Abstract: A method for establishing a trust association includes receiving, by a server, a request to associate a web source with an account, the request having a link to the web source, and accessing, by the server, the web source in response to the request to associate. The method further includes locating, by the server and within the web source, a tag associated with the account, creating, by the server and in response to locating the tag within the web source, a trust association between the account and the web source, and providing, by the server, an indicating of the trust association for display in a user interface of a client device.

Abstract: A real-time messaging platform and method is disclosed which classifies messages in accordance with a combination of user engagement events as modified to reflect the temporal structure of the user engagement events. A message can be assigned a metric based, for example, on a weighted combination of user engagement rates, decayed with time to reflect an intuition that recent interactions by one or more users with the message will have a greater impact than older interactions with the message. Different types of interaction by one or more users with the message can be assigned different weights when the different engagement events are combined and, also, can be assigned different temporal characteristics.

Abstract: A method involving obtaining a first plurality of topic groups (TGs), each having a membership of accounts, identifying a first plurality of accounts as authorities for an expertise topic, obtaining a second plurality of TGs with a number of accounts as members, wherein the first plurality of TGs comprises the second plurality of TGs, identifying a first frequent account which is a member in at least one of the second plurality of TGs, adding the first frequent account to the authorities of the expertise topic to obtain a second plurality of accounts as the authorities of the expertise topic, determining a third plurality of TGs in which a second number of accounts from the second plurality of accounts are members, determining that another frequent account is a member in one of the third plurality of TGs, and obtaining a ranking of accounts that are an authority on the expertise topic.

Abstract: A method, system, and non-transitory computer readable medium for identifying a relevant conversation. The method can include: identifying a conversation graph including identifiers of messages posted by a set of authoring accounts; identifying a relevance score for each authoring account; applying, by a computer processor, a first relevance filter to the conversation graph in order to modify the set of relevance scores; applying, by the computer processor and after applying the first relevance filter, a second relevance filter to the conversation graph in order to further modify the set of relevance scores; selecting, based on the set of relevance scores and after applying the second relevance filter, a subset of messages of the conversation graph for inclusion in the relevant conversation; and providing at least a portion of the relevant conversation to a client device.

Abstract: A real-time messaging platform allows advertiser accounts to pay to insert candidate messages into the message streams requested by account holders. To accommodate multiple advertisers, the messaging platform controls an auction process that determines which candidate messages are selected for inclusion in a requested account holder's message stream. Selection is based on a bid for the candidate message, the message stream that is requested, and a variety of other factors that vary depending upon the implementation. The process for selection of candidate messages generally includes the following steps, though any given step may be omitted or combined into another step in a different implementation: targeting, filtering, prediction, ranking, and selection.

Abstract: According to an aspect, a method for ranking messages of conversation graphs in a messaging platform using predictive outcomes includes receiving, over a network, a conversation view request to retrieve messages of a conversation graph stored on a messaging platform, and determining, by the messaging platform, a plurality of predictive outcomes for each of a plurality of messages of the conversation graph using predictive models. The plurality of predictive outcomes includes a reciprocal engagement probability. The method includes ranking, by the messaging platform, the plurality of messages based on the predictive outcomes, and transmitting, by the messaging platform, over the network, at least a subset of the plurality of messages to be rendered on a client application according to the rank.

Abstract: Behavioral analysis of a mobile application is performed to determine whether the application is malicious. During analysis, various user interactions are simulated in an emulated environment to activate many possible resulting behaviors of an application. The behaviors are classified as hard or soft signals. A probability of the application being malicious is determined through combining soft signals, and the application is classified as malicious or non-malicious. Users of the application, the developer of the application, or a distributor of the application are notified of the application classification to enable responsive action.

Abstract: A method for processing ads involves traversing an ad view hierarchy to obtain ad view information for a device, providing the ad view information to an ad server, sending, by the device, an ad request to the ad server, receiving, in response to the ad request, an ad. and displaying the ad on the device.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for performing computing and storage tasks in distributed systems. One of the methods includes obtaining multiple resource use information items associated with performance of a group of tasks on a distributed computing framework having multiple clusters; for each task of the group of tasks having a corresponding task type, determining a measure of operational load of performing the task on the distributed computing framework based on the selected resource use information items associated with the task and one or more unit measures associated with the task; combining each measure of operational load to compute a combined measure of operational load for performing the group of tasks on the distributed computing framework; identifying one or more properties of the group of tasks that indicate a need to adjust the combined measure; and adjusting the combined measure of operational load.

Abstract: Techniques of playing back a looping video file involve providing multiple video codecs for decoding a video file. Each video codec performs its own decoding operation on the looping video file, resulting in multiple buffers of video frames and a buffer of audio frames. Then, as the GPU renders the ending video frames from a first buffer, it begins rendering the beginning video frames from a second buffer. In this way, the beginning of a next video cycle is already rendered for viewing by the time a current video cycle is ending.

