Enabling Social Search in Time through Graphs

Abstract

Recently, social networks have attracted considerable attention. The huge volume of information contained in them, as well as their dynamic nature, make the problem of searching social data challenging. In this work, we envision the design of a complete framework for social search by exploiting both the underlying social graph and the temporal information available in social networks. To encompass the numerous search needs, our framework includes a time-aware graph and query model. To deploy the proposed query model over any social network, we define a logical algebra that provides a set of operators required for query evaluation, and for supporting a ranking functionality. We conclude by presenting SQTime, a prototype that implements our framework.