Social data overlay

• US 8,843,554 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2011
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richter, Michael Judd, Kelly, Matthew William, Haugen, Austin
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho, Un C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rahman, M Mostazir
• Application Number:
  US13/116,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20120303703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• 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

Abstract

In particular embodiments, a method comprising, by one or more computing devices, identifying, at a client device, one or more objects or references to the one or more objects embedded in a structured document displayed to a first user, accessing a social graph to determine if one or more second users having an association with the first user have accessed any of the one or more identified objects, and modifying, for at least one of the one or more identified objects, the structured document displayed to the first user to indicate that the at least one or more identified objects has been accessed by one or more second users.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by a client computing device, identifying one or more objects or references to the objects embedded in a structured document displayed to a first user, wherein;

the structured document is a markup-language document displayed as a webpage; and

the objects originate from one or more sources external to a social-networking system;

by the client computing device, accessing a social graph of the social-networking system to;

determine if one or more second users having an association with the first user have accessed or are accessing any of the identified objects; and

retrieve, from the social-networking system, one or more social-network data elements comprising social-network profile information provided by one or more of the second users to the social-networking system; and

by the client computing device, modifying, for at least one of the objects, the structured document displayed as a webpage to the first user to indicate that the object embedded in the structured document and originating from the sources external to the social-networking system has been accessed or is being accessed by one or more of the second users, wherein modifying the structured document comprises displaying, proximal to the object, one or more of the social-network data elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the social graph to determine if the second users have accessed or are accessing any of the identified objects is conditioned on a set of user preferences of the first user of the social-networking system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the structured document comprises one or more of highlighting, coloring, or bolding one or more of the objects.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to one or more detected interactions by the first user with one or more of the objects or references in the structured document, generating data indicating one or more edge relationships from the objects or references to the first user; and

sending the data indicating the edge relationships to the social-networking system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the social-network data elements displayed proximal to the object comprise data indicating an edge relationship from one or more of the identified objects to one or more of the second users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the structured document comprises modifying, by a web browser executing on the client device, a representation of the structured document.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the client computing device, accessing the social graph of the social-networking system to retrieve, from the social-networking stem, one or more sets of aggregate interaction statistics; and

by the client computer device, displaying, proximal to the object, one or more of the sets of aggregate interaction statistics.

8. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors being operable when executing the instructions to;

by a client device, identify one or more objects or references to the objects embedded in a structured document displayed to a first user, wherein;

the structured document is a markup-language document displayed as a webpage; and

the objects originate from one or more sources external to a social-networking system;

by the client computing device, access a social graph of the social-networking system to;

determine if one or more second users having an association with the first user have accessed or are accessing any of the identified objects; and

retrieve, from the social-networking system, one or more social-network data elements comprising social-network profile information provided by one or more of the second users to the social-networking system; and

by the client computing device, modify, for at least one of the objects, the structured document displayed as a webpage to the first user to indicate that the object embedded in the structured document and originating from the sources external to the social-networking system has been accessed or is being accessed by one or more of the second users, wherein modifying the structured document comprises displaying, proximal to the object, one or more of the social-network data elements.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein accessing the social graph to determine if the second users have accessed or are accessing any of the identified objects is conditioned on a set of user preferences of the first user of the social-networking system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein modifying the structured document comprises one or more of highlighting, coloring, or bolding one or more of the objects.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

responsive to one or more detected interactions by the first user with one or more of the objects or references in the structured document, generate data indicating one or more edge relationships from the one or more objects or references to the first user; and

send the data indicating the edge relationships to the social-networking system.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein one or more of the social-network data elements displayed proximal to the object comprise data indicating an edge relationship from one or more of the identified objects to one or more of the second users.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein modifying the structured document comprises modifying, by a web browser executing on the client device, a representation of the structured document.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to:

access the social graph of the social-networking system to retrieve, from the social-networking system, one or more sets of aggregate interaction statistics; and

display, proximal to the object, one or more of the sets of aggregate interaction statistics.

15. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

by a client device, identify one or more objects or references to the one or more objects embedded in a structured document displayed to a first user, wherein;

the structured document is a markup-language document displayed as a webpage; and

the objects originate from one or more sources external to a social-networking system;

by the client computing device, access a social graph of the social-networking system to;

determine if one or more second users having an association with the first user have accessed or are accessing any of the identified objects; and

retrieve, from the social-networking system, one or more social-network data elements comprising social-network profile information provided by one or more of the second users to the social-networking system; and

by the client computing device, modify, for at least one of the objects, the structured document displayed as a webpage to the first user to indicate that the object embedded in the structured document and originating from the sources external to the social-networking system has been accessed or is being accessed by one or more of the second users, wherein modifying the structured document comprises displaying, proximal to the object, one or more of the social-networking data elements.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein accessing the social graph to determine if the second users have accessed or are being accessed any of the identified objects is conditioned on a set of user preferences of the first user of the social-networking system.

17. The media of claim 15, wherein modifying the structured document comprises one or more of highlighting, coloring, or bolding one or more of the objects.

18. The media of claim 15, wherein the software is further operable when executed to:

responsive to one or more detected interactions by the first user with one or more of the objects or references in the structured document, generate data indicating one or more edge relationships from the objects or references to the first user; and

send the data indicating the edge relationship to the social-networking system.

19. The media of claim 15, wherein one or more of the social-network data elements displayed proximal to the object comprise data indicating an edge relationship from one or more of the identified objects to one or more of the second users.

20. The media of claim 15, wherein the software is further operable when executed to:

access the social graph of the social-networking system to retrieve, from the social-networking system, one or more sets of aggregate interaction statistics; and

display, proximal to the object, one or more of the sets of aggregate interaction statistics.