Multimedia aggregation in an online social network

• US 8,898,226 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tiu, William K. Jr., Roberto, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US13/593,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20120323903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/212, 709/216, 709/217, 715/201, 715/203, 715/204, 715/234, 715/235, 715/236
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications

Abstract

In particular embodiments, a search request is received at a social network. A search may be performed to find any matching users whose associated content matches one or more terms in the search request. The search may be performed in a data store of social networking content associated with users of the social network. Matching users having matching associated content may be determined from the search results. Associated content information for at least one matching user may be retrieved. Information to display a web page may be sent in response to the search request. The information to display the web page may comprise profile information and the associated content information for the matching users.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search request at the online social network, the online social network comprising a social graph with a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of one or more of the nodes being associated with one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each connecting between two nodes representing a relationship between the two nodes and establishing a single degree of separation between the two nodes;

searching, by the one or more processors, a multimedia content database to find multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

determining, by the one or more processors, one or more matching users of the online social network within a threshold degree of separation of the first user, each matching user being associated with multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

retrieving, by the one or more processors, associated multimedia content information for one or more matching users; and

sending, by the one or more processors, in response to the search request, information to the client device of the first user to display a web page, wherein the information to display the web page comprises, for each retrieved matching user, profile information and the associated multimedia content information for the retrieved matching user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching, by the one or more processors, a data store of profile information for users of the online social network to find any matching users whose profile information matches one or more terms in the search request; and

wherein the one or more matching users each have either matching profile information or matching associated multimedia content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein types of the profile information comprises user ID, name, age, gender, location, hometown, references to image files, listing of interests, attributes, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising retrieving, by the one or more processors, profile information for one or more matching users.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold degree of separation is 1, 2, 3, or all.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising designating particular associated multimedia content as featured content on the web page.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein designating particular associated multimedia content as featured content is based on popularity of the particular associated multimedia content with the one or more matching users.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein designating particular associated multimedia content as featured content comprises weighting the popularity of the particular associated multimedia content with the one or more matching users based on a degree of separation between the first user and each matching user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the associated multimedia content information is included in an embed code included in the information to display the web page.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the embed code includes a source ID specifying a third-party content source that is external to the online social network.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising caching associated multimedia content information received from a third-party content source that is external to the online social network.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the one or more processors, at least one related user by searching in a data store of relationships between users of the online social network, based on whether a relationship exists between the at least one related user and the least one of the one or more matching users;

searching, by the one or more processors, the data store of social networking content to determine if the at least one related user'"'"'s associated multimedia content matches one or more terms in the search request;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the at least one related user has associated multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

retrieving, by the one or more processors, associated multimedia content information for the at least one related user; and

wherein the information to display the web page further comprises the profile information and the associated multimedia content information for the at least one related user.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

searching, by the one or more processors, the data store of profile information to determine if the at least one related user'"'"'s profile information matches one or more terms in the search request; and

wherein the at least one related user has either matching profile information or matching associated multimedia content.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors associated with an online social network; and

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

receive, from a client device of a first user of the online social network, a search request at the online social network, the online social network comprising a social graph with a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of one or more of the nodes being associated with one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each connecting between two nodes representing a relationship between the two nodes and establishing a single degree of separation between the two nodes;

search a multimedia content database to find multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

determine one or more matching users of the online social network within a threshold degree of separation of the first user, each matching user being associated with multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

retrieve associated multimedia content information for at least one of the one or more matching users; and

send in response to the search request, information to the client device of the first user to display a web page, wherein the information to display the web page comprises, for each retrieved matching user, profile information and the associated multimedia content information for the retrieved matching user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the associated multimedia content information is included in an embed code included in the information to display the web page, the embed code including a source ID specifying a third-party content source that is external to the online social network.

16. The system of claim 14, the processors further operable when executing the instructions to cache associated multimedia content information received from a third-party content source that is external to the online social network.

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

receive, from a client device of a first user of an online social network, a search request at the online social network, the online social network comprising a social graph with a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of one or more of the nodes being associated with one of a plurality of users of the online social network, each connecting between two nodes representing a relationship between the two nodes and establishing a single degree of separation between the two nodes;

search, by the one or more processors, a multimedia content database to find multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

determine, by the one or more processors, one or more matching users of the online social network within a threshold degree of separation of the first user, each matching user being associated with multimedia content matching one or more terms in the search request;

retrieve, by the one or more processors, associated multimedia content information for one or more matching users; and

send, by the one or more processors, in response to the search request, information to the client device of the first user to display a web page, wherein the information to display the web page comprises, for each retrieved matching user, profile information and the associated multimedia content information for the retrieved matching user.

18. The media of claim 17, the software further operable when executed to designate particular associated multimedia content as featured content on the web page.

19. The media of claim 18, wherein the designation of particular associated multimedia content as featured content is based on popularity of the particular associated multimedia content with the one or more matching users.

20. The media of claim 18, the software further operable when executed to weight the popularity of the particular associated multimedia content with the one or more matching users based on a degree of separation between the first matching user and each matching user.