Tracking changes to content on an external source in an online social network

• US 8,874,546 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• 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): Abrishamkar, Kaveh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilcox, James J
• Application Number:
  US13/277,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20120036260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/708
• 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

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a profile page of a user of an online social network, determining whether content on an external web site has been update by the user, and if the content on the external web site has been updated, then updating the profile page of the user to include the content.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computer systems of an online social network:

accessing a page of the online social network associated with a first user of the an online social network, the page comprising;

a first content associated with the first user; and

an identifier of a third-party web site that is separate from and external to the online social network, the third-party web site being associated with an external server that hosts a second content on the third-party web site;

determining, by one or more of the computing systems of the online social network, whether the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site;

wherein the interaction with the second content comprises one or more of the first user accessing, adding, or updating the second content on the third-party web site; and

if the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site, then updating the page of the online social network associated with the first user to include a reference to the second content, the reference comprising an activatable link to the second content on the third-party web site.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content is added to the page associated with the first user using a syndicated feed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site comprises:

querying the third-party web site for information about whether the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site; and

receiving from the third-party web site information about whether the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first user has interacted with the second content comprises receiving a syndicated feed comprising information about the interaction with the second content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing one or more tracking preferences of one or more second users of the online social network, the tracking preferences of each of the second users;

identifying one or more users on the online social network that the second user wants to track; and

specifying one or more types of interactions related to content that the second user wants to track;

determining whether the first user has interacted with the second content that substantially matches the tracking preferences of one or more of the second users; and

for each of the second users whose tracking preferences are substantially matched, communicating a notification to the second user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the notification comprises an activatable link to the page associated with the first user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the notification comprises an activatable link to the second content.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising displaying the second content to the second user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the online social network comprises a graph structure defining relationships between users, the graph structure comprising a plurality of nodes and information defining connections between the nodes, wherein each node corresponds to a particular user and a profile page of the particular user, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph structure from one node to the other.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content is a photograph and the third-party web site is a photo sharing web site.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content is a video and the third-party web site is a video sharing web site.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content is a blog or blog post and the third-party web site is a blogging web site.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content comprises an activatable link to the second content on the third-party web site.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content comprises an activatable link to a cache of the second content hosted by a server associated with the social networking system.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content further comprises a description of the activity related to the second content.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content further comprises a thumbnail of the second content.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier of the third-party web site is a name of the third-party web site or a web site address associated with the third-party web site.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party web site is associated with a URL.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference to the second content comprises an activatable link to a page on the third-party web site that includes the second content.

20. A system of an online social network comprising:

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

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

access a page of the online social network associated with a first user of the online social network, the page comprising;

a first content associated with the first user; and

an identifier of a third-party web site that is separate from and external to the online social network, the third-party web site being associated with an external server that hosts a second content on the third-party web site;

determine, by the system of the online social network, whether the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site;

wherein the interaction with the second content comprises one or more of the first user accessing, adding, or updating the second content on the third-party web site; and

if the first user has interacted with the second content on the third-party web site, then update the page of the online social network associated with the first user to include a reference to the second content, the reference comprising an activatable link to the second content on the third-party web site.