Patent ID: 8417698
Filing Date: 2013-04-09
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: receiving, over a network, from a data source social networking website, business information relating to a plurality of businesses, wherein each business of the plurality of businesses is recommended by a respective subset of a plurality of users; receiving, over the network, from the data source social networking website, recommendation information relating to the plurality of businesses, the recommendation information comprising, for each business of the plurality of businesses, the respective subset of a plurality of users that recommend the respective business; receiving, over the network, from the data source social networking website, social relationship graph information relating to the plurality of users, the social graph information comprising, for each user of the plurality of users, a respective social relationship graph, the respective social relationship graph comprising information about a network of social relationships between the respective user and a respective subset of the plurality of users having a social relationship with the respective user on the social networking website; receiving, over the network, a query from one user of the plurality of users, the query comprising business selection criteria and affinity group selection criteria; searching, via a computing device, the business information, the recommendation information and the social relationship graph information, wherein a subset of the plurality of businesses is selected such that each business of the subset of the plurality of businesses matches the business selection criteria and is recommended by a respective subset of the plurality of users having a social relationship within a maximum degree of closeness with the one user of the plurality of users and being in an affinity group matching the affinity group selection criteria; ranking, via the computing device, each respective business of the subset of the plurality of businesses, based at least in part on the social relationship graph information and a respective number of the users in the respective subset of the plurality of users recommending the business, such that the subset of the plurality of businesses is ranked in a rank order; and providing, over the network, to the one user of the plurality of users, a search result, the search result comprising, for each business of the subset of the plurality of businesses, a representation of at least a portion of the business information and at least a portion of the recommendation information relating to the respective business, wherein the search result is provided in the rank order.