Patent ID: 8473500

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: accessing, by a computer system, at least a portion of a graph that includes i) nodes that are associated with users of a social network and ii) edges that connect nodes of the graph; selecting, by the computer system, a node from the accessed portion of the graph, wherein the node is associated with a user of the social network; identifying, from the accessed portion of the graph, one or more neighboring nodes that are connected to the selected node by one or more of the edges, wherein the one or more neighboring nodes are associated with one or more other users of the social network; determining, for the selected node, a plurality of interest values that indicate levels of interest of the user in a plurality of subjects and that are determined based on a plurality of neighbor interest values that are multiplied by one or more of the weights that are associated with the one or more of the edges that connect the selected node to the one or more neighboring nodes, wherein the plurality of neighbor interest values i) are associated with the one or more neighboring nodes and ii) indicate levels of interest of the one or more other users in the plurality of subjects, wherein, for at least one interest value from the plurality of interest values, the determining causes the at least one interest value to change from a first value that indicates a lack of interest or an unknown level of interest by the user in a corresponding subject, to a second value that indicates that the user has an interest in the corresponding subject; adjusting each of at least a portion of the plurality of interest values to account for a relative strength of the user's level of interest in each of at least a portion of the plurality of subjects, wherein each of the at least a portion of the plurality of interest values are adjusted based, at least in part, on a combination of the plurality of interest values; and providing the adjusted plurality of interest values in association with the selected node of the graph.