Abstract: In order to facilitate efficient storage and extraction of data, a system may represent a compound relationship in a graph stored in a graph database. In particular, the system (or a user) may define the compound relationship based on two or more predicates associated with two or more edges between two or more nodes in the graph. Then, the system may generate, in the graph, a hub node that corresponds to the compound relationship and that has an identifier that is hidden from users of the graph so that the identifier of the hub node is not visible external to the graph database. Moreover, the identifier of the hub node may be specified in a query using the two or more predicates, thereby allowing data associated with the compound relationship to be readily identified, modified and/or extracted.

Abstract: A statistically overrepresented token in the descriptions of users associated with a target entity may be descriptive of the target entity. This may be true regardless of whether a primary description of the entity includes the overrepresented token. Accordingly, the entity description machine may access multiple descriptions of multiple users associated with the target entity. A portion of the multiple descriptions may each include a token descriptive of the target entity and of a subset of the multiple users. The entity description machine may determine that the token is overrepresented among the tokens within the multiple descriptions and generate a supplemental description of the target entity, where the supplemental description includes the overrepresented token. Once the supplemental description is generated, the entity description machine may use the supplemental description in referencing the target entity.

Abstract: Techniques for allowing cross-document communication are provided. In one approach, a child document of a parent document communicates with another child document of the parent document. A child document may correspond to a frame element within the parent document. The communication may occur directly or indirectly through the parent document. In another approach, an ancestor document communicates with a descendant document that is two or more degrees of separation away from the ancestor document. The communication may occur directly or indirectly through one or more intermediate documents. In both approaches, one document may send out one or more discovery messages that request identities of sibling documents, descendant documents, or ancestor documents.

Abstract: Systems and methods for generating recommendations based on data derived from a social network are described. For example, a first indirect connection of a source member profile may be identified. The first indirect connection is a member profile connected to the source member through a first connection path. A second indirect connection of the source member profile is also identified. The second indirect connection is a member profile connected to the source member through a second connection path. A selection is made between the first indirect connection and the second indirect connection based on a comparison of timing scores calculated for the indirect connections. The selected indirect connection is then surfaced to a client device associated with the source member profile.

Abstract: A machine may implement a recommender that provides recommendations to users. The machine may be configured to present a first version of the recommender configured by various parameters. A user may submit a message to the machine, and the machine may identify a parameter among the various parameters by tokenizing the message and identifying the parameter among the tokens. The machine may then generate a second version of the recommender by modifying the parameter and configuring the second version according to the modified parameter. The machine may then present the first and second versions of the recommender contemporaneously two different portions of the users. By tokenizing a further message received from the users, the machine may evaluate the first and second versions and determine whether the second version is a replacement of the first version.

Abstract: Techniques for managing software dependencies are described. For example, a dependency specification that pertains to a first product is accessed. The product may be a collection of artifacts and may provide a software functionality. A determination may be made, based on the dependency specification, that the first product has a dependency on a second product. Metadata pertaining to the second product may be accessed. A valid version of the second product may be identified based on the metadata. The valid version may be usable at build time of the first product.

Abstract: Techniques for training a tokenizer (or word segmenter) are provided. In one technique, a tokenizer tokenizes a token string to identify individual tokens or words. A language model is generated based on the identified tokens or words. A vocabulary about an entity, such as a person or company, is identified. The vocabulary may be online data that refers to the entity, such as a news article or a profile page of a member of a social network. Some of the tokens in the vocabulary may be weighted higher than others. The language model accepts the weighted vocabulary as input and generates pseudo sentences. Alternatively, regular expressions are used to generate the pseudo sentences. The pseudo sentences are used to train the tokenizer.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method that includes receiving a request to generate an interface within a software application that is configured to play back one or more media files; for a first media file, generating an image representing a frame of the first media file; and causing the image to be displayed within the interface on a display device, where the image is configured to detect an event that causes a media player to be loaded into the software application behind the image.

Abstract: As part of a query-processing technique, in response to receiving queries for information stored in a distributed storage system and associated query-processing information identifying sets of predefined operations to perform on one or more databases in the distributed storage system, the distributed storage system accesses sets of predefined operations. Then, for the sets of predefined operations on the one or more databases, the distributed storage system uses one or more adaptors for multiple storage subsystems in the distributed storage system and one or more indexes corresponding to collections of information in the one or more databases. Moreover, the distributed storage system executes the sets of predefined operations on the multiple storage subsystems to obtain results for the queries. The sets of predefined operations may be defined by different users, so that the distributed storage system can be adapted to these users' needs.

