Content sharing interface for sharing content in social networks

• US 9,531,803 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Rita, Ben-Yair, Shimrit, Terleski, Jonathan, Smarr, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): BARRETT, RYAN S
• Application Number:
  US13/164,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20120110474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,017 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• 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 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for displaying, within a web page, a representation of a content sharing interface, the content sharing interface including a content input area, receiving user input to the content input area, in response to the user input, expanding the content sharing interface to include an expanded content input area and a distribution interface, the expanded content input area displaying a graphical representation of digital content that is to be distributed, receiving user input to the distribution interface, the user input indicating contact(s) to which the digital content is to be distributed, in response to receiving the user input, displaying an icon within the distribution interface, the icon being a graphical representation of the contact(s), and in response to the user input, transmitting a post data set including digital content data and distribution data to a server computing system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server computing device comprising one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the server computing device and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform server-side operations for distributing digital content for display across a network, the server-side operations comprising;

serving one or more web page documents to a client computing device operated by a user, each document containing instructions for a browser application to perform client-side operations, comprising;

displaying, within a web page of a plurality of web pages, a graphical representation of a content sharing interface of a first social networking service, the content sharing interface comprising a content input area to which user input can be received and being absent a distribution interface;

receiving first user input to the content input area;

in response to the first user input, automatically expanding the content sharing interface within the web page to provide an expanded content sharing interface, the expanded content sharing interface comprising an expanded content input area and the distribution interface;

receiving second user input to the expanded content input area, the second user input comprising digital content that is to be distributed;

in response to the second user input, i) identifying a summary of the digital content that is to be distributed and ii) populating the expanded content input area with the summary of the digital content that is to be distributed;

receiving third user input to the distribution interface, the third user input indicating one or more contacts to which the digital content is to be distributed;

identifying at least one contact of the one or more contacts that are to receive an email distribution of the digital content, and in response, providing a change control interface within the expanded content sharing interface;

receiving fourth user input to the change control interface indicating i) one or more changes to the email distribution of the digital content and ii) one or more edits to the summary of the digital content;

displaying one or more icons within the distribution interface, each icon of the one or more icons being a graphical representation of the one or more contacts;

receiving fifth user input to the content sharing interface, the fifth user input comprising a user instruction to distribute the digital content; and

in response to the fifth user input, transmitting a post data set to the server computing system, the post data set comprising digital content data and distribution data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein an icon of the one or more icons corresponds to a social circle of the user within a social networking service, the social circle defining a subset of the one or more contacts.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein an icon of the one or more icons corresponds to a second social networking service that the user participates in.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the second social networking service comprises a micro-blogging social networking service.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the second social networking service comprises a blogging service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the client-side operations further comprise displaying one or more digital content selection icons within the expanded content selection area.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the client-side operations further comprise:

receiving sixth user input, the sixth user input indicating a selection of an icon of the one or more digital content selection icons; and

in response to receiving the sixth user input, displaying a digital content selection interface through which a user can select additional digital content for distribution.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more digital content selection icons comprise a digital image selection icon, a digital video selection icon, a link selection icon and a map selection icon.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more digital content selection icons are displayed in the content sharing interface prior to receiving the first user input.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a mapping service web page and the digital content comprises a map.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the post data set further comprises map data comprising scroll data and zoom data corresponding to a map view of the map, the scroll data and the zoom data being usable by the mapping service web page to replicate the map view.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the server-side operations further comprise:

receiving the post data set;

generating an access control list (ACL) based on the distribution data, the distribution data corresponding to the one or more contacts; and

distributing the digital content based on the ACL.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first user input comprises a click in the content input area.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a web page of the social networking service.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of web pages comprise web pages of an Internet-based social networking service.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a web page of a website that is external to a domain of the social networking service.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the content sharing interface is provided in a toolbar of the web page.

18. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

displaying, within a web page of a plurality of web pages, a graphical representation of a content sharing interface of a first social networking service, the content sharing interface comprising a content input area to which user input can be received and being absent a distribution interface;

receiving first user input to the content input area;

in response to the first user input, automatically expanding the content sharing interface within the web page to provide an expanded content sharing interface, the expanded content sharing interface comprising an expanded content input area and the distribution interface;

receiving second user input to the expanded content input area, the second user input comprising digital content that is to be distributed;

in response to the second user input, i) identifying a summary of the digital content that is to be distributed and ii) populating the expanded content input area with the summary of the digital content that is to be distributed;

receiving third user input to the distribution interface, the third user input indicating one or more contacts to which the digital content is to be distributed;

identifying at least one contact of the one or more contacts that are to receive an email distribution of the digital content, and in response, providing a change control interface within the expanded content sharing interface;

receiving fourth user input to the change control interface indicating i) one or more changes to the email distribution of the digital content and ii) one or more edits to the summary of the digital content;

displaying one or more icons within the distribution interface, each icon of the one or more icons being a graphical representation of the one or more contacts;

receiving fifth user input to the content sharing interface, the fifth user input comprising a user instruction to distribute the digital content; and

in response to the fifth user input, transmitting a post data set to the server computing system, the post data set comprising digital content data and distribution data.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

displaying, within a web page of a plurality of web pages, a graphical representation of a content sharing interface of a first social networking service, the content sharing interface comprising a content input area to which user input can be received and being absent a distribution interface;

receiving, by one or more processors, first user input to the content input area;

in response to the first user input, automatically expanding the content sharing interface within the web page to provide an expanded content sharing interface, the expanded content sharing interface comprising an expanded content input area and the distribution interface;

receiving, by the one or more processors, second user input to the expanded content input area, the second user input comprising digital content that is to be distributed;

in response to the second user input, i) identifying a summary of the digital content that is to be distributed and ii) populating the expanded content input area with the summary of the digital content that is to be distributed;

receiving, by the one or more processors, third user input to the distribution interface, the third user input indicating one or more contacts to which the digital content is to be distributed;

identifying at least one contact of the one or more contacts that are to receive an email distribution of the digital content, and in response, providing a change control interface within the expanded content sharing interface;

receiving fourth user input to the change control interface indicating i) one or more changes to the email distribution of the digital content and ii) one or more edits to the summary of the digital content;

displaying one or more icons within the distribution interface, each icon of the one or more icons being a graphical representation of the one or more contacts;

receiving, by the one or more processors, fifth user input to the content sharing interface, the fifth user input comprising a user instruction to distribute the digital content; and

in response to the fifth user input, transmitting a post data set to the server computing system, the post data set comprising digital content data and distribution data.

20. A system comprising:

a server computing device comprising one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform server-side operations for distributing digital content for display across a network, the server-side operations comprising;

serving one or more web page documents to a client computing device operated by a user, each document containing instructions for a browser application to perform client-side operations, comprising;

displaying, within a web page, a content sharing interface of a social networking service, the content sharing interface comprising a content input area to which user input can be received and being absent a distribution interface;

in response to first user input to the content input area;

i) automatically expanding the content sharing interface within the web page to provide an expanded content sharing interface, the expanded content sharing interface comprising the distribution interface to which user input can be received,

ii) identifying a summary of the digital content that is to be distributed, and

iii) populating the expanded content input area with the summary of the digital content that is to be distributed;

receiving second user input to the distribution interface, the second user input indicating one or more social circles, each social circle comprising one or more contacts to which the digital content is to be distributed;

identifying at least one contact of the one or more contacts that are to receive an email distribution of the digital content, and in response, providing a change control interface within the expanded content sharing interface;

receiving third user input to the change control interface indicating i) one or more changes to the email distribution of the digital content and ii) one or more edits to the summary of the digital content;

displaying one or more icons within the distribution interface, each icon of the one or more icons being a graphical representation of the one or more contacts;

receiving fourth user input to the expanded content sharing interface, the fourth user input comprising a user instruction to distribute the digital content; and

in response to the fourth user input, transmitting a post data set to the server computing system, the post data set comprising digital content data and distribution data.