System and method for managing information flow between members of an online social network

• US 20050267766A1
• Filed: 05/26/2004
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Galbreath, Nicholas, Lunt, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,010,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

An online social network is provided in which members of the online social network control who may view their personal information and who may communicate with them. The members control who may view their personal information by setting a visibility preference. A member may not view another member'"'"'s full personal profile if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the visibility preference of the other member. The members also control who may communicate with them by setting a contactability preference. A member may not communicate with another member if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the contactability preference of the other member.

Claims

1. A method for managing access to information about members of an online social network who are related to each other within the online social network by a degree of separation, comprising the step of providing an interface allowing a member to enter information and one or more preference settings specifying a degree of separation, relative to the member, that other members must be within to access some or all of the information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing an interface comprises the step of providing to the member a web page configured to include control elements that allow the member to submit the information and the one or more preference settings to the online social network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information to be entered comprises personal information of the member, including a full profile of the member.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein one of the preference settings comprises a visibility setting limiting who may view the member'"'"'s full profile.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the visibility setting may be 1, 2, or 3 degree of separation.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request by another member to view the full profile of said member; and

sending the full profile of said member if the degree of separation between said member and said another member is less than or equal to said visibility setting.

7. A method for managing access to information about members in an online social network who are related to each other within the online social network by a degree of separation, comprising the step of providing an interface allowing a member to enter information and one or more preference settings specifying a degree of separation, relative to the member, that other members must be within to communicate with the member.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of providing an interface comprises the step of providing to the member a web page configured to include control elements that allow the member to submit information to the online social network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein one of the preference settings comprises a contactability setting limiting who may send messages to the member.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the contactability setting may be 1, 2, or 3 degree of separation.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request by another member to send a message to said member; and

sending the message to said member if the degree of separation between said member and said another member is less than or equal to said contactability setting.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the information to be entered comprises personal information of the member, including a full profile of the member, and another one of the preference settings comprises a visibility setting limiting who may view the full profile of said member.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the visibility setting may be 1, 2, or 3 degree of separation.

14. A system for managing information about individuals in a network, comprising a database that stores:

(i) information about individuals who are related to each other by a degree of separation, and (ii) a degree of separation preference specified by each of the individuals, wherein a request by a first individual to engage in an activity involving a second individual is carried out based on a degree of separation between the first individual and the second individual relative to the degree of separation preference specified by said second individual.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the degree of separation preference specified by an individual includes a visibility setting limiting who may receive personal information about the individual.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the visibility setting may be 1, 2, 3 or ALL, wherein the request by the first individual to receive personal information about the second individual is carried out if the degree of separation between the first individual and the second individual is less than or equal to the visibility setting specified by said second individual, or if the visibility setting specified by said second individual is ALL.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the visibility setting may be 1, 2, 3 or ALL, wherein the request by the first individual to receive personal information about the second individual is not carried out if the degree of separation between the first individual and the second individual is greater than the visibility setting specified by said second individual, and if the visibility setting specified by said second individual is not ALL.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the degree of separation preference specified by an individual includes a contactability setting limiting who may communicate with the individual.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the contactability setting may be 1, 2, 3 or ALL, and wherein the request by the first individual to communicate with the second individual is carried out if the degree of separation between the first individual and the second individual is less than or equal to the contactability setting specified by said second individual, or if the contactability setting specified by said second individual is ALL.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the contactability setting may be 1, 2, 3 or ALL, and wherein the request by the first individual to communicate with the second individual is not carried out if the degree of separation between the first individual and the second individual is greater than the contactability setting specified by said second individual, and if the contactability setting specified by said second individual is not ALL.