Social Advertisements and Other Informational Messages on a Social Networking Website, and Advertising Model for Same

• US 20090119167A1
• Filed: 08/18/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenstein, Justin M., Palihapitiya, Chamath M., Kendall, Timothy A., Jin, Robert Kang-Xing, Bosworth, Andrew G., Zuckerberg, Mark E., Cohler, Matthew R., D' Angelo, Adam, Wong, Yishan, Juan, Yun-Fang
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.170
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking website logs information about actions taken by members of the website. For a particular member of the website, the website generates socially relevant ads for the member based on the actions logged for other members on the website to whom the member is connected (i.e., the member'"'"'s online friends). The advertiser associated with the social ad may compensate the social networking website for publishing the ad on the website. When presenting a member with a social ad, the website may optimize advertising revenue by selecting an ad from the received ads that will maximize the expected value of the social ad. The expected value may be computed according to a function that includes the member'"'"'s affinity for the ad content and the bid amount. The technique is also applied for providing socially relevant information off the social networking website.

Claims

1. A method for advertising to users of a website, the method comprising:

maintaining a profile for a plurality of users of the website, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the website;

logging actions taken by the users of the website, each logged action including information about the action;

receiving a plurality of advertisement requests to advertise on the website, each advertisement request identifying a type of action on which to base an advertisement; and

for one of the users of the social networking website;

matching an advertising request to a logged action, wherein the logged action matches the type of action identified in the advertising request, and wherein the logged action is associated with another user of the website with whom the user has a connection,

generating an advertisement directed to the user, wherein the advertisement comprises an informational message that communicates the matching logged action, and

providing a web page to the user, the web page comprising the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of matching an advertising request to a logged action, generating an advertisement, and providing a web page to the user are in response to a request from the user for a web page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the website is a social networking website.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is presented on the web page as being incorporated in a display of non-advertisement messages, each non-advertisement message communicating logged actions associated with other users of the website with whom the user has a connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the logged actions include actions taken by users on the website.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the logged actions include actions communicated to the website and not directly observed by the website.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement requests specify targeting criteria, and matching an advertising request to a logged action comprises applying the targeting criteria.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein matching an advertising request to a logged action comprises:

determining an affinity score between the user and each of a plurality of logged actions that match an advertising request; and

selecting the logged action having the highest affinity score.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the informational message in the generated advertisement communicates information about a plurality of users'"'"' having performed the matching logged action.

10. A system for presenting users of a website with advertising, the system comprising:

a web server configured to present advertisements on web pages;

a profile store containing a profile for each of a plurality of users of the website, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the website;

an action log for storing a plurality of entries, each entry describing an action taken by a user of the website and including information about the action;

an action logger capable of receiving and adding entries to the action log based on messages about actions taken;

an advertisement request database for storing a plurality of advertisement requests, each advertisement request identifying a type of action on which to base an advertisement; and

an advertising server capable of receiving advertisement requests to advertise on the website, the advertising server configured to provide an advertisement to the web server, the advertisement obtained by;

matching an advertising request to a logged action, wherein the logged action matches the type of action identified in the advertising request, and wherein the logged action is associated with another user with whom the user has a connection, and

generating an advertisement directed to the user of the website, wherein the advertisement comprises an informational message communicating the logged action.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the website is a social networking website.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the web server is configured to present the generated advertisement on the web page as being incorporated in a display of non-advertisement messages, each non-advertisement message communicating logged actions associated with other users of the website with whom the user has a connection.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the action logger is capable of receiving messages about actions on the website and adding entries to the action log based thereon.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the action logger is coupled to receive messages about actions communicated to the website and not directly observed by the website, and to add entries to the action log based thereon.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the advertisement requests specify targeting criteria, and matching an advertising request to a logged action comprises applying the targeting criteria.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the ad server is configured to match an advertising request to a logged action by:

determining an affinity score between the user and each of a plurality of logged action that match an advertising request; and

selecting a logged action with the highest affinity score with the user.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the advertising server is configured to generate an advertisement for which the informational message communicates information about a plurality of users'"'"' having performed the matching logged action.

18. A system for presenting users of a website with advertising, the system comprising:

means for receiving advertisement requests, each advertisement request identifying an action for triggering an advertisement;

means for tracking actions of users;

means for generating an advertisement based on the tracked actions, the advertisement communicating information about at least one tracked action; and

means for presenting the advertisement to at least one user of the website, wherein the user is presented with an advertisement associated with an action from at least one other user with whom the user is connected on the website.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the website is a social networking website.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the means for presenting is configured to present generated advertisements on the web page as being incorporated in a display of non-advertisement messages, each non-advertisement message communicating logged actions associated with other users of the website with whom the user has a connection.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the tracked actions comprise actions on the website.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the tracked actions comprise actions communicated to the website and not directly observed by the website.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the means for generating an advertisement comprises means for targeting the advertisement requests to users of the website.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the means for presenting the advertisement comprises means for selecting an advertisement based on an affinity between the advertisement and the at least one user to whom the advertisement is to be presented.

25. A method for obtaining revenue from a website, the method comprising:

generating multiple advertisements for a user of a website, each advertisement communicating an action associated with another user with whom the user has a connection on the website;

computing an affinity score between the user and at least some of the advertisements;

receiving a bid amount associated with the advertisements;

selecting one or more of the advertisements based on the advertisements'"'"' affinity scores and bid amounts; and

publishing at least one of the selected advertisements to a web page delivered to the user.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the bid amount for one or more of the advertisements represents an amount of compensation to be received by the website if the user takes a further action with respect to the advertisement.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the further action comprises a user selection of a link on the advertisement.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein one or more of the advertisements communicate an action taken on the website by another user with whom the user has a connection.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein one or more of the advertisements communicate an action taken on a third-party website by another user with whom the user has a connection.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein one or more of the advertisements communicate an action performed by another user with whom the user has a connection, wherein the action is communicated to the website and not directly observed by the website.