Presenting personalized social content on a web page of an external system

• US 8,775,247 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2011
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sittner, Matthew T
• Application Number:
  US13/342,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20120101898A1
• Time in Patent Office: 920 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• 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, by a user device, a web page from an external system for display to a viewing user, wherein;

the viewing user is connected to a plurality of other users in a social networking system;

the requested web page is within a domain of the external system that is different from a domain of the social networking system;

requesting, by the user device, information from the social networking system based on an instruction for the requested web page to create an interface within the web page that includes information obtained from the social networking system;

receiving, at the user device, the requested information from the social networking system, the received information comprising a story selected for presentation as a social advertisement, wherein the story comprises;

a story selected from a plurality of stories generated by the social networking system for the viewing user about actions identified by the social networking system as having been taken on objects by other users connected to the viewing user, and

a story selected over other stories of the plurality of stories based on;

the story being sponsored by an advertiser, and

the story comprising an action identified by the social networking system as having been taken on an object by a user, the action matching a type of action identified in an advertisement request, the type of action having been selected by an advertiser from a plurality of types of actions provided to the advertiser by the social networking system; and

rendering, at the user device, the web page including the received information contained within the interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

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

3. The method of claim 2, 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.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the modified user interface elements comprise an enhancement of an item on the web page or a resizing of the interface.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the actions taken by the viewing user on the interface comprise a selection of content in the interface or a mousing-over content in the interface.

6. The method of claim 2, 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.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising sending by the user device to the social networking system information about the actions taken by the viewing user on the interface, thereby causing the social networking system to communicate to the external system information based on the one or more actions.

8. The method of claim 7, 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.

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

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

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the action taken on an object by the other users connected to the viewing user comprises an action taken on an object outside of the social networking system.

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

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information is received without revealing to the external system identities of the other users connected to the viewing user.

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

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the received information comprises a feed that includes plurality of the stories generated for the viewing user and also includes the story selected for presentation as a social advertisement.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the feed is presented such that the viewing user cannot determine which of the stories is sponsored.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein sponsorship of one of the plurality of stories generated for the viewing user accelerates display of that story relative to other stories displayed within the feed.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein sponsorship of one of the plurality of stories generated for the viewing user maximizes the chance that the story will be provided for display to the viewing user in a situation where the story might not otherwise be selected for display.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the story selected for presentation as a social advertisement is provided to the viewing user as an unsponsored, newsfeed story in other contexts.

20. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes instructions that, when loaded into memory, cause a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

requesting, by a user device, a web page from an external system for display to a viewing user, wherein;

the viewing user is connected to a plurality of other users in a social networking system;

the requested web page is within a domain of the external system that is different from a domain of the social networking system;

requesting, by the user device, information from the social networking system based on an instruction for the requested web page to create an interface within the web page that includes information obtained from the social networking system;

receiving, at the user device, the requested information from the social networking system, the received information comprising a story selected for presentation as a social advertisement, wherein the story comprises;

a story selected from a plurality of stories generated by the social networking system for the viewing user about actions identified by the social networking system as having been taken on objects by other users connected to the viewing user, and

a story selected over other stories of the plurality of stories based on;

the story being sponsored by an advertiser, and the story comprising an action identified by the social networking system as having been taken on an object by a user, the action matching a type of action identified in an advertisement request, the type of action having been selected by an advertiser from a plurality of types of actions provided to the advertiser by the social networking system; and

rendering, at the user device, the web page including the received information contained within the interface.