ENABLING PREFERENCE PORTABILITY FOR USERS OF A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20130124624A1
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cathcart, Robert William, Marlow, Cameron Alexander, Kar, Siddharth, Sun, Eric, Sagula, Rafael Linden, Chang, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 10,210,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

Equivalent concepts expressed across multiple domains are matched and associated with a metapage generated by a social networking system. User preferences expressed on multiple domains, represented as pages in a social networking system, may be organized by concept and shared with advertisers, third-party developers, and other users using the metapages generated for the concepts. Aggregated social information may be presented to users viewing a page associated with a metapage. Information presented on external websites may be used to link pages across multiple domains with a metapage generated on the social networking system. Information on other external websites associated with the metapage may be presented as links on the pages associated with the metapage. Feedback from users may be used to include or exclude pages from being associated with a generated metapage. A best page for a concept embodied in multiple pages may be determined using a hierarchy of rules.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a plurality of page objects on a social networking system, the plurality of page objects representing a plurality of non-normalized concepts;

receiving an assertion that at least two page objects of the plurality of page objects represent matching concepts of the plurality of non-normalized concepts;

receiving information about the page objects included in the assertion;

determining a match score based on the received information according to matching rules;

responsive to the match score exceeding a predetermined threshold, generating a metapage object in association with the page objects included in the assertion;

storing the metapage object in a computer readable storage medium communicatively coupled with the social networking system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises structured information about the page objects including names and types of the page objects and wherein determining a match score based on the received information according to matching rules further comprises:

determining the match score as a similarity of the names and the types of the page objects included in the assertion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises links to web pages representing other page objects on the social networking system and wherein determining a match score based on the received information according to matching rules further comprises:

determining the match score based on whether the other page objects correspond to the page objects included in the assertion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises attributes of the page objects describing user-generated categories of information and wherein determining a match score based on the received information according to matching rules further comprises:

determining the match score based on whether the attributes of the page objects included in the assertion are similar.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises feedback received from users of the social networking system and wherein determining a match score based on the received information according to matching rules further comprises:

determining the match score based on a percentage of the feedback received from the users of the social networking system that affirms the page objects included in the assertion are similar.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the assertion includes a page object associated with a previously generated metapage object, the method further comprising:

determining a merge score for the previously generated metapage object and the metapage object in association with the page objects included in the assertion based on a plurality of merge factors; and

responsive to the merge score exceeding a predetermined threshold for merging, associating the page objects included in the assertion with the previously generated metapage object.

7. A method comprising:

maintaining a plurality of metapage objects on a social networking system, the plurality of metapage objects representing a plurality of normalized concepts, each metapage object associated with a plurality of page objects representing a plurality of non-normalized concepts corresponding to a normalized concept represented by the each metapage object;

receiving a request for information about a page object from a user of the social networking system, the page object associated with a metapage object;

retrieving a plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object;

retrieving social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object; and

providing the social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object to the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving a request for information about a page object from a user of the social networking system further comprises:

receiving a request for a page on the social networking system, the page including the page object and the request for information about the page object.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving a request for information about a page object from a user of the social networking system further comprises:

receiving an application programming interface (API) request for information about the page object from a widget embedded in an external website.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the social information includes expressions of interest from users of the social networking system.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the social information includes actions generated by users of the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein retrieving social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object comprises aggregating actions performed by users of the social networking system on the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object and wherein providing the social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object to the user comprises providing the aggregated actions as the social information.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises movies.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises television shows.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises recording artists.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises celebrities.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises places.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises activities.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises applications.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of normalized concepts comprises consumer products.

21. The method of claim 7, wherein providing the social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object to the user further comprises:

providing the social information associated with the plurality of page objects associated with the metapage object within a widget embedded in an external website.

22. A method comprising:

receiving a first set of preference information associated with users of a social networking system for a page of a plurality of pages of the social networking system;

receiving a request for social information for display to a user, where the social information comprises information about interactions of one or more other users connected to the user in connection with the page of the plurality of pages;

determining a metapage associated with the page on the social networking system;

retrieving a second set of preference information associated with pages associated with the metapage, the second set of preference information including the first set of preference information; and

providing the second set of preference information as the social information for display to the user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving a first set of preference information associated with users of a social networking system for a page of a plurality of pages of the social networking system further comprises:

receiving expressions of interest from the users of the social networking system for the page of the plurality of pages of the social networking system.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving a first set of preference information associated with users of a social networking system for a page of a plurality of pages of the social networking system further comprises:

analyzing user profile information provided by the users of the social networking system; and

determining the preference information of the users based on the analyzed user profile information.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving a request for social information for display to a user, where the social information comprises information about interactions of one or more other users connected to the user in connection with the page of the plurality of pages further comprises:

receiving an application programming interface (API) call from an external website via a widget embedded in the external website, the API call including an identifier of the user of the social networking system viewing the external website and the request for the social information;

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the retrieved second set of preference information is filtered for the page associated with the first set of preference information.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein receiving a request for social information for display to a user, where the social information comprises information about interactions of one or more other users connected to the user in connection with the page of the plurality of pages further comprises:

receiving a request for social information for display to the user from a module publishing a content item in the social networking system.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein retrieving a second set of preference information associated with pages associated with the metapage, the second set of preference information including the first set of preference information further comprises:

retrieving the second set of preference information based on expressions of interest of users in the pages associated with the metapage.

29. The method of claim 22, wherein providing the second set of preference information as the social information for display to the user further comprises:

providing the second set of preference information in a widget embedded in an external website.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein providing the second set of preference information as the social information for display to the user further comprises:

providing the second set of preference information in a content item posted in the social networking system.