Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130013700 | Audience Management in a Social Networking System - A social networking system manages the accessibility of content items provided by users and directed to various audiences in the social networking system. An author provides the social networking system with a content item, a content item tag indicating an association between the content item and a tagged user, and a definition of a first audience who may view the content item. The social networking system then allows the tagged user to provide a definition of a second audience who may view the content item, where the second audience may contains users who are not in the first audience defined by the original author. The social networking system then determines whether a viewing user may view the posted content item (and tag) based on whether the viewing user is in at least one of the first audience and the second audience. | 01-10-2013 |
20130073971 | Displaying Social Networking System User Information Via a Map Interface - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073972 | Displaying Social Networking System User Information Via a Historical Newsfeed - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073976 | Capturing Structured Data About Previous Events from Users of a Social Networking System - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073984 | Displaying Social Networking System User Information Via a Timeline Interface - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073985 | Displaying Dynamic User Interface Elements in a Social Networking System - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 03-21-2013 |
20130282504 | MANAGING COPYRIGHTS OF CONTENT FOR SHARING ON A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282810 | EVALUATING CLAIMS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282811 | PROVIDING A CLAIMS-BASED PROFILE IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282812 | ADAPTIVE AUDIENCES FOR CLAIMS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282813 | COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT OF CONTACTS ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 10-24-2013 |
20140013244 | ACQUIRING STRUCTURED USER DATA USING COMPOSER INTERFACE HAVING INPUT FIELDS CORRESPONDING TO ACQUIRED STRUCTURED DATA - A social networking system obtains specific structured data about a user via a composer interface having textual content with incomplete portions and input fields corresponding to the incomplete potions. The input fields map to data fields in the user's profile and are selected based on the social networking system's need for the information associated with the data fields. | 01-09-2014 |
20140040367 | PUBLISHING AGGREGATED DATA TO A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system enables a third party application to request user data based on action types and aggregations of a user's data corresponding to an action type with respect to multiple objects. Users of the social networking system may provide privacy or accessibility of their information based on the action type associated with the information (e.g., a user may allow a particular application to access all actions of a certain type, regardless of the source of those actions). The third party application may use this accessed information to generate personalized content for a user based on aggregations of the user's data and then publish the personalized content back to the social networking system. | 02-06-2014 |
20140041038 | RECEIVING INFORMATION ABOUT A USER FROM A THIRD PARTY APPLICATION BASED ON ACTION TYPES - A social networking system enables a third party application to request user data based on action types and aggregations of a user's data corresponding to an action type with respect to multiple objects. Users of the social networking system may provide privacy or accessibility of their information based on the action type associated with the information (e.g., a user may allow a particular application to access all actions of a certain type, regardless of the source of those actions). The third party application may use this accessed information to generate personalized content for a user based on aggregations of the user's data and then publish the personalized content back to the social networking system. | 02-06-2014 |
20140046887 | Inferring User Family Connections from Social Information - A social networking system infers family connections between a target user and one or more additional social networking system users based on information stored by the social networking system about the target user and the target user's connections. The inferred connections may be sent to the target user for verification and stored by the social networking system if confirmed by the target user. Stored connection information about a set of users connected to the target user may be used to infer connections between the target user and subject users connected to one or more of the users connected to the target user. | 02-13-2014 |
20140100965 | ADVERTISING PERMISSIONS IN A CLAIMS-BASED SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph, which records the actions of users in a social networking system platform, may be modeled at least in part as a collection of claims that may be used for advertising purposes, such as targeting advertisements, based on permissions granted by users and entities. The social networking system may also act as a publisher, enabling web applications and mobile applications to publish claims to a variety of audiences based on the permissions granted by users and entities, or agents of the social networking system. Permissions may be granted based on agreed-upon terms of service between agents, agents and publishers, agents and the social networking system platform, and publishers and the social networking system. | 04-10-2014 |
20140101242 | EXPORT PERMISSIONS IN A CLAIMS-BASED SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social graph, which records the actions of users in a social networking system platform, may be modeled at least in part as a collection of claims that may be exported to other systems, such as third party publishers, based on permissions granted by users and entities. The social networking system may also act as a publisher, enabling web applications and mobile applications to publish claims to a variety of audiences based on the permissions granted by users and entities, or agents of the social networking system. Permissions may be granted based on agreed-upon terms of service between agents, agents and publishers, agents and the social networking system platform, and publishers and the social networking system. | 04-10-2014 |
20140143048 | AUDIENCE-BASED PRICING IN AN ONLINE SYSTEM - Advertisements are served to users of an online system. An ad may be given a greater value if a user is near more friends, more people who have a specific interest, more people who have a high affinity for a brand, and/or surrounded by more people in general. Therefore, an ad system increases the price of serving an ad to a user based on how many other people who fit these criteria are near the user. | 05-22-2014 |
20140143324 | PROMPTING SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USERS IN A NEWSFEED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL USER PROFILE INFORMATION - A social networking system presents questions to a user on an interface associated with the social networking system to elicit information about the user that is missing from the user's profile or is otherwise outdated. The questions are selected based on a number of factors, such as the need for or value of the information item, probability of a response, or cost of collecting the information item. In presenting the selected question, the social networking system prompts a user for information about the user in a an interface associated with a page from the social networking system, an application external to the social networking system, or using a push notification or prompt. The questions may be formatted in various ways, such as an explicit question, confirmation, a selection of responses, or social context to encourage the user to respond to the question. | 05-22-2014 |