Abstract: Methods and systems for generating, identifying, and displaying message threads on a social messaging platform. One of the methods includes receiving a first and second messages posted to a social messaging platform by a user account; determining whether the second message is a reply to the first message posted by the user account; in response, determining if the first message is part of an existing message thread; in response to determining that the first message is not part of an existing thread, assigning a new thread identifier to both the first message and the second message, the thread identifier associating both messages with a new thread; in response to determining that the first message is part of an existing thread, assigning an existing thread identifier obtained from the first message to the second message.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for limiting load on host servers that implement a social messaging platform. An example user device sends, to a platform comprising a plurality of host servers, a first request. The request is directed to a first endpoint. The user device receives, in response to the first request, a first error that indicates that the first request was not processed. The user device determines a back off time and places subsequent requests to the platform that are initiated before the back off time elapses and that are directed to the first endpoint in a back off queue in an order in which the subsequent requests are initiated. The user device sends, to the platform, the requests in the back off queue after the back off time has elapsed, until the back off queue is empty.

Abstract: A system and method for performing regression testing on source code provides a data sample to one or more candidate instances executing a candidate version of source code for a code base and provides the data sample to plurality of baseline instances executing a baseline version of the source code. The baseline version of the source code and the candidate version of the source code differ. The regression testing system and method obtains candidate outputs from the one or more candidate instances and obtains baseline outputs from the plurality of baseline instances based on the provided data sample. One or more faults in the candidate version of the source code can be determined by comparing the candidate outputs the baseline outputs. A filter for excluding one or more data fields from the comparison can be generated based on a comparison between baseline outputs from one of the plurality of baseline instances and baseline outputs from another of the plurality of baseline instances.

Abstract: Systems and methods provide live broadcasts with real-time feedback from viewers using mobile computing devices. An example method includes providing a live feed broadcast from a source mobile device to a plurality of viewing devices, receiving, during the live feed broadcast, an engagement from one of the plurality of viewing devices, and associating the engagement with a particular time in the live feed broadcast. The method also includes providing an indication of the engagement to the source mobile device, wherein the source mobile device displays a graphic representation of the engagement during the live feed broadcast and adding the indication of the engagement to the live feed so that a graphic representation is displayed during the live feed at the particular time to users of the plurality of viewing devices. The viewing user may each have a graph relationship with a user of the source mobile device.

Abstract: A method for purchasing processing requests on a messaging platform including obtaining a broadcast message from a first client associated with a first social networking account, making a first determination that the broadcast message includes a reference to an item, making a second determination, based at least in part of a perceived inventory count for item that a vendor associated with the messaging platform is able to supply the item, based on the second determination, generating a new broadcast message that includes a buy-now card associated with the item, transmitting the new broadcast message to a second client associated with a second social networking account, receiving, after transmitting the new broadcast message, a purchase request for the second client, wherein the purchase request specifies the item, and processing, by the messaging platform, the purchase request.

Abstract: A system and method for feature switching in software applications. A feature switching action (FSA) is received and at least one user device is identified based on the received FSA. At least one feature switching instruction (FSI) is generated based on the received FSA and the FSI is sent to at least one of the identified user devices. A feature switching instruction response (FSIR) is received from each user device that received a FSI and a feature switching action response (FSAR) is generated based on the received FSIRs.

Abstract: In some implementations, a system may include a video broadcasting service, implemented on a server, configured to enable a mobile computing device to broadcast a live feed media stream of an event, over a network, to a plurality of viewing devices. The video broadcasting service is configured to receive the live feed media stream, over the network, from the mobile computing device, where the live feed media stream originates from an external device having a camera configured as a video source for the live feed media stream. The external device may be communicatively coupled to the mobile computing device. The video broadcasting service is configured to provide the live feed media stream, over the network, to the plurality of viewing devices.

Abstract: A messaging platform is configured to exchange social media messages, over a network, among a plurality of user devices each of which is executing a social media messaging application. The messaging platform is configured to provide, over the network, a moment of an event discussed by the social media messages for selection on a user interface of the social media messaging application. The moment is a collection of items that relate to the event, where the collection of items includes one or more selected messages that have been exchanged on the messaging platform that relate to the event. The collection of items can include text, video, and/or images of the event. When selected, the moment provides a display of the collection of items such that a user can view each item of the moment.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying relevant messages in a conversation graph includes identifying a context message within the conversation graph. The context message is marked as relevant and additional messages are marked as relevant based on various criteria. A plurality of authors of messages marked as relevant is identified and a plurality of unmarked messages authored by the plurality of authors is marked as relevant. In addition, a plurality of parent messages of messages marked as relevant are identified and marked as relevant. A list comprising messages marked as relevant is then provided to a user. Multiple steps can be repeated until convergence after which the list can be provided to the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described that include providing, on a touchscreen display of an electronic device, a stream of content items, at least some of which are associated with a corresponding display anchor. Inputs are detected at the touchscreen display and the inputs are associated with a scroll speed. The scroll speed may be based on a detected distance between the inputs on the touchscreen and an elapsed time between at least two of the inputs. In response to determining a lack of input for a predefined time period, a display anchor can be determined and selected. The display anchor may correspond to a content item to be used as a pause location for the stream. The scrolling of the stream of content items can be paused at the pause location to use the selected display anchor to display the content item in a top viewable portion of the display.