Providing recommendations on a social networking system page

Abstract

A social networking system provides tips to users about non-user entities within the social networking system. Tips include short questions, comments, reviews and non-user entities include businesses, products, bands, songs etc. Tips are provided by users of the social networking system, wherein the tips are displayed to other users of if the other users meet privacy criteria associated with the tips. Additionally, tips are ranked based on the likelihood that a user will view or read the tip. Tips with the greatest likelihood are ranked higher than those with a lower likelihood. Selected tips with a high likelihood to be viewed are displayed to a viewing user on the topic page or within the user's news feed story.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a social networking system, a post from a first client device associated with a first user of a plurality of users of the social networking system, wherein the post part of a profile page of the first user and includes a topic;   responsive to the post including the topic, providing a user interface element to the first client device prompting the user to provide a tip associated with the topic;   receiving, via the user interface element, a tip from the first user that is associated with the topic;   identifying a plurality of tips, including the received tip, that are associated with the topic, the plurality of tips shared by one or more of the plurality of users of the social networking system;   receiving, via a second client device, a request from a second user of the plurality of users to display one or more of the plurality of tips associated with the topic, wherein each tip is associated with respective privacy criteria that identifies users having permission to view that tip;   determining that the second user meets privacy criteria associated with a set of candidate tips of the plurality of tips;   selecting one or more tips, including the received tip, from the set of candidate tips to display to the second user based in part on, for a given candidate tip, a likelihood that the second user is interested in reading the given candidate tip; and   responsive to the selecting, providing a page to the second client device, the page displaying the selected one or more tips.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the second user meets privacy criteria associated with the set of candidate tips of the plurality of tips, further comprises:
 selecting one or more candidate tips, including the received tip, from the plurality of tips based in part on the second user meeting the respective privacy criteria associated with the selected one or more candidate tips.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting one or more tips, including the received tip, from the set of candidate tips to display to the second user based in part on, for the given candidate tip, the likelihood that the second user is interested in reading the given candidate tip, comprises:
 determining a relevancy score associated with each candidate tip in the set of candidate tips; and   ranking tips within the set of candidate tips based on their respective relevancy score.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the relevancy score includes at least one of number of interactions between users; elapsed time since the tip is shared; amount of feedback provide to the tip; and an endorsement from a local business. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the relevancy score is a weighted score based on at least two of: a number of interactions between users; elapsed time since the tip is shared; amount of feedback provide to the tip; and an endorsement from a local business. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a tip is selected from a group comprising: a comment; a question; a short recommendation; and a short review. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving from the second user, via the second client device, a check-in at a location associated with a tip, of the one or more tips; and   responsive to the check-in, providing a page to the second client device, the page displaying the tip.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the profile page includes a wall that includes the post. 
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions, the instructions executable to perform steps comprising:
 receiving, by a social networking system, a post from a first client device associated with a first user of a plurality of users of the social networking system, wherein the post part of a profile page of the first user and includes a topic;   responsive to the post including the topic, providing a user interface element to the first client device prompting the user to provide a tip associated with the topic;   receiving, via the user interface element, a tip from the first user that is associated with the topic;   identifying a plurality of tips, including the received tip, that are associated with the topic, the plurality of tips shared by one or more of the plurality of users of the social networking system;   receiving, via a second client device, a request from a second user of the plurality of users to display one or more of the plurality of tips associated with the topic, wherein each tip is associated with respective privacy criteria that identifies users having permission to view that tip;   determining that the second user meets privacy criteria associated with a set of candidate tips of the plurality of tips;   selecting one or more tips, including the received tip, from the set of candidate tips to display to the second user based in part on, for a given candidate tip, a likelihood that the second user is interested in reading the given candidate tip; and   responsive to the selecting, providing a page to the second client device, the page displaying the selected one or more tips.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein determining that the second user meets privacy criteria associated with the set of candidate tips of the plurality of tips, further comprises:
 selecting one or more candidate tips, including the received tip, from the plurality of tips based in part on the second user meeting the respective privacy criteria associated with the selected one or more candidate tips.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein selecting one or more tips, including the received tip, from the set of candidate tips to display to the second user based in part on, for the given candidate tip, the likelihood that the second user is interested in reading the given candidate tip, comprises:
 determining a relevancy score associated with each candidate tip in the set of candidate tips; and   ranking tips within the set of candidate tips based on their respective relevancy score.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the relevancy score includes at least one of number of interactions between users; elapsed time since the tip is shared; amount of feedback provide to the tip; and an endorsement from a local business. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the relevancy score is a weighted score based on at least two of: a number of interactions between users; elapsed time since the tip is shared; amount of feedback provide to the tip; and an endorsement from a local business. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein a tip is selected from a group comprising: a comment; a question; a short recommendation; and a short review. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 receiving from the second user, via the second client device, a check-in at a location associated with a tip, of the one or more tips; and   responsive to the check-in, providing a page to the second client device, the page displaying the tip.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the profile page includes a wall that includes the post. 
     
     
         17 . A system comprising:
 a processor;   a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 receive, by a social networking system, a post from a first client device associated with a first user of a plurality of users of the social networking system, wherein the post part of a profile page of the first user and includes a topic; 
 responsive to the post including the topic, provide a user interface element to the first client device prompting the user to provide a tip associated with the topic; 
 receive, via the user interface element, a tip from the first user that is associated with the topic; 
 identify a plurality of tips, including the received tip, that are associated with the topic, the plurality of tips shared by one or more of the plurality of users of the social networking system; 
 receive, via a second client device, a request from a second user of the plurality of users to display one or more of the plurality of tips associated with the topic, wherein each tip is associated with respective privacy criteria that identifies users having permission to view that tip; 
 determine that the second user meets privacy criteria associated with a set of candidate tips of the plurality of tips; 
 select one or more tips, including the received tip, from the set of candidate tips to display to the second user based in part on, for a given candidate tip, a likelihood that the second user is interested in reading the given candidate tip; and 
 responsive to the selecting, provide a page to the second client device, the page displaying the selected one or more tips.