20140143325 | PROMPTING SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USERS TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL USER PROFILE INFORMATION - A social networking system presents questions to a user on an interface associated with the social networking system to elicit information about the user that is missing from the user's profile or is otherwise outdated. The questions are selected based on a number of factors, such as the need for or value of the information item, probability of a response, or cost of collecting the information item. In presenting the selected question, the social networking system prompts a user for information about the user in a an interface associated with a page from the social networking system, an application external to the social networking system, or using a push notification or prompt. The questions may be formatted in various ways, such as an explicit question, confirmation, a selection of responses, or social context to encourage the user to respond to the question. | 05-22-2014 |
20140208424 | IMPOSTER ACCOUNT DETECTION AND REMEDIATION IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - When a request to connected a requesting user to a target user is received by the social networking system, information associated with the requesting user and with users connected to the target user is retrieved. A fraud probability score indicating a probability that the requesting user is impersonating a user connected to the target user is determined based on the information associated with the requesting user and with users connected to the target user. Based on the fraud probability score, a determination is made whether the requesting user is a suspected imposter and remedial action is taken if imposter is suspected. | 07-24-2014 |
20140215578 | Adaptive Audiences For Claims In A Social Networking System - A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests. | 07-31-2014 |
20140258410 | AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system manages the accessibility of content items provided by users and directed to various audiences in the social networking system. An author provides the social networking system with a content item, a content item tag indicating an association between the content item and a tagged user, and a definition of a first audience who may view the content item. The social networking system then allows the tagged user to provide a definition of a second audience who may view the content item, where the second audience may contains users who are not in the first audience defined by the original author. The social networking system then determines whether a viewing user may view the posted content item (and tag) based on whether the viewing user is in at least one of the first audience and the second audience. | 09-11-2014 |
20140280322 | CLAIMS-BASED QUERYING IN AN ONLINE SYSTEM - A social networking system allows its users to perform a structured search that returns objects (e.g., other users and pages) in the social networking system. A searching user may remove or add objects to the search by interacting with the returned objects. Adding or removing an object generates a claim stored by the social networking system that an object has or does not have, respectively, characteristics based on the search query. Additionally, the searching user may also request presentation of the search query to other users, which may be selected by the social networking system based on their predicted expertise. A dialog between the searching user and a selected other user may be provided to allow the searching user to provide the search query to the selected other user and to receive a response. | 09-18-2014 |
20140280560 | Capturing User Information In An Online System Based On Real-World Actions - A social networking system receives information identifying a location associated with a user and associates the location with the user. When the user provides location information to the social networking system, an entity associated with the location may request information items from the user. In one embodiment, the information items are requested through one or more questions presented to the user via the social networking system. The questions may also include a value proposition for the user, such as an offer or other incentive provided by the entity to the user in exchange for the user providing the information items to the entity. The information items may be stored by the social networking system and used to generate an object describing interactions between the user and the entity. | 09-18-2014 |
20140283126 | Managing Privacy For User-Generated Lists In An Online System - A user of a social networking system creates a list of objects and associates the list with a list privacy level identifying the list's accessibility to other social networking system users. For example, the list privacy level indicates other social networking system users capable of accessing the list. For example, a user creates a list including other users and associates a list privacy level with the list. Hence, the user may specify a privacy level of subsequently posted content so that users included on the list, but not other users, may access the posted content. | 09-18-2014 |
20140324797 | Displaying Social Networking System User Information Via a Historical Newsfeed - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 10-30-2014 |
20140365566 | MANAGING INFORMATION ABOUT USER STATES IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - When a social networking system receives content describing a user via a client device associated with the user, the social networking system determines a state describing a characteristic of the user from the content. One or more options for generating a content item associated with the determined state are provided to the client device for presentation to the user, and the options may be based in part on the determined state. Based on the state and selection of one or more of the options, a content item is generated and provided to one or more client devices for presentation to social networking system users. By interacting with the content item, users may view additional information about the state or perform actions associated with the state. | 12-11-2014 |
20150026264 | Capturing Structured Data About Previous Events from Users of a Social Networking System - The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user. | 01-22-2015 |
20150149486 | PROMPTING SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USERS IN A NEWSFEED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL USER PROFILE INFORMATION - A social networking system presents questions to a user on an interface associated with the social networking system to elicit information about the user that is missing from the user's profile or is otherwise outdated. The questions are selected based on a number of factors, such as the need for or value of the information item, probability of a response, or cost of collecting the information item. In presenting the selected question, the social networking system prompts a user for information about the user in a an interface associated with a page from the social networking system, an application external to the social networking system, or using a push notification or prompt. The questions may be formatted in various ways, such as an explicit question, confirmation, a selection of responses, or social context to encourage the user to respond to the question. | 05-28-2015 |
20150373067 | PROMPTING SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USERS TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL USER PROFILE INFORMATION - A social networking system presents questions to a user on an interface associated with the social networking system to elicit information about the user that is missing from the user's profile or is otherwise outdated. The questions are selected based on a number of factors, such as the need for or value of the information item, probability of a response, or cost of collecting the information item. In presenting the selected question, the social networking system prompts a user for information about the user in a an interface associated with a page from the social networking system, an application external to the social networking system, or using a push notification or prompt. The questions may be formatted in various ways, such as an explicit question, confirmation, a selection of responses, or social context to encourage the user to respond to the question. | 12-24-2015 |