Patent ID: 8751618

Claim:
A method for maximizing content spread in a social network, the social network comprising a set of nodes and a set of edges between one or more nodes of the set of nodes, the method operated by a social networking server of the social network, and comprising: executing steps (a) to (d) for performing one or more functionalities to determine a subset of edges relevant for maximizing flow of a content in the social network, the steps (a) to (d) executed by the social networking server and comprising: (a) generating one or more samples of edges from an initial candidate set of edges, each edge acquiring a probability value for content flow thereto; (b) computing gain corresponding to each edge of the one or more samples of edges; (c) determining the subset of edges from the one or more samples of edges, the subset of edges being determined based on the computed gain, each node corresponding to each edge of the subset of edges having at least one of less than ‘K’ incoming edges and equal to ‘K’ incoming edges; and (d) incrementing the probability value of each edge of the subset of edges by a predefined value, the probability value of each edge of the subset of edges being incremented to upgrade the determined subset of edges, wherein the steps (a) to (d) being performed for a predefined number of iterations; determining a final set of edges ‘X’ from the upgraded subset of edges, the final set of edges ‘X’ being determined by ensuring ‘K’ incoming edges for each node of the upgraded set of edges; and outputting the final set of edges ‘X’ as recommendations to users to maximize spreading of the content in the social network so that a user will find content which is available over the edges of the final set of edges, and which is novel to the user and is diverse.