Social networking system data exchange

• US 8,812,591 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2011
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schoen, Kent, Rajaram, Gokul
• Primary Examiner(s): MIRZA, ADNAN M
• Application Number:
  US13/161,415
• Publication Number:
  US 20120323998A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• 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 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

An online publisher provides content items such as advertisements to users. To enable publishers to provide content items to users who meet targeting criteria of the content items, an exchange server aggregates data about the users. The exchange server receives user data from two or more sources, including a social networking system and one or more other service providers. To protect the user'"'"'s privacy, the social networking system and the service providers may provide the user data to the exchange server without identifying the user. The exchange server tracks each unique user of the social networking system and the service providers using a common identifier, enabling the exchange server to aggregate the users'"'"' data. The exchange server then applies the aggregated user data to select content items for the users, either directly or via a publisher.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving social networking system user data from a social networking system, the social networking system user data comprising a user identity of each of a plurality of users of the social networking system;

receiving service provider user data from a service provider, the service provider user data comprising a user identity of each of a plurality of users of the service provider;

for each of one or more users of the social networking system and the service provider, matching a user of the social networking system to a user of the service provider using the identities;

receiving user information responsive to a tracking pixel redirecting a user of the one or more users from the service provider, the tracking pixel providing user information;

generating an exchange identification for the redirected user if the user information does not match existing user information;

combining the social networking system user data and the service provider user data to create an aggregated user profile for one or more users of the social networking system and the service provider that have a matching user identity;

receiving information about a plurality of content items from a third party content source, wherein the received information for a content item includes targeting criteria defining one or more characteristics of users eligible to view the content item;

determining eligibility of a content item for a viewing user by applying the targeting criteria to the aggregated user profile of the viewing user;

selecting the content item for the viewing user based on the determination; and

sending the selected content item for display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service provider is selected from a group consisting of a web publisher, an image content provider, a video content provider, a news publisher, and a service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data is selected from a group consisting of the user'"'"'s purchasing history, web browsing history, image viewing history, video content item viewing history, news content item viewing history, click through rate, and social networking system data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing an exchange identifier for the user responsive to the encrypted user identity provided by the social networking system or the service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein user data received from the social networking system comprises a social graph including nodes and edges, wherein a node represents an object and an edge represents a connection between objects.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein combining user data comprises generating an imputed graph by adding user data received from the service provider as nodes and edges within the social graph.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content item is selected from a group consisting of an advertisement, a news story, a video, an image, and a social networking system newsfeed story.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

matching one or more content items to the user based on targeting criteria for the content items.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected content item is selected based on an expected revenue generated from displaying the content item to the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending comprises sending the selected content item to a publisher for display to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a content item for the user comprises ranking multiple items using user data.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the targeting criteria applies to at least some user data in the aggregate user profile received from the service provider and to at least some user data in the aggregate user profile received from the social networking system.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the targeting criteria is based on connections in the social networking system.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the user identity is encrypted.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code that when executed by a processor causes the processor to:

receive social networking system user data from a social networking system, the social networking system user data comprising a user identity of each of a plurality of users of the social networking system;

receive service provider user data from a service provider, the service provider user data comprising a user identity of each of a plurality of users of the service provider;

for each of one or more users of the social networking system and the service provider, match a user of the social networking system to a user of the service provider using the identities;

receive user information responsive to a tracking pixel redirecting a user of the one or more users from the service provider, the tracking pixel providing user information;

generate an exchange identification for the redirected user if the user information does not match existing user information;

combine the social networking system user data and the service provider user data to create an aggregated user profile for one or more users of the social networking system and the service provider that have a matching user identity;

receive information about a plurality of content items from a third party content source, wherein the received information for a content item includes targeting criteria defining one or more characteristics of users eligible to view the content item;

determine eligibility of a content item for a viewing user by applying the targeting criteria to the aggregated user profile of the viewing user;

select the content item for the viewing user based on the determination; and

send the selected content item for display to the viewing user.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein selecting a content item for the user comprises ranking multiple items using user data.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the service provider is selected from a group consisting of a web publisher, an image content provider, a video content provider, a news publisher, and a service provider.

15. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the user data is selected from a group consisting of the user'"'"'s purchasing history, web browsing history, image viewing history, video content item viewing history, news content item viewing history, click through rate, and social networking system data.

16. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the content item is selected from a group consisting of an advertisement, a news story, a video, an image, and a social networking system newsfeed story.