Patent ID: 8527597

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, at a server system and from a computing device that is remote from the server system, a request that the server system deliver to the computing device textual posts that a plurality of authors have submitted to a messaging system, each particular post of at least some of the posts being associated with (i) a geographical place of posting from which the particular post is determined to have been authored, and (ii) a temporal age that corresponds to a time that the particular post was authored; identifying, by the server system and for each particular post, a value that represents a geographical distance from a location that is associated with the computing device to the geographical place of posting for the particular post; determining, by the server system and for each particular post, a score for the particular post, the score being based on at least: (iii) the value that represents the geographical distance to the geographical place of posting for the particular post, and (iv) the temporal age of the particular post; and providing, by the server system and to the computing device for each particular post, an indication of the score for the particular post, so as to cause the computing device to display an indication of each particular post and visibly indicate a prominence of each particular post, the indication of prominence of each particular post being based at least in part on the indication of the score for each particular post, at least two of the particular posts, including a first post and a second post, having different visible indications of prominence based at least in part on the at least two particular posts having different indications of scores, the first and second posts being displayed by the computing device in first and second positions, respectively, based at least in part on the different indications of scores between the posts.