Sharing of Location-Based Content Item in Social Networking Service

• US 20110083101A1
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stremel, Jed, Chang, Wayne, Adeagbo, Olumakinde A., Sharon, Eyal M., Hewitt, Joseph, Cahill, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 9,119,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A method and/or system allows a user of a social networking service to publish a content item tagged with location information for sharing with other users of the social networking service. The user publishing the content item performs operations on the originating device to generate the content item. The originating communication device attaches the location information to the content item, and transmits the content item to a social networking system. The social networking system may provide various location-based services based on the content item tagged with the location information.

Claims

1. A method of sharing content items and geographic location information associated with the content items in a social networking service, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:

receiving a content item from a communication device accessed by a first user;

obtaining geographic location information associated with the content item;

selecting a second user of the social networking service having a pre-existing social relationship in the social networking service with the first user; and

making the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the geographic location information comprises receiving the geographic location information from the communication device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the content item received from the communication device is embedded with the geographic location information.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the geographic location information associated with the content item is generated at the communication device based on user input received from the first user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein making the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user comprises making the content item and geographic information available to the second user for every content item received from the communications device of the first user.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the geographic location information is generated at the communication device based on localization technology.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the geographic location information is received simultaneously with the content item from the communication device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the geographic location information comprises inferring a likely location of the communication device based on at least one of user input received from the communication device, information from a third party, previous locations of the communication device, the content item, and activities of a group of users participating in the social networking service.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an approximate location of the communication device based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address of the communication device; and

sending the approximate location to the communication device for display.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the content item and the geographic location information are sent to the second user via at least one of an instant message, an email, a web document and a text message.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the second user an indication of a geographic location of interest;

selecting content items provided by a plurality of other users associated with the indicated geographic location; and

making the selected content items available to the second user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein making the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user further comprises:

determining a level of resolution of the geographic location information to be provided to the second user; and

making the geographic location information available to the second user at the determined level of resolution.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving first privacy information for determining whether the content item should be made available to a user of the social networking service; and

receiving second privacy information for determining whether to make the geographic location information available to a user and the level of resolution of the geographic location information to be made available to a user of the social networking service.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

making the geographic location information at a first resolution level available to a second user based on the second privacy information; and

making the geographic location information at a second resolution level available to a third user based on the second privacy information, wherein the first resolution level is a higher resolution level than the second resolution level.

15. The method of claim 14, where the first resolution level indicates a street level address, and the second resolution level indicates a neighborhood, city or state level location.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the level of resolution of the geographic location information is determined based on the pre-existing social relationship or privacy setting received from the first user.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disabling obtaining of the geographic location information responsive to receiving user input from the first user.

18. A method of providing content items and geographic location information associated with the content items available to a user of a social networking system, the method executed by a computer system and comprising:

receiving a content item from each of a plurality of communication devices, each communication device associated with a respective user;

for each content item, obtaining geographic location information associated with the content item;

receiving from a second user an indication to access the social networking system;

selecting from the received plurality of content items, content items to make available to the second user, based on the second user having a pre-existing social relationship in the social networking service with the respective user associated with the content item;

determining for each of selected content items whether to make the geographic information associated with content item available to the second user; and

making each of the selected content items and the determined geographic location information available to the second user.

19. The method of claim 18 making each of the selected content items and the determined geographic location information available to the second user comprises:

determining a level of resolution of the geographic location information to be provided to the second user; and

making the geographic location information available to the second user at the determined level of resolution.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving first privacy information for determining whether the content item should be made available to a user of the social networking service; and

receiving second privacy information for determining whether to make the geographic location information available to a user and the level of resolution of the geographic location information to be made available to a user of the social networking service.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

making the geographic location information at a first resolution level available to a second user based on the second privacy information; and

making the geographic location information at a second resolution level available to a third user based on the second privacy information, wherein the first resolution level is a higher resolution level than the second resolution level.

22. The method of claim 21, where the first resolution level indicates a street level address, and the second resolution level indicates a neighborhood, city or state level location.

23. A computer system for sharing content items and geographic location information associated with the content items in a social networking service, comprising:

a content processor module configured to receive a content item from a communication device accessed by a first user, the content processor module further configured to obtain geographic location information associated with the content item; and

a publishing module configured to select a second user of the social networking service who has a pre-existing social relationship in the social networking service with the first user, the publishing module further configured to make the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the content processor module is configured to receive the geographic location information from the communication device.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the content item received from the communication device is embedded with the geographic location information.

26. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the geographic location information is generated at the communication device based on user input received from the first user.

27. The computer system of claim 26, wherein making the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user comprises making the content item and geographic information available to the second user for every content item received from the communications device of the first user.

28. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the geographic location information is generated at the communication device based on localization technology.

29. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the geographic location information is received simultaneously with the content item from the communication device.

30. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the content processor module is further configured to determine a likely location of the communication device based on at least one of user input received from the communication device, information from a third party, previous locations of the communication device, the content item, and activities of a group of users participating in the social networking service.

31. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the content processor module is further configured to:

determine an approximate location of the communication device based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address of the communication device; and

send the approximate location to the communication device for display.

32. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the content item and the geographic location information are sent to the second user via at least one of an instant message, an email, a web document and a text message.

33. The computer system of claim 23, further comprising a location-based service module configured to:

select content items associated with a geographic location of a device; and

make the selected content items available to the device.

34. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the publishing module is further configured to:

select content items associated with a geographic location of a third user; and

make the selected content items available to the third user.

35. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the publishing module is further configured to:

determining a level of resolution of the geographic location information to be provided to the second user, the geographic location information made available to the second user at the determined level of resolution.

36. The computer system of claim 35, further comprising:

a global privacy module is configured to receive first privacy information for determining whether the content item should be made available to a user of the social networking service, and

wherein the content processor module is configured to receive second privacy information for determining whether to make the geographic location information available to a user and the level of resolution of the geographic location information to be made available to a user of the social networking service.

37. The computer system of claim 34, wherein the publishing module is further configured to:

make the geographic location information at a first resolution level available to a second user based on the second privacy information; and

make the geographic location information at a second resolution level available to a third user based on the second privacy information, wherein the first resolution level is a higher resolution level than the second resolution level.

38. The computer system of claim 35, wherein the first resolution level indicates a street level address and the second resolution level indicates a neighborhood, city or state level location.

39. the computer system of claim 34, wherein the level of resolution of the geographic location information is determined based on the pre-existing social relationship or privacy setting received from the first user.

40. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions thereon, the instructions when executed by a processor in a computing device for providing a social networking service, cause the processor to:

receive a content item from a communication device accessed by a first user;

obtain geographic location information associated with the content item;

select a second user of the social networking service who has a pre-existing social relationship in the social networking service with the first user; and

make the content item and the geographic location information available to the second user.