PRESENTING PERSONALIZED SOCIAL CONTENT ON A WEB PAGE OF AN EXTERNAL SYSTEM

• US 20120101898A1
• Filed: 12/31/2011
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adam D'Angelo, Andrew G. Bosworth, Chamath M. Palihapitiya, Justin M. Rosenstein, Mark E. Zuckerberg, Matthew R. Cohler, Robert Kang-Xing Jin, Timothy A. Kendall, Yishan Wong, Yun-Fang Juan
• Inventors: Kendall, Timothy A., Cohler, Matthew R., Zuckerberg, Mark E., Juan, Yun-Fang, Jin, Robert Kang-Xing, Rosenstein, Justin M., Bosworth, Andrew G., Wong, Yishan, D'Angelo, Adam, Palihapitiya, Chamath M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.52
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User 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 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking system generates socially-relevant stories for a user based on other users (e.g., based on actions taken by other users) to whom the user is connected. These socially-relevant stories, including news stories, social advertisements, etc., may be presented on a web page within a domain of an external system that is different from the domain of the social networking system. When a web page from an external system is requested for a viewing user, the social content about other users who are connected to the viewing user may be provided by the social networking system for that viewing user. This personalized social content may be presented in a frame (e.g., an iframe) of the external web page rendered and provided for display to the viewing user.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

requesting a web page from an external system for display to a viewing user, the viewing user connected to a plurality of other users in a social networking system, the requested web page within a domain of the external system that is different from a domain of the social networking system;

requesting information from the social networking system based on an instruction for the requested web page to create a frame within the web page that includes information obtained from the social networking system;

receiving the requested information from the social networking system, the received information related to one or more other users with whom the viewing user has a connection;

rendering the web page including the received information contained within the frame; and

providing the web page for display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises a plurality of stories about one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises a social advertisement targeted to the viewing user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein

receiving one or more actions taken by the viewing user on the frame;

and

modifying one or more user interface elements of the web page outside the frame in response to the one or more actions

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the modified user interface elements comprise indications on the web page of purchases made by or ratings provided by one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the modified user interface elements comprise an enhancement of an item on the web page or a resizing of the frame.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more actions taken by the viewing user on the frame comprise a selection of content in the frame or a mousing-over content in the frame.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving from the external system information regarding the modifications to be made to the one or more user interface elements of the webpage.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising sending to the social networking system information about the one or more actions taken by the viewing user on the frame, thereby causing the social networking system to communicate to the external system information based on the one or more actions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the communication of the social networking system to the external system causes the external system to send instructions for the modifications of the one or more user interface elements.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises an iframe that contains a web page in the domain of the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting information from the social networking system comprises requesting information from the domain of the social networking system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises information related to actions taken by the one or more other users outside of the social networking system.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises a bidirectional interface in which user interface elements from the domain of the social networking system can affect a presentation of user interface elements from the domain of the external system and in which user interface elements from the domain of the external system can affect a presentation of user interface elements from the domain of the social networking system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information is received without revealing to the external system identities of the one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to the viewing user selecting another user within the frame, enhancing an item on the web page that relates to the other user outside of the frame.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing a document for being rendered by a web browser application executing on a computer system, the document comprising:

information items comprising instructions for rendering information from an external system as a web page in a web browser application; and

instructions to a web browser application executing on a computer system for retrieving information associated with a viewing user of a social networking system and creating a frame within the web page that includes the information, a domain of the social networking system being different from a domain of the external system, the instructions for causing the computer system to;

send a request to the social networking system for information related to one or more other users with whom the viewing user has a connection,

receive the requested information from the social networking system in response to the request for the information, and

incorporate the received information with the information items related to the external system to produce a displayable web page.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the received information comprises a newsfeed providing information about one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the received information includes a social advertisement for the viewing user based on one or more actions taken by other users to whom the viewing user is connected.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the frame is a nested iframe within the domain of the social networking system.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the requested information is received without sharing personal information of the viewing user with the external system and without requiring the viewing user to log into the social networking system.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the received information comprises a purchase, a rating, a request for information, or a subscription made by the one or more other users with whom the viewing user has a connection.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the received information comprises a list of a plurality of the other users to whom the viewing user is connected.

24. A method, comprising:

maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a viewing user;

receiving, at the social networking system, a request from a client device for information regarding the viewing user for display in a frame within a web page of an external system, the request based on an instruction for the web page to create the frame within the web page that includes information obtained from the social networking system, the web page within a domain of the external system that is different from a domain of the social networking system;

retrieving, at the social networking system, the requested information related to one or more other users with whom the viewing user has a connection;

sending the requested information to the client device for display in the frame of the web page of the external system.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the sent information comprises a plurality of stories about one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the sent information comprises a social advertisement targeted to the viewing user based on one or more actions taken by other users to whom the viewing user is connected.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving, at the social networking system and from the client device, information about one or more actions taken by the viewing user on the frame within the web page; and

communicating, by the social networking system to the external system, information based on the one or more actions, the communication causing the external system to send instructions to the client device for modification of one or more user interface elements of the web page outside the frame in response to the one or more actions.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the modified user interface elements comprise indications on the web page relating to actions by the other users to whom the viewing user is connected.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the frame comprises an iframe that contains a web page in the domain of the social networking system.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the sent information comprises information related to actions taken by the one or more other users outside of the social networking system.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the frame comprises a bidirectional interface in which user interface elements from the domain of the social networking system and from the domain of the external system and in which user interface elements from the domain of the external system can affect each other.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the frame is a nested iframe within the domain of the social networking system.

33. The method of claim 24, wherein the requested information is sent without revealing to the external system identities of the one or more users to whom the viewing user is connected.