Patent ID: 7865551

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining influential and/or popular participants in an online game network using messages exchanged among a group of participants, the method comprising: representing the group of participants and the messages exchanged among participants on a game network server as nodes and links, respectively; analyzing the messages to produce message relevant data for each node; propagating the message relevant data of said each node out to other nodes in the network to propagate influence factors, which are graphically represented as link strengths, among neighboring nodes; and repeating said propagating the message relevant data a sufficient number of times to spread the influence factors among neighboring nodes to produce a corresponding influence value for said each node, wherein said influence value indicates relative size and strength of social activity or connections of a participant corresponding to said each node, and is determined by a combination of outbound influence factors to the neighboring nodes and inbound influence factors from the neighboring nodes, and wherein a most influential and/or popular participant is identified by a highest influence value; wherein said analyzing the messages to produce message relevant data includes selecting a friendship factor, a link strength factor, a message weight factor, for said each node, wherein a starting weight for each factor is chosen in proportion to other factors including a total number of messages and message paths for said each node; wherein said propagating said message relevant data includes: designating said each node as a current node; and selecting a weight and a message value for said each current node, and a link strength value for each link originating from said each current node; wherein said propagating the message relevant data further comprises: first increasing the weight of destination nodes by the product of the weight of said each current node, the friendship factor, the link strength factor, and the link strength value, for all links originating from said each current node; second increasing the message value of said each current node by the link strength value, and the weight of said each current node by a first value, for all links whose destination is said each current node.