Abstract: Techniques for predicting a user response to the e-mail content are described. According to various embodiments, member email interaction data associated with a particular member and email content data describing a particular email content item is accessed. The data is then encoded into one or more feature vectors and assembled to thereby generate an assembled feature vector. Thereafter, a prediction modeling process is performed, based on the assembled feature vector and a trained prediction model, to predict a likelihood of the particular member performing a particular user action on the particular email content item.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a system maintains a database of a plurality of persons. The database includes an audio clip of a pronunciation of a name of a first person in the database. The system determines from a calendar database that a second person has an event in common with the first person, and transmits to a device associated with the second person an indication that the database includes the pronunciation of the name of the first person.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to an apparatus or system for tracking and analyzing user interactions with a mobile user interface (UI). During operation, the apparatus collects data while a user interacts with the mobile UI through a touchscreen, wherein the data includes tap-attempt data that specifies coordinates for touchscreen locations that the user has tapped while interacting with the mobile UI. Next, the apparatus compares the tap-attempt data with locations of tappable elements in the mobile UI, wherein each tappable element has an associated tap target size. For each tappable element, the apparatus uses results of the comparison to determine a percentage of tap attempts that have succeeded or failed for the associated tap target size. Finally, the apparatus makes the percentage information available to a UI designer to enable the UI designer to adjust tap target sizes for the mobile UI.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for identifying a potential reference is disclosed. In one embodiment, a user interface (UI) object (e.g., a one-click reference search button) is provided, for example, on a web page displayed at a user's client device. When selected, the UI object causes a reference search query to be generated. The search query identifies the user performing the search, and a target person for whom the user would like a reference. The search query is communicated to, and processed by, a social networking system (e.g., through an API function call). In turn, the social networking system returns information about potential references to the client.

Abstract: A method for a computer system includes determining a first social distance for a first user with respect to a second user, determining a second social distance for a third user with respect to the second user, determining a first qualitative rating associated with the first user, determining a second qualitative rating associated with the second user, determining a first trust-metric for the first user in response to the first social distance and the first qualitative rating, determining a second trust-metric for the third user in response to the second social distance and the second qualitative rating, and prioritizing a first listing from the first user over a second listing from the third user for the second user, in response to the first trust-metric and the second trust-metric.

Abstract: In order to facilitate access to relevant information, a system may determine topics that are of interest based on skills of users in a social network of users and annotations associated with content in the social network. Then, the system may identify experts knowledgeable about the topics among the users in the social network. These experts may be invited to aggregate and edit the topic content. For a given topic, the system may provide, to a subset of the experts, documents with suggested topic content and presentation formats for the topics. Based on feedback from the subset of the experts (such as modifications to one or more of the documents and/or the presentation formats), the system may modify or revise the documents.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a reputation system. The reputation system includes a ranking apparatus that obtains a set of reputation scores for one or more dimensions of a set of items in the reputation system and generates a ranking of the items based on the reputation scores and the one or more quantiles. The reputation system also includes a query-processing apparatus that obtains a query comprising the one or more dimensions and one or more quantiles associated with the one or more dimensions and provides the ranking in a response to the query.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system that manages access to resource versions in a shared computing environment. Routing data including locations of the resource versions is used to route a request to a resource version in the shared computing environment. For an application that is implemented by a set of resources, the routing data and the request is used to execute the application using an alternative version of a resource that is under test and default versions of other resources that are not under test.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for organizing and joining massive sets of data (e.g., tens or hundreds of millions of event records). A dataset is Blocked by first identifying a partition key, which comprises one or more columns of the data. Each Block will contain all dataset records that have partition key values assigned to that Block. A cost constraint (e.g., a maximum size, a maximum number of records) may also be applied to the Blocks. A Block index is generated to identify all Blocks, their corresponding (sequential) partition key values, and their locations. A second dataset that includes the partition key column(s) and that must be correlated with the first dataset may then be Blocked according to the same ranges of partition key values (but without the cost constraint). Corresponding Blocks of the datasets may then be Joined/Aggregated, and analyzed as necessary.

Abstract: In order to facilitate the requesting of desired information from a graph database that stores a graph, a system may translate an initial query into a query that can be executed against the graph database. In particular, using primitives, the system may translate a query associated with a type of database (such as a relational database) into the query. The graph may include nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the primitives may include: a rule based on edges in the graph that expresses a relational schema in the type of database, and information associated with a compound key that specifies a relationship between nodes, edges and predicates in the graph corresponding to a table in the type of database. Then, the system may execute the query against the graph database, and may receive a result that includes a subset of the graph.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for tracking and analyzing user interactions with a mobile user interface (UI). During operation, the system collects data while a user interacts with the mobile UI through a touchscreen, wherein the data includes tap-attempt data that specifies coordinates for touchscreen locations that the user has tapped while interacting with the mobile UI. Next, the system compares the tap-attempt data with locations of tappable elements in the mobile UI, wherein each tappable element has an associated tap target size. For each tappable element, the system uses results of the comparison to determine a percentage of tap attempts that have succeeded or failed for the associated tap target size. Finally, the system makes the percentage information available to a UI designer to enable the UI designer to adjust tap target sizes for the mobile UI.