer as either a social source or a non-social source;   determining, by one or more computing devices, a ratio of a total number of views of the video that were referred to the viewer by social sources to a total number of views in the set of views received by the video;   identifying the video as a viral video in response to the ratio exceeding a ratio threshold;   receiving, from a client device of a user, a request to view viral videos;   responsive to the request, providing a list of viral videos to the client device, the list of viral videos including a reference to the video identified as a viral video;   receiving, from the client device, a selection of the reference to the video from the list of viral videos; and   responsive to receiving the selection, providing a view page of the video to the client device, the view page including an indication that the video is a viral video.