Customizing tracking changes to user content in an online social network

• US 8,694,542 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tiu, William K. Jr., Lindstrom, Kent, MacKinnon, Ross Ainsley
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABRAHAM, AHMED M
• Application Number:
  US13/269,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20120030286A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 707/778, 707/784, 709/223, 709/224, 709/226
• US Class Current: 707/778
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia

Abstract

Updates to landing pages of users in an online social network are fed from external sources so that content maintained by any one user can be consolidated in a single location regardless of where the changes are made to the content. When an update event occurs, users of the online social network are notified according to various criteria that they have set. With this feature, users can browse through content of other users efficiently.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computer systems:

accessing tracking preferences of a first user of an online social network, wherein the tracking preferences identify one or more types of activity related to one or more types of multimedia content associated with one or more second users of the online social network that the first user would like to track, wherein the one or more types of activity comprise changing, adding to, or updating multimedia content on the online social network, and wherein the tracking preference further identify one or more method of notification for the first user;

determining whether activity related to multimedia content that is associated with one or more of the second users has occurred;

if activity related to multimedia content that is associated with one or more of the second users has occurred, then determining whether the activity substantially matches the tracking preferences; and

if the tracking preferences are substantially matched, then sending a notification to the first user that activity related to multimedia content associated with one or more of the second users has occurred, wherein the notification is sent by one or more of the methods of notification identified in the tracking preferences of the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking preferences of the first user further comprise a notification frequency, and wherein the notification is sent at a time interval based on the notification frequency.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the online social network comprises a data structure defining relationships between users, the data structure comprising a plurality of nodes and information defining connections between the nodes, wherein each node is associated with a particular user, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the data structure from one node to the other, and wherein the second users are connected by a threshold degree of separation in the graph structure to the first user.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the threshold degree of separation is one, two, or all.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of multimedia content identified in the tracking preferences is photographs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of multimedia content identified in the tracking preferences is videos.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of multimedia content identified in the tracking preferences is blogs or blog posts.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of multimedia content identified in the tracking preferences is profile information inputted by one of the second users.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the methods of notification is email.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the methods of notification is a feed.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the methods of notification is a notification on the web page associated with the first user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification comprises an activatable link to a web page associated with the second user associated with the activity related to the multimedia content.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the feed is an RSS feed.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the methods of notification is a notification on a landing page of the online social network.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification comprises a description of the activity.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether activity related to multimedia content that is associated with one or more of the second users has occurred comprises determining whether multimedia content associated with web pages of one or more of the second users has been changed, added to, or updated.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of multimedia content identified in the tracking preferences is multimedia content on a third-party server that is external to the online social network.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the first user for a web page associated with one of the second users;

generating the web page, the web page including the multimedia content associated with the second user related to the activity; and

sending the web page to the first user.

19. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions executable by one or more processors; and

the one or more processors coupled to the memory and operable to execute the instructions, the one or more processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

access tracking preferences of a first user of an online social network, wherein the tracking preferences identify one or more types of activity related to one or more types of multimedia content associated with one or more second users of the online social network that the first user would like to track, wherein the one or more types of activity comprise changing, adding to, or updating multimedia content on the online social network, and wherein the tracking preference further identify one or more method of notification for the first user;

determine whether activity related to multimedia content that is associated with one or more of the second users has occurred;

if activity related to multimedia content that is associated with one or more of the second users has occurred, determine whether the activity substantially matches the tracking preferences; and

if the tracking preferences are substantially matched, send a notification to the first user that activity related to multimedia content associated with one or more of the second users has occurred, wherein the notification is sent by one or more of the methods of notification identified in the tracking preferences of the first user.