Displaying social networking system user information via a timeline interface

• US 9,946,430 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• 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: Lessin, Samuel, Flynn, III, William Joseph, Gibson, Daniel Klatzko, Guzel, Burak, Hamlin, Drew W., Huang, Jeff, McDonald, Paul M., Parker, Stefan, Vijayvergiya, Arun, Wiseman, Josh, Yang, Zizhuang, Yeh, Wei Zhong, Young, Steven, Yung, Raylene Kay, Zuckerberg, Mark E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nunez, Jordany
• Application Number:
  US13/239,347
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073984A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,400 Days
• Field of Search: 715738, 715753, 705 1452, 701431
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

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 information about a plurality of items of narrative data related to users of a social networking system, each item of narrative data associated with a time and with a subject user of a social networking system, each item of narrative data including information indicative of at least one action performed by the subject user at a corresponding time;

maintaining a social graph that tracks relationships between objects, users, and events captured by the social networking system, wherein the objects, users, and events are nodes in the social graph that have edges that are connections to other nodes;

storing, for each interaction performed by other users on a timeline unit, a node in the social graph and connections that connect the node to other nodes in the social graph;

selecting, for each of a plurality of time periods, one or more of the items of narrative data associated with a time within the time period;

generating a plurality of timeline units for each of the time periods based on the selected items of narrative data from the at least one time period, each timeline unit including a social data summary specific to the timeline unit that provides an indication of different types of interactions performed by other users on the timeline unit;

receiving, from a client device operated by a viewing user, a request for a profile page of the subject user comprising biographical information about the subject user; and

responsive to receiving the request;

selecting a plurality of the generated timeline units,

generating a timeline interface comprising visual representations of the selected plurality of timeline units and the social data summary for each, the visual representations organized by the corresponding time periods, and

sending, to the client device for display to the viewing user, the profile page for the subject user, the profile page comprising the generated timeline interface and the biographical information about the subject user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated timeline interface enables the subject user to remove an individual timeline unit from the timeline interface.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the removal of a timeline unit from the timeline interface is used as a signal to train a machine-learned model used for selecting the timeline units.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated timeline interface enables the subject user to indicate a preference for an individual timeline unit in the timeline interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indication of a preference for an individual timeline unit in the timeline interface is used as a signal to train a machine-learned model used for selecting the timeline units.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated timeline interface enables a user to share an individual timeline unit with another user of the social networking system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated timeline interface further comprises a means for selecting a time period from a sequence of time periods, and wherein the method further comprises, responsive to the viewing user selecting a time period:

generating an updated timeline interface comprising visual representations of one or more timeline units generated from narrative data associated with a time within the selected time period; and

sending to the client device, for display to the viewing user, the profile page for the subject user, the profile page comprising the updated timeline interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more generated timeline units further comprises:

determining if the viewing user has permission to view the narrative data used to generate a timeline unit, based on privacy settings of the subject user;

responsive to the determination, removing from a selection a timeline unit that was generated using narrative data that the viewing user does not have permission to view; and

responsive to the removal, adding to the selection a replacement timeline unit.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representations of the generated timeline units further comprise:

information summary elements that summarize the narrative data that the timeline units are generated from; and

navigation aids that direct the viewing user to additional information about the narrative data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the information summary elements comprise at least one item selected from a group consisting of:

image thumbnails, text extracts, video frame captures, and GIF animations.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the navigation aids comprise at least one item selected from a group consisting of:

web links, tabs, and buttons.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated timeline interface further comprises:

a time period selector configured to enable the viewing user to select a desired time period;

one or more timeline markers that indicate positions of one or more selected timeline units within the desired time period; and

one or more muted markers that indicate positions of one or more timeline units not within the desired time period.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the time period selector further comprises a plurality of selectable time periods, the selectable time periods being more prominently displayed for time periods that contain more relevant narrative data.

14. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client device operated by a viewing user of social networking system, a request for a timeline interface for a subject user of a social networking system, the request including a designated time period;

maintaining a social graph that tracks relationships between objects, users, and events captured by the social networking system, wherein the objects, users, and events are nodes in the social graph that have edges that are connections to other nodes;

storing, for each interaction performed by other users on a timeline unit, a node in the social graph and connections that connect the node to other nodes in the social graph;

responsive to receiving the request;

selecting a plurality of timeline units stored in computer memory, the timeline units generated from items of narrative data related to users of a social networking system, each item of narrative data associated with a time within the designated time period and with the subject user and each item of narrative data including information indicative of at least one action performed by the subject user at a corresponding time, each timeline unit including a social data summary specific to the timeline unit that provides an indication of different types of interactions performed by other users on the timeline unit;

generating a timeline interface comprising visual representations of the selected plurality of timeline units and the social data summary for each; and

sending, to the client device for display to the viewing user, the generated timeline interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the visual representations of the generated timeline units further comprise:

information summary elements that summarize the narrative data that the timeline units are generated from; and

navigation aids that direct the viewing user to additional information about the narrative data.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the generated timeline interface further comprises a means for selecting a time period from a sequence of time periods and responsive to the viewing user selecting a time period:

generating an updated timeline interface comprising visual representations of one or more timeline units generated from narrative data associated with a time within the selected time period;

sending to the client device, for display to the viewing user, a profile page for the subject user, the profile page comprising the updated timeline interface.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting one or more timeline units stored in computer memory further comprises:

determining if the viewing user has permission to view the narrative data used to generate a timeline unit, based on privacy settings of the subject user;

responsive to the determination, removing from a selection a timeline unit that was generated using narrative data that the viewing user does not have permission to view; and

responsive to the removal, adding to the selection a replacement timeline unit.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the information summary elements comprise at least one selected from a group consisting of:

image thumbnails, text extracts, video frame captures, and GIF animations.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the social data summary further comprises a summary of likes, comments, and shares that the timeline unit has received from other users of the social networking system.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one timeline unit of the plurality of timeline units comprises two or more of the items of narrative data that are related to one another and are gathered into one timeline unit and a narrative data summary that is a distillation of the two or more of the items of narrative data, the selected generated timeline units include the at least one timeline unit and narrative data summary, and the timeline interface further comprises visual representations of the at least one timeline unit and the narrative data summary.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, from a client device operated by a viewing user, the request for the profile page of the subject user comprising biographical information about the subject user comprises:

receiving, from a first client device operated by a first viewing user a first request for a profile page of the subject user and

receiving, from a second client device operated by a second viewing user a second request for a profile page of the subject user,

and responsive to receiving the request comprises;

responsive to receiving the first request and the second request;

selecting a first plurality of the generated timeline units and selecting a second plurality of the generated timeline units;

generating a first timeline interface comprising visual representation of the first selected plurality of timeline units and the social data summary for each, the visual representations organized by the corresponding time periods and generating a second timeline interface comprising visual representation of the second selected plurality of timeline units and the social data summary for each, the visual representations organized by the corresponding time periods, and

sending, to the first client device for display to the first viewing user, the first timeline interface, and sending, to the second client device for display to the second viewing user, the second timeline interface, wherein the first timeline interface and the second timeline interface include different timeline units.