Integrating social-networking information

• US 9,049,260 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2013
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sidhu, Kiranjit Singh, Ratiu, Florin, Schultz, Alexander Paul, Chen, David Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US13/750,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/204, 709/218, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• 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 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a message associated with a user at an information exchange system. At least one correspondent associated with the user may be determined, based on the message. A social connection between the user and the at least one correspondent may be assessed with respect to a social-networking system. The information exchange system may provide an interface for display to the user, the interface comprising information associated with the message. If the social connection is confirmed, the interface may include social-networking information associated with the at least one correspondent. Otherwise, the interface may provide functionality to create a social connection between the user and the at least one correspondent with respect to the social-networking system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by one or more computer servers associated with a social-networking system, receiving a request from a third-party system to create a social-networking account for a user, the request comprising a unique identifier of the user or a client device associated with the user, the request having been generated in response to a request from the user to access third-party account information from the third-party system;

by the one or more computer servers, retrieving user-related information from the third-party system;

by the one or more computer servers, generating the social-networking account for the user, the social-networking account comprising a user profile and a user node in a social graph stored by the social-networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing at least one relationship between a pair of nodes; and

by the one or more computer servers, providing social-networking account data to the third-party system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing social-networking account data to the third-party system comprises:

providing an API to access the social-networking account data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the providing social-networking account data to the third-party system comprises:

pushing the social-networking account data to the third-party system, the social-networking account data uniquely identifying each of a set of users of the social-networking system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the social-networking account data comprises a secure hash of information uniquely identifying a user from the set of users, the secure hash being based on a public key.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-related information comprises one or more of:

the user'"'"'s name, contact information, preferences, interests, affiliations, other profile information, image(s), transaction history, or location history.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-related information comprises information for contacts of the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the information for each of the user'"'"'s contacts comprises one or more of:

an email address, username, cellphone number, IP address, or other user-identifying information.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the social-networking account comprises:

generating a node for the user in the social graph; and

creating a social-networking profile for the user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the social-networking account comprises, for at least one of the user'"'"'s contacts:

determining that a user node exists in the social graph for the contact; and

creating an edge between the user node for the contact and the user'"'"'s node in the social graph.

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

by one or more computer servers associated with a social-networking system, receive a request from a third-party system to create a social-networking account for a user, the request comprising a unique identifier of the user or a client device associated with the user, the request having been generated in response to a request from the user to access third-party account information from the third-party system;

by the one or more computer servers, retrieve user-related information from the third-party system;

by the one or more computer servers, generate the social-networking account for the user, the social-networking account comprising a user profile and a user node in a social graph stored by the social-networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing at least one relationship between a pair of nodes; and

by the one or more computer servers, provide social-networking account data to the third-party system.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the user-related information comprises information for contacts of the user.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the information for each of the user'"'"'s contacts comprises one or more of:

an email address, username, cellphone number, IP address, or other user-identifying information.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the software operable to generate the social-networking account comprises software operable to:

generate a node for the user in the social graph; and

create a social-networking profile for the user.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the software operable to generate the social-networking account comprises, for at least one of the user'"'"'s contacts, software operable to:

determine that a user node exists in the social graph for the contact; and

create an edge between the user node for the contact and the user'"'"'s node in the social graph.

21. The media of claim 10, wherein the software that is operable when executed to provide social-networking account data to the third-party system comprises software that is operable when executed to provide an API to access the social-networking account data.

22. The media of claim 21, wherein the software that is operable when executed to provide social-networking account data to the third-party system comprises software that is further operable when executed to push the social-networking account data to the third-party system, the social-networking account data uniquely identifying each of a set of users of the social-networking system.

23. The media of claim 22, wherein the social-networking account data comprises a secure hash of information uniquely identifying a user from the set of users, the secure hash being based on a public key.

24. The media of claim 10, wherein the user-related information comprises one or more of:

the user'"'"'s name, contact information, preferences, interests, affiliations, other profile information, image(s), transaction history, or location history.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors of one or more computer servers associated with a social-networking system; and

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

receive a request from a third-party system to create a social-networking account for a user, the request comprising a unique identifier of the user or a client device associated with the user, the request having been generated in response to a request from the user to access third-party account information from the third-party system;

retrieve user-related information from the third-party system;

generate the social-networking account for the user, the social-networking account comprising a user profile and a user node in a social graph stored by the social-networking system, the social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each edge representing at least one relationship between a pair of nodes; and

provide social-networking account data to the third-party system.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to provide social-networking account data to the third-party system to:

provide an API to access the social-networking account data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to provide social-networking account data to the third-party system to:

push the social-networking account data to the third-party system, the social-networking account data uniquely identifying each of a set of users of the social-networking system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the social-networking account data comprises:

a secure hash of information uniquely identifying a user from the set of users, the secure hash being based on a public key.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to generate the social-networking account to:

generate a node for the user in the social graph; and

create a social-networking profile for the user.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the user-related information comprises information for contacts of the user, and wherein the processors are further operable when executing the instructions to generate the social-networking account to, for at least one of the user'"'"'s contacts:

determine that a user node exists in the social graph for the contact; and

create an edge between the user node for the contact and the user'"'"'s node in the social graph.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the user-related information comprises one or more of:

the user'"'"'s name, contact information, preferences, interests, affiliations, other profile information, image(s), transaction history, or location history.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the user-related information comprises information for contacts of the user.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the information for each of the user'"'"'s contacts comprises one or more of:

an email address, username, cellphone number, IP address, or other user-identifying information.