SOCIAL CIRCLES IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

• US 20120110052A1
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Smarr, Joseph, Adams, Paul, Ben-Yair, Shimrit, Terleski, Jonathan, Sladden, Mandy R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,300,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• 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 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving first user input, the first user input provided by a user of a computer-implemented social networking service and indicating first digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service, receiving second user input through a distribution interface that is displayed to the user, the second user input defining a distribution for the first digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of a first sub-distribution that is defined based on a first social circle and a second sub-distribution, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts, and distributing the first digital content to contacts of the user based on the distribution.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more computer-readable media coupled to the one or more computing devices and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising;

receiving first user input, the first user input provided by a user of a computer-implemented social networking service and indicating first digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service;

receiving second user input through a distribution interface that is displayed to the user, the second user input defining a distribution for the first digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of a first sub-distribution that is defined based on a first social circle and a second sub-distribution, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts; and

distributing the first digital content to contacts of the user based on the distribution.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second sub-distribution comprises at least one contact of the user that is absent from the first subset of contacts, wherein distributing the digital content further comprises distributing the digital content to the at least one contact.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second sub-distribution is defined based on a second social circle, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second subset of contacts comprises at least one contact of the user that is absent from the first subset of contacts.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one contact of the first subset of contacts is non-social networking contact of the user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein distributing the digital content comprises distributing the first digital content to the at least one contact via email.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving third user input indicating second digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service;

receiving fourth user input through the distribution interface, the fourth user input defining a distribution for the second digital content that comprises a third sub-distribution, the third sub-distribution being defined based on a second social circle, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts; and

distributing the second digital content to each contact of the second subset of contacts.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second subset of contacts comprises one or more contacts that are contacts of the first subset of contacts.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting second digital content to the user in response to the user being included in a second social circle, the second digital content being displayed to the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving third user input from the user, the third user input indicating a filter to be applied to digital content displayed to the user; and

removing the second digital content from display to the user based on the filter.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital content comprises at least one of text, an image file, a video file, an audio file, and a uniform resource indicator (URI).

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution interface is displayed in response to receiving the first user input.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution interface is displayed within a web page of the social networking service.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the distribution comprises the first sub-distribution and the second sub-distribution.

15. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving first user input, the first user input provided by a user of a computer-implemented social networking service and indicating first digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service;

receiving second user input through a distribution interface that is displayed to the user, the second user input defining a distribution for the first digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of a first sub-distribution that is defined based on a first social circle and a second sub-distribution, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts; and

distributing the first digital content to contacts of the user based on the distribution.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving first user input, the first user input provided by a user of a computer-implemented social networking service and indicating first digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service;

receiving second user input through a distribution interface that is displayed to the user, the second user input defining a distribution for the first digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of a first sub-distribution that is defined based on a first social circle and a second sub-distribution, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts; and

distributing the first digital content to contacts of the user based on the distribution.