User-specified distribution of stories describing user actions in a social networking system

• US 9,471,943 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2013
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Iannaccone, Gianluca, Qin, Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Sittner, Matthew T
• Application Number:
  US13/923,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20140379483A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system receives a sponsored story request identifying a story describing an action performed by a social networking system user and generates a sponsored story accordingly. The sponsored story request may also include a bid amount and other information for generating a sponsored story from the sponsored story request. When an action is included in a sponsored story presented to a social networking system user, the social networking system notifies the user associated with the action and provides one or more settings regulating inclusion of actions associated with the user in sponsored story requests. For example, settings allow a user to prevent generation of sponsored stories including a specified type of action, a specific action, or multiple actions associated with the user. Hence, the settings allow a user to limit or prevent generation of sponsored stories describing actions associated with the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a sponsored story unit to one or more client devices for initial presentation to one or more users of the social networking system connected to an acting user of the social networking system, the sponsored story unit including descriptions of a first action and a second action associated with the acting user;

responsive to the initial presentation of the sponsored story unit to the one or more users of the social networking system, providing instructions to a client device associated with the acting user that cause the client device to present a notification to the acting user, the notification including information describing the presented sponsored story unit including the descriptions of the first and the second action associated with the acting user and including one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, wherein the one or more settings at least identify an action prevented from inclusion in the one or more sponsored story units based on the identity of a promoting user that provided the one or more sponsored story units;

receiving one or more selected settings included in the notification from the client device associated with the acting user, the selected settings identifying the first action to be prevented from inclusion in the one or more sponsored story units;

storing the one or more selected settings in a user profile associated with the acting user and maintained by the social networking system; and

modifying the sponsored story unit for presentation based on the one or more selected settings, the modified sponsored story unit not including a description of the first action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the sponsored story unit for presentation based on the one or more selected settings comprises:

removing the description of the first action associated with the acting user from the sponsored story unit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the sponsored story unit for presentation based on the one or more selected settings comprises:

deleting the sponsored story unit.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an additional sponsored story request identifying an additional action associated with the acting user of a social networking system;

retrieving the one or more selected settings from the user profile associated with the acting user;

determining whether to generate an additional sponsored story unit based on the one or more selected settings and the additional action identified by the additional sponsored story request; and

generating the additional sponsored story unit responsive to the one or more selected settings do not prevent inclusion of the additional action in one or more sponsored story units.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a setting, of the one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, identifies a specific action.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a setting for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units further identifies one or more from a group consisting of:

an action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a type of action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a user prevented from being presented with a sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a group of users prevented from being presented with the sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a type of connection between the acting user and one or more users, and any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a setting, of the one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, identifies a user and prevents generation of one or more sponsored story units based on sponsored story requests received from the identified user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a setting, of the one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, identifies a type of user and prevents generation of one or more sponsored story units based on sponsored story requests received from the identified type of user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the type of user comprises an application.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a sponsored story request, the sponsored story request identifying a story describing a first action and a second action associated with an acting user of a social networking system and stored by the social networking system;

retrieving a setting included in a user profile associated with the acting user, the setting including one or more user-specified conditions for generating a sponsored story unit including descriptions of the first action and the second action associated with the acting user, wherein the setting at least identifies an action prevented from inclusion in the one or more sponsored story units based on the identity of a promoting user that provided the one or more sponsored story unit;

determining whether to generate a sponsored story unit based on the received sponsored story request based at least in part on the setting included in the user profile associated with the acting user and the first action and the second action identified by the sponsored story request; and

providing the sponsored story unit for initial presentation to a user of the social networking system connected to the acting user responsive to determining to generate the sponsored story unit.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving a second setting included in the user profile, wherein the second setting includes one or more user-specified conditions for generating the sponsored story unit, including descriptions of the first action and the second action associated with the acting user identifies a specific action.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the setting including one or more user-specified conditions for generating the sponsored story unit including descriptions of the first action and the second action associated with the acting user further identifies one or more from a group consisting of:

an action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a type of action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a user prevented from being presented with a sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a group of users prevented from being presented with the sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a type of connection between the acting user and one or more users, and any combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving a second setting included in the user profile, wherein the second setting includes one or more user-specified conditions for generating the sponsored story unit including one or more actions associated with the acting user identifies a user and prevents generation of one or more sponsored story units based on sponsored story requests received from the identified user.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

retrieving a second setting included in the user profile, wherein the second setting includes one or more user-specified conditions for generating the sponsored story unit including one or more actions associated with the acting user identifies a type of user and prevents generation of one or more sponsored story units based on sponsored story requests received from the identified type of user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the type of user comprises an application.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a sponsored story request, the sponsored story request identifying a first action and a second action associated with an acting user of a social networking system associated with a client device and stored by the social networking system;

generating a sponsored story unit including descriptions of the first action and the second action associated with the acting user for presentation to one or more users of the social networking system connected to the acting user based on the sponsored story request describing the identified story;

providing the sponsored story unit to one or more client devices for initial presentation to one or more users of the social networking system connected to the acting user;

providing to the client device for the initial presentation to the acting user a notification, the notification including information describing the presented sponsored story unit including the descriptions of the first action and the second action associated with the acting user and including one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, wherein the one or more settings at least identify an action prevented from inclusion in the one or more sponsored story units based on the identity of a promoting user that provided the one or more sponsored story units;

receiving one or more selected settings included in the notification from the acting user; and

storing the one or more selected settings in a user profile associated with the acting user and maintained by the social networking system.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

modifying the sponsored story unit for presentation based on the one or more selected settings.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein modifying the sponsored story unit for presentation based on the one or more selected settings comprises:

deleting the sponsored story unit.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein a setting, of the one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units further identifies one or more from a group consisting of:

an action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a type of action prevented from inclusion in one or more sponsored story units, a user prevented from being presented with a sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a group of users prevented from being presented with the sponsored story unit including the action associated with the acting user, a type of connection between the acting user and one or more users, and any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein a setting, of the one or more settings for preventing inclusion of the first action associated with the acting user in one or more sponsored story units, identifies a type of user and prevents generation of one or more sponsored story units based on sponsored story requests received from the identified type of user.