Tagging Users of a Social Networking System in an Experience in a User's User Profile

• US 20120144316A1
• Filed: 12/04/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Flynn, William Joseph III, Wiseman, Josh, Cahill, Matthew, Deng, Peter, Rha, Philip Sanghoon, Smith, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 8,910,052 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A user profile for a user of a social networking system may include experiences, such as work, educational, travel, and interests. The social networking system provides a profile page for a user'"'"'s user profile that allows the user to tag other users as being involved in or otherwise associated with the user'"'"'s experiences. Once another user is tagged in an experience, a corresponding tag is added to the tagged user'"'"'s user profile, and that experience is added as well if not already included in the profile. Tagging users in experiences allows a viewer to see connections between experiences of users of the social networking system and promotes more detailed user profiles that contain experiences.

Claims

1. A method for tagging users of a social networking system, comprising:

maintaining a user profile for each of a first user and a second user of a social networking system;

providing an interface for the first user to add or edit one or more experiences associated with the first user'"'"'s user profile;

receiving from the first user via the interface a first tag indicating an association between the second user and an experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile; and

responsive to receiving the first tag, automatically updating the second user'"'"'s user profile to include a second tag indicating an association between the first user and the experience.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing for display to a viewing user a page including the first user'"'"'s user profile, the page including the first tag indicating an association between the second user and an experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing for display to a viewing user a page including the updated second user'"'"'s user profile, the page including the second tag.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more experiences are organized into categories.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the categories comprise at least one selected from the list consisting of work experiences, educational experiences, activity experiences, and interest experiences.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of connections associated with the first user;

wherein receiving from the first user via the interface the first tag indicating an association between the second user and the experience further comprises;

receiving an action selecting the experience for editing;

receiving entry of text by the first user;

providing list of selected connections associated with the first user comprising names matching the received text, the list of selected connections including the second user; and

receiving selection by the first user of the second user from the list of selected connections.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the list of selected connections is provided via a drop down menu in the interface that presents matches corresponding to type-ahead functionality associated with the received text.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically updating the second user'"'"'s user profile to include a second tag indicating an association between the first user and the experience further comprises:

determining whether the second user'"'"'s user profile includes the experience; and

in response to a determination that the second user'"'"'s user profile does not include the experience, adding the experience to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing an attribution indicating that the first user caused the experience to be added to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the received first tag indicating an association between the second user and a lower level experience nested within a higher level experience, automatically updating the second user'"'"'s user profile to include the experience further comprises:

determining whether the second user'"'"'s user profile includes the lower level experience; and

in response to a determination that the second user'"'"'s user profile does not include the lower level experience, adding the lower level experience and the higher level experience to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a notification to the second user that the second user was tagged in the experience and the experience was added to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification is communicated via a communication channel selected from the group consisting of a notification within the social networking system, an email notification, and an SMS notification.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification indicates that the first user caused the second tag to be added to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from the second user to remove the second tag indicating of the association between the second user and the experience;

responsive to receiving the request;

removing the second tag indicating an associated between the second user and the experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile; and

removing the experience from the second user'"'"'s user profile.

15. A method for tagging users of a social networking system, comprising:

maintaining a user profile for each of a first user and a second user of a social networking system;

maintaining a plurality of connections associated with the first user;

providing an interface for the first user to add or edit one or more experiences associated with the first user'"'"'s user profile;

receiving from the first user via the interface a first tag indicating an association between the second user and an experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile, further comprising;

receiving an action selecting the experience for editing;

receiving entry of text by the first user;

providing list of selected connections associated with the first user comprising names matching the received text, the list of selected connections including the second user; and

receiving selection by the first user of the second user from the list of selected connections;

responsive to receiving the first tag, automatically updating the second user'"'"'s user profile to include a second tag indicating an association between the first user and the experience, comprising;

determining whether the second user'"'"'s user profile includes the experience; and

in response to a determination that the second user'"'"'s user profile does not include the experience, adding the experience to the second user'"'"'s user profile;

providing for display to a viewing user a page including the first user'"'"'s user profile, the page including the first tag indicating an association between the second user and an experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile; and

providing a notification to the second user that the second user was tagged in the experience and the experience was added to the second user'"'"'s user profile.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing for display to a viewing user a page including the updated second user'"'"'s user profile, the page including the second tag and including the experience indicated by the second tag.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a request from the second user to remove the second tag indicating of the association between the second user and the experience;

responsive to receiving the request;

removing the second tag indicating an association between the second user and the experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile; and

removing the experience from the second user'"'"'s user profile.

18. A method for tagging users of a social networking system, comprising:

producing a user interface including a user profile, comprising;

providing a control for receiving from the first user a first tag indicating an association between a second user and an experience on the first user'"'"'s user profile; and

wherein the first tag is added to the first user'"'"'s user profile responsive to the receiving.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of experiences are organized into categories.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a display element on the user profile comprising;

providing a text entry field for receiving entry of text by the first user indicating the second user; and

providing a list of selected connections associated with the first user comprising names matching the text, the names including the second user; and

wherein the first tag is added to the first user'"'"'s user profile responsive to selection of the second user from the list of selected connections.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the list of selected connections is provided via a drop down menu in the interface that presents matches corresponding to type-ahead functionality associated with the received text.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a remove tag control on the user profile when a viewer of the user profile is the second user; and

wherein the first tag is removed from the user'"'"'s user profile responsive to selection of the remove tag control by the second user.