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Geo-Social Ranking: functions and query processing

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Abstract

Given a query location q, Geo-Social Ranking (GSR) ranks the users of a Geo-Social Network based on their distance to q, the number of their friends in the vicinity of q, and possibly the connectivity of those friends. We propose a general GSR framework and four GSR functions that assign scores in different ways: (i) LC, which is a weighted linear combination of social (i.e., friendships) and spatial (i.e., distance to q) aspects, (ii) RC, which is a ratio combination of the two aspects, (iii) HGS, which considers the number of friends in coincident circles centered at q, and (iv) GST, which takes into account triangles of friends in the vicinity of q. We investigate the behavior of the functions, qualitatively assess their results, and study the effects of their parameters. Moreover, for each ranking function, we design a query processing technique that utilizes its specific characteristics to efficiently retrieve the top-k users. Finally, we experimentally evaluate the performance of the top-k algorithms with real and synthetic datasets.

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Notes

  1. The inclusion of \(v_i\) in the relevant set \(V_i\) simplifies the problem formulation in LC and RC.

  2. Note that the current range in RC depends on the friends already in \(V_i\), whereas the relevant range in LC is defined based only on w and C, and it is the same for all users.

  3. An arithmetico-geometric sequence is the result of the multiplication of a geometric progression with the corresponding terms of an arithmetic progression. The sequence exhibits geometric decay and approaches a maximum value of \(4 \cdot w\), i.e., \(\lim _{b \rightarrow \infty }D_{b} = 4\cdot w\). Other series (e.g., arithmetic, geometric) can also be applied.

  4. This optimization is specific to Eq. 8. Other bounds would apply for different series.

  5. A directed bold edge from \(v_i\) to \(v_j\) means that \(v_j \in V_i\).

  6. An analogy for the conventional h-index is two authors that have the same h-index, but the second has more citations.

  7. Analysis on real GeoSN datasets has shown that the distances between pairs of friends follow a power law [7].

  8. The Barabasi–Albert generator produces graphs with small expected number of triangles. Therefore, we assign high importance to the spatial proximity in order to avoid examining a large fraction of the dataset.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant GRF 617412 from Hong Kong RGC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Nikos Armenatzoglou, Ritesh Ahuja & Dimitris Papadias

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  1. Nikos Armenatzoglou
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  2. Ritesh Ahuja
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  3. Dimitris Papadias
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Correspondence to Dimitris Papadias.

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Armenatzoglou, N., Ahuja, R. & Papadias, D. Geo-Social Ranking: functions and query processing. The VLDB Journal 24, 783–799 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00778-015-0400-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00778-015-0400-7

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