Document and content feed

Abstract

An information feed is provided that surfaces information items that are determined to be interesting or relevant to a user. The information feed may be updated with new information items each time the feed is accessed by the user. Information not surfaced to the user in the feed may be accessed by the user via one or more other means, but only those items having a sufficient importance to the user are surfaced in the feed. Items in the feed are sorted by order of importance or relevance to the user. When new items are added to the feed, they are sorted relative to each other, but are displayed separately from previous groupings of items added to the feed. Items may be reposted to different positions in the feed, and items may be manually removed from the feed if desired.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of generating and updating an information feed of a user, comprising:
 in response to detecting an access to the information feed, generating a first instance of the information feed populated with a first set of information items to provide for display to the user, the first set of information items including at least a subset of a plurality of information items received from one or more information sources, the subset selected and displayed based on a ranked relevance of the plurality of information items to the user;   receiving one or more new information items from the one or more information sources;   determining a relevance of the one or more new information items to the user;   ranking the one or more new information items based on the relevance determination;   storing the ranked new information items as new feed candidates in an index, wherein the new feed candidates are stored in the index according to the ranking;   until a subsequent access to the information feed or a refresh of the first instance of the information feed is detected, iteratively determining an updated relevance of the new feed candidates, re-ranking the new feed candidates based on the updated relevance determination, and updating the index based on the re-ranking; and   in response to detecting one of the subsequent access to the information feed or the refresh of the first instance of the information feed, generating a second instance of the information feed populated with a second set of information items to provide for display to the user, the second set of information items comprising at least a subset of the new feed candidates retrieved from the index, wherein the subset of the new feed candidates is selected and displayed based on a most recent iteration of re-ranking.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the one or more information sources, new activity data associated with one or more existing information items from the plurality of information items that are not included in the subset of the plurality of information items;   determining an updated relevance of the one or more existing information items to the user based on the new activity data;   re-ranking the one or more existing information items based on the updated relevance determination; and   storing the re-ranked one or more existing information items as part of the new feed candidates in the index according to the re-ranking.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the relevance of the one or more new information items to the user further comprises determining the relevance of the one or more new information items to the user relative to the relevance of the plurality of information items to the user. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the relevance of an information item to the user comprises analyzing attributes of the information item and one or more relationships between persons, including the user, associated with the information item to generate a score based on one or more factors, wherein a ranking of the information item is based on the generated score. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the one or more factors include one or more of:
 an author of the information item and a relationship of the author to the user;   one or more persons who have viewed the information item, a relationship of the one or more persons to the user, a number of views by the one or more persons, and a frequency of views by the one or more persons;   whether a person shared the information item with the user and a relationship of the person to the user;   one or more topics included in the information item; and   one or more social interactions with the information item.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein scores generated for the subset of the plurality of information items in the first set of information items and the subset of the new feed candidates in the second set of information items meet a threshold score. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the first instance of the information feed comprises arranging the subset of the plurality of information items in the first set of information items in a first order based on the ranked relevance of the plurality of information items to the user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the second set of information items further comprises at least a portion of the first set of information items, and generating the second instance of the information feed comprises arranging the subset of the new feed candidates in a second order based on the most recent iteration of re-ranking while maintaining the first set of information items in the first order. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising in response to one or more of receiving the one or more new information items and receiving new activity data associated with one or more of the plurality of information items, determining an updated relevance of the plurality of information items, including the subset of the plurality of information items in the first set of information items, and re-ranking the plurality of information items based on the updated relevance. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising maintaining the arrangement of the subset of the plurality of information items in the first set of information items in the first order in the second instance of the information feed, regardless of the updated relevance and re-ranking being inconsistent with a basis for the arrangement of the first set of information items in the first order. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising updating the arrangement of the first set of information items by re-ordering one or more of the subset of the plurality of information items based on the updated relevance and re-ranking. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising, based on the updated relevance and re-ranking, adding an information item from the plurality of information items that was not included in the first set of information items populating the first instance of the information feed to the second set of information items populating the second instance of the information feed. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising removing an information item from one or more of the first set of information items and the second set of information items in response to receiving a removal command from the user. 
     
     
         14 . A system for generating and updating an information feed of a user, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
 in response to detecting an access to the information feed, generate a first instance of the information feed populated with a first set of information items to provide for display to the user, the first set of information items including at least a subset of a plurality of information items received from one or more information sources, the subset selected and displayed based on a ranked relevance of the plurality of information items to the user; 
 receive one or more new information items from the one or more information sources; 
 determine a relevance of the one or more new information items to the user; 
 rank the one or more new information items based on the relevance determination; 
 store the ranked new information items as new feed candidates in an index, wherein the new feed candidates are stored in the index according to the ranking; 
 until a subsequent access to the information feed or a refresh of the first instance of the information feed is detected, iteratively determine an updated relevance of the new feed candidates, re-rank the new feed candidates based on the updated relevance determination, and update the index based on the re-ranking; and 
 in response to detecting one of the subsequent access to the information feed or the refresh of the first instance of the information feed, generate a second instance of the information feed populated with a second set of information items to provide for display to the user, the second set of information items comprising at least a subset of the new feed candidates retrieved from the index, wherein the subset of the new feed candidates is selected and displayed based on a most recent iteration of re-ranking. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the information feed is accessed and displayed through one of a plurality of applications. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the index points to respective storage locations of each of the one or more new information items such that when the second instance is generated, the one or more new information items can be retrieved from the respective storage locations to populate the second instance. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the system is further caused to monitor activity data associated with the plurality of information items and the one or more new information items at regular intervals. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the system is further caused to determine an updated relevance of an information item from one of the plurality of information items or the one or more new information items in response to detecting new activity data associated with the information item. 
     
     
         19 . Computer storage media including instructions for generating and updating an information feed of a user, which when executed by a processor are operable to:
 in response to detecting an access to the information feed, generate a first instance of the information feed populated with a first set of information items to provide for display to the user, the first set of information items including at least a subset of a plurality of information items received from one or more information sources, the subset of the plurality of information items selected and displayed based on a ranked relevance of the plurality of information items to the user;   receive one or more new information items from the one or more information sources;   determine a relevance of the one or more new information items to the user;   rank the one or more new information items based on the relevance determination;   store the ranked new information items as new feed candidates in an index, wherein the new feed candidates are stored in the index according to the ranking;   until a subsequent access to the information feed or a refresh of the first instance of the information feed is detected, iteratively determine an updated relevance of the new feed candidates, re-rank the new feed candidates based on the updated relevance determination, and update the index based on the re-ranking; and   in response to detecting one of the subsequent access to the information feed or the refresh of the first instance of the information feed, generate a second instance of the information feed populated with a second set of information items to provide for display to the user, the second set of information items comprising at least a subset of the new feed candidates retrieved from the index, wherein the subset of the new feed candidates is selected and displayed based on a most recent iteration of re-ranking.   
     
     
         20 . The computer storage media of  claim 19 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor are further operable to aggregate the plurality of information items, including activity data for the plurality of information items, from the one or more information sources, the one or more information sources including one or more of local storage, remote storage, and a social networking service.