Online Content Delivery Based on Information from Social Networks

Abstract

In one embodiment, a social-networking system identifies a first plurality of users of the online social network, wherein the first plurality of users each share one or more user attributes, accesses, from a tracking database, tracking information of online activities of the first plurality of users with respect to a plurality of content objects, each content object having an associated stored value, calculates, for each content object, a first probability of interaction with the content object by the first plurality of users based on the accessed tracking information, calculates, for each content object, an expected value based on the associated stored value and the first probability of interaction, and sends, to a client device of a first user of the first plurality of users, one or more of the content objects based on the calculated expected values.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising, by one or more computing systems of an online social network:
 identifying a first plurality of users of the online social network, wherein the first plurality of users each share one or more user attributes;   accessing, from a tracking database, tracking information of online activities of the first plurality of users with respect to a plurality of content objects, each content object having an associated stored value;   calculating, for each content object, a first probability of interaction with the content object by the first plurality of users based on the accessed tracking information;   calculating, for each content object, an expected value based on the associated stored value and the first probability of interaction; and   sending, to a client device of a first user of the first plurality of users, one or more of the content objects based on the calculated expected values.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user attributes comprise one or more of age, gender, location, hometown, interests, relationship status, or income. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of users have previously influenced the online activities of the first user. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of users are members of a predefined custom group. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of users are friends of the first user on the online social network. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, wherein each node corresponds to a user of the online social network, wherein each edge between two nodes represents a single degree of separation between the two nodes, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of edges required to traverse the social graph data from one user node to the other.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the node corresponding to the first user is within a threshold degree of separation of the nodes corresponding to each other user of the first plurality of users. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more content objects sent to the client device of the first user comprise content objects having expected values greater than a threshold expected value. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more content objects sent to the client device of the first user further comprise content objects having expected values below a threshold expected value and first probabilities of interaction greater than a threshold probability of interaction. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying a second plurality of users of the online social network, wherein the second plurality of users each share one or more user attributes;   accessing, from a tracking database, tracking information of online activities of the second plurality of users with respect to the plurality of content objects; and   calculating, for each content object, a second probability of interaction with the content object by the second plurality of users based on the accessed tracking information.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein calculating the expected value for each content object is based on the associated stored value and the greater of the first probability of interaction and the second probability of interaction. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more content objects sent to the client device of the first user comprise content objects having expected values greater than a threshold value. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more content objects sent to the client device of the first user further comprise content objects having expected values below a threshold value and a first probability of interaction or a second probability of interaction greater than a threshold probability of interaction. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more content objects are sent to the client device of the first user in response to a request to access a home page of the online social network associated with the first user. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the content objects sent to the client device of the first user comprises a hyperlink associated with the respective content object. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein each hyperlink associated with the content object may be selected by the first user to access third-party content associated with the content object on a third-party website external to the online social network. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more content objects sent to the client device of the first user further comprises one or more of:
 an image associated with the content object;   a text associated with the content object;   a content type indicator; or   a content object identifier.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the client device of the first user, an indication of one or more interactions with one or more of the content objects sent to the client device of the first user; and   updating the tracking information of the first user from the tracking database based on the interactions.   
     
     
         19 . A system comprising: one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to:
 identify a first plurality of users of the online social network, wherein the first plurality of users each share one or more user attributes;   access, from a tracking database, tracking information of online activities of the first plurality of users with respect to a plurality of content objects, each content object having an associated stored value;   calculate, for each content object, a first probability of interaction with the content object by the first plurality of users based on the accessed tracking information;   calculate, for each content object, an expected value based on the associated stored value and the first probability of interaction; and   send, to a client device of a first user of the first plurality of users, one or more of the content objects based on the calculated expected values.   
     
     
         20 . One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
 identify a first plurality of users of the online social network, wherein the first plurality of users each share one or more user attributes;   access, from a tracking database, tracking information of online activities of the first plurality of users with respect to a plurality of content objects, each content object having an associated stored value;   calculate, for each content object, a first probability of interaction with the content object by the first plurality of users based on the accessed tracking information;   calculate, for each content object, an expected value based on the associated stored value and the first probability of interaction; and   send, to a client device of a first user of the first plurality of users, one or more of the content objects based on the calculated expected values.