Abstract: Systems and methods of selecting a relevant user for introduction to a user in an online environment are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a system, of receiving a request to identify the relevant user to be introduced to the participating user in the social network, identifying a set of social history records that occurred among the multiple users in the social network, selecting, from the multiple users, the relevant user to be introduced to the participating user using the set of social history records. The relevant user that is selected is not a social connection of the participating user in the social network. One embodiment includes, determining whether the participating user is interested in meeting the relevant user in the social network based on an indication made by the participating user via interaction with the user device.

Abstract: Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for spreading the interest of a user evenly over a predefined set of search results. A search engine retrieves search results from a database and perturbs at least a portion of the search results, that is, randomizes the order of the portion before presenting it to the user. In this way, even when a search is repeated between database update cycles, the user would see different top search results every time the search is executed. The perturbation technique can be applied to a search in a social networking system which searches for users. The perturbation can be done by randomizing the display order of the sear results based on a most recent activity time of the user. The perturbed search results will have different users every time the user performs a search. The perturbed search results are customized per user.

Abstract: Systems and methods of generating automated social interactions for users in a social networking environment are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a system, of receiving data items associated with users of a social network, identifying sets of data items associated with a user, and comparing a first set of data items to other sets of data items to identify commonalities between the first set of data items and the other sets of data items. The method further comprising automatically selecting a second user associated with a second set of data items and a first electronic social interaction for the first user to pursue with respect to the second user based on the identified commonalities between the first set of data items and the second set of data items.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a server receives a request from a first user to share content from a first forum (e.g., a webpage) with a second user. In response, the server generates a link to the content for use by the second user. This link includes a pointer to a first user preference associated with the first user. In some instances, the first user preference is stored in conjunction with a unique identifier associated with the first user. Subsequently, when the second user attempts to access the content, the server generates a second webpage that includes the content. The server customizes the webpage (that is to be displayed to the second user) by using the user preferences associated with the first user.