Generating a user-defined section of a digital magazine from a search request

Abstract

A digital magazine server creates a section of a digital magazine including content items identified based on a search query received from a user. The digital magazine server receives a request to create the section that includes the search query and applies the search query to one or more sources. Content items satisfying the search query are retrieved from the one or more sources. A section of the digital magazine including various content items satisfying the search query is generated and presented to the user requesting creation of the section as well as additional users of the digital magazine server.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for generating a digital magazine, the method comprising:
 receiving from a searching user a request to create a section of a digital magazine including content satisfying a search query included in the request;   applying the search query to one or more sources, each source comprising a dynamically updated plurality of content items;   obtaining a search query result comprising one or more content items from the one or more sources that satisfy the search query;   receiving a request from a viewing user to access the section of the digital magazine;   generating the section of the digital magazine to include the content items that satisfy the search query;   sending the generated section of the digital magazine for display to the viewing user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that at least one source includes additional content items;   applying the search query to the at least one source including the additional content items;   obtaining an updated search query result including one or more of the additional content items satisfying the search query;   modifying the generated section of the digital magazine to include one or more of the additional content items satisfying the search query; and   sending the modified generated section of the digital magazine for display to the viewing user.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving content items for addition to the generated section of the digital magazine from an additional source; and   generating an additional section of the digital magazine including the content items from the additional source.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the request to create the section of a digital magazine identifies one or more sources for application of the search query. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the viewing user is the searching user. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the section of the digital magazine to include the content items that satisfy the search query comprises:
 selecting one or more content items based on one or more attributes of the content items that satisfy the search query;   determining a spatial arrangement of the selected one or more content items relative to each other based at least in part on one or more stored page templates and attributes of the selected one or more content items; and   generating the section of the digital magazine including the selected one or more content items presented in the determined spatial arrangement.   
     
     
         7 . A method for generating a digital magazine, the method comprising:
 receiving from a searching user a request to create a section of a digital magazine including content satisfying a search query included in the request;   obtaining a search query result by applying the search query to one or more sources, the search query result including content items from the one or more sources that satisfy the search query;   computing a score for each content item in the search query result based on attributes of the content items;   generating an ordered listing of the content items in the search query result based at least in part on the computed scores;   selecting one or more content items from the search query result based at least in part on the ordered listing;   generating the section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query, the section including the selected one or more content items; and   sending the generated section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query to a client device for display to a viewing user.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating the section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query, the section including the selected one or more content items comprises:
 retrieving information describing interaction with content items presented via the digital magazine by the searching user; and   modifying the selected one or more content items based at least in part on the interaction with content items presented via the digital magazine by the searching user; and   generating the section of the digital magazine satisfying the search query, the section including the modified selected one or more content items.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein modifying the selected one or more content items based at least in part on the interaction with content items presented via the digital magazine by the searching user comprises:
 changing an order in which the selected one or more content items are included in the generated section of the digital magazine based at least in part on the interaction with content items presented via the digital magazine by the searching user.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating the section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query, the section including the selected one or more content items comprises:
 retrieving a location associated with the searching user; and   modifying the selected one or more content items based at least in part on the location associated with the searching user; and   generating the section of the digital magazine satisfying the search query, the section including the modified selected one or more content items.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein an attribute of a content item is selected from a group consisting of: a connection between a user interacting with the content item and the searching user, an interaction between the searching user and the content item, a quality indicator associated with the content item, and any combination thereof. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein selecting one or more content items from the search query result based at least in part on the ordered listing comprises:
 determining a type associated with content items in the ordered listing;   selecting one or more content items from the search query result based on the ordered listing and types associated with the content items in the ordered listing.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the type associated with the content item is selected from a group consisting of: text data, image data, video data, social networking system data, message, audio data, and any combination thereof. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein selecting one or more content items from the search query result based at least in part on the ordered listing comprises:
 determining a source associated with content items in the ordered listing;   selecting one or more content items from the search query result based on the ordered listing and the sources associated with content items in the ordered listing.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 determining that at least one source includes additional content items;   applying the search query to the at least one source including the additional content items;   obtaining an updated search query result including one or more of the additional content items satisfying the search query;   computing a score for each of the additional content items based on attributes of the additional content items;   modifying the ordered listing to include the additional content items based on the computed scores based on each of the additional content items;   modifying the generated section of the digital magazine to include one or more of the additional content items satisfying the search query based on the modified ordered listing; and   sending the modified generated section to the client device for display to the viewing user.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving content items for addition to the generated section of the digital magazine from an additional source; and   generating an additional section of the digital magazine including the content items from the additional source.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein generating the section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query occurs responsive to receiving a request from the viewing user to access the section of the digital magazine including content satisfying the search query. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the viewing user is a different user than the searching user. 
     
     
         19 . A method for generating a digital magazine, the method comprising:
 receiving from a searching user a request to create a section of a digital magazine including content satisfying a search query included in the request;   retrieving prior interactions between the searching user and content items presented via the digital magazine;   determining additional content items connected to content items with which the searching user previously interacted by a server providing the digital magazine;   determining one or more candidate sources associated with the additional content items;   identifying one or more additional users connected to the searching user through the server providing the digital magazine;   determining content items with which one or more of the additional users connected to the searching user interacted;   determining one or more candidate sources associated with the content items with which one or more of the additional users connected to the searching user interacted;   selecting one or more sources from the one or more candidate sources associated with the additional content items and the one or more candidate sources associated with the content items with which one or more of the additional users connected to the searching user interacted;   applying the search query to the selected one or more sources; and   obtaining a search query result comprising one or more content items from the selected one or more sources that satisfy the search query.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising:
 generating the section of the digital magazine to include one or more content items from the search query result; and   sending the generated section of the digital magazine for display to the viewing user.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein determining additional content items connected to content items with which the searching user previously interacted by a server providing the digital magazine comprises:
 identifying additional content items connected to a content item with which the searching user previously performed a type of interaction.