The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 22, 2013
Filed:
Sep. 20, 2006
Dong Zhuang, Beijing, CN;
Benyu Zhang, Beijing, CN;
Heng Zhang, Bellevue, WA (US);
Jeremy Tantrum, Shoreline, WA (US);
Teresa Mah, Bellevue, WA (US);
Hua-jun Zeng, Beijing, CN;
Zheng Chen, Beijing, CN;
Jian Wang, Beijing, CN;
Dong Zhuang, Beijing, CN;
Benyu Zhang, Beijing, CN;
Heng Zhang, Bellevue, WA (US);
Jeremy Tantrum, Shoreline, WA (US);
Teresa Mah, Bellevue, WA (US);
Hua-Jun Zeng, Beijing, CN;
Zheng Chen, Beijing, CN;
Jian Wang, Beijing, CN;
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
An influential persons identification system and method for identifying a set of influential persons (or influencers) in a social network (such as an online social network). The influential persons set is generated such that by sending a message to the set the message will be propagated through the network at the greatest speed and coverage. A ranking of users is generated, and a pruning process is performed starting with the top-ranked user and working down the list. For each user on the list, the user is identified as an influencer and then the user and each of his friends are deleted from the social network users list. Next, the same process is performed for the second-ranked user, the third-ranked user, and so forth. The process terminates when the list of users of the social network is exhausted or the desired number of influencers on the influential person set is reached.