Capturing structured data about previous events from users of a social networking system

• US 9,923,981 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2014
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: McDonald, Paul M., Case, Ryan, Felton, Nicholas, Hamlin, Drew W., Huang, Jeff, Lessin, Samuel, Mack, Ryan David, Piantino, Serkan, Wiseman, Josh, Yung, Raylene Kay, Zuckerberg, Mark E.
• Primary Examiner(s): HONG, STEPHEN S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ludwig, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US14/511,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20150026264A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,257 Days
• Field of Search: 715201, 715203, 715243
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/447 Temporal browsing, e.g. timeline
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a social graph, wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of nodes representing a plurality of users and a plurality of other objects in a social networking system, the social graph further comprising a plurality of connections among the nodes;

receiving an event option selection from a user of the plurality of users through an event option of a timeline interface;

responsive to receiving the event option, presenting an event data entry interface to the user;

receiving event information from the user through the event data entry interface, the event information describing an event associated with the user and identifying one or more objects of the plurality of objects;

generating a node associated with the event;

storing the node associated with the event in the social graph, the node being connected within the social graph to a node representing the user and to one or more nodes representing the identified one or more objects;

generating a new timeline unit associated with the user based on the node associated with the event; and

sending the new timeline unit to a client device operated by a viewing user for display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting an event data entry interface based on a selected event type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user does not provide all the information requested by the event data entry interface, and the displayed timeline unit includes a data inquiry interface that prompts the user for missing data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data entry interface further comprises a means for requesting and capturing an event date.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the generated timeline unit is associated with a time corresponding to the event date.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the generated timeline unit is displayed in the timeline interface at a location on a timeline that corresponds to the event date.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data entry interface comprises an add event menu, the add event menu configured to enable the user to select an event type from a list of event types, the list of event types including an event type previously selected by the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the add event menu further comprises event options that allow the user to select at least one event type from a group consisting of:

starting a job, buying a house, getting a new roommate, buying a car, graduating, military service, medical procedure, learning a language, and traveling.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data entry interface comprises an event option that allows the user to provide data for a custom event.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before sending the new timeline unit to the client device operated by the viewing user, checking the user'"'"'s privacy settings to determine if the viewing user has permission to view narrative data in the new timeline unit; and

sending the new timeline unit only if the viewing user has permission to view the narrative data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating additional timeline units based on one or more logged actions of the user observed by the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

ranking the additional timeline units; and

selecting, by the social networking system, a subset of the ranked additional timeline units, where the timeline interface comprises the selected subset of the ranked additional timeline units.

13. A non-transitory, computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

access a social graph, wherein the social group comprises a plurality of nodes representing users and a plurality of objects in a social networking system, the social graph further comprising a plurality of connections among the nodes;

receive an event option selection form a user of the plurality of users through an event option of a timeline interface;

responsive to receiving the event option, present an event data interface to the user;

receive event information from the user through the event data entry interface, the event information describing an event associated with the user and identifying one or more objects of the plurality of objects;

generate a node associated with the event;

store the node associated with the event in the social graph, the node being connected within the social graph to the node representing the user and to one or more nodes representing the identified one or more objects;

generate a new timeline unit associated with the user based on the node associated with the event; and

send the new timeline unit to a client device operated by a viewing user for display to the viewing user.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the event data entry interface further comprises a means for requesting and capturing an event date.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the generated timeline unit is associated with a time corresponding to the event date.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the generated timeline unit is displayed in the timeline interface at a location on a timeline that corresponds to the event date.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the event data entry interface comprises an add event menu, the add event menu configured to enable the user to select an event type from a list of event types, the list of event types including an event type previously selected by the user.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

before sending the new timeline unit to the client device operated by the viewing user, checking the user'"'"'s privacy settings to determine if the viewing user has permission to view narrative data in the new timeline unit; and

sending the new timeline unit only if the viewing user has permission to view the narrative data.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

generating additional timeline units based on one or more logged actions of the user observed by the social networking system.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

ranking the additional timeline units; and

selecting, by the social networking system, a subset of the ranked additional timeline units, where the timeline interface comprises the selected subset of the ranked additional timeline units.