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Propagating promotional information on a social network

  • US 9,466,077 B2
  • Filed: 06/30/2009
  • Issued: 10/11/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method for providing information to computer users, the method comprising:

  • receiving a promotional information template from a third-party server, wherein the promotional information template includes predetermined content and a placeholder for content associated with a user of any social network from a plurality of social networks;

    receiving, at a server system, an indicator of an action performed on the third-party website by a first user at a first time, wherein the third-party website is hosted by a third-party server system that is separate from the server system;

    creating, by the server system, first promotional information based upon the received indicator from the third-party website using the received promotional template and information associated with the first user;

    receiving, from an entity associated with the promotional information, screening criteria for a promotion associated with the first promotional information;

    identifying a plurality of social networks of which the first user is a member;

    creating a pre-association between the first promotional information, the plurality of social networks associated with the first user and user identity information for the first user in the plurality of social networks and the screening criteria including persistently storing the pre-association, by the server system in a repository of promotional information, the pre-association being created without interaction of the created first promotional information by the first user, the pre-association including storing the created first promotional information in association with social network identifiers for the plurality of social networks and with user identifiers for the first user on the plurality of social networks, wherein the created first promotional information is added to a group of promotional information that is stored in the repository and associated with a plurality of third-party websites for display to users of a group of social networks that includes the plurality of social networks;

    receiving, at the server system and from a computing device that is associated with a second user, a request for promotional information to display to the second user who is a member of a first social network that is among the plurality of social networks associated with the first user, wherein the request is received at a later second time;

    determining, in response to receiving the request and by the server system, whether to select the created first promotional information from among the group of promotional information for presentation to the second user based, at least in part, on whether a first identifier for the first social network is included in the social network identifiers for the plurality of social networks that are associated with the first promotional information, whether the second user meets the screening criteria, and whether there is an acquaintance relationship between the first user and the second user, wherein acquaintance relationships are defined in a database having information that is available to the server system; and

    transmitting, by the server system and based on the determining, the created first promotional information for display to the second user of the first social network;

    wherein the third-party website is thereby enabled to create and display promotional information on the plurality of social networks based upon user activity on the third-party website without having to directly interface with any of the social networks.

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