Selective Content Accessibility in a Social Network
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for posting content with selective accessibility on a social networking service, the method comprising:
- receiving a content item from a user of the social networking service;
receiving a selection of a privacy setting to be associated with the content item from the user, the privacy setting establishing one or more connections allowed to access the content item;
placing the content item into an electronic communication channel of the social networking service; and
making the content item accessible to one or more connections via the communication channel, where accessibility to the one or more connections is determined by the privacy setting selected by the user.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A social networking service encourages users to post content to a communication channel with varying levels of accessibility to other users. Users may select how content will be published and control the accessibility of uploaded content using a privacy setting for each content item that the user posts. The privacy setting defines, or identifies, the set of connections who may view the posted content item. The posted content item is placed in a particular communication channel in the social networking service, such as a newsfeed or stream, where the content item can be viewed by those who are permitted to view it according to its associated privacy setting. Varying granularities of privacy settings provide flexibility for content accessibility on a social networking service.
221 Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method for posting content with selective accessibility on a social networking service, the method comprising:
-
receiving a content item from a user of the social networking service; receiving a selection of a privacy setting to be associated with the content item from the user, the privacy setting establishing one or more connections allowed to access the content item; placing the content item into an electronic communication channel of the social networking service; and making the content item accessible to one or more connections via the communication channel, where accessibility to the one or more connections is determined by the privacy setting selected by the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A computerized system for posting content with selective accessibility on a social networking service, the system comprising:
-
a user profile store for storing profiles of users of the social networking service, each profile comprising grouping data of the profile'"'"'s connections; and a web server comprising, a content generation module for receiving a content item with an associated privacy setting identifying one or more connections allowed to access the content item, a content publishing module for posting the content item into an electronic communication channel of the social networking service and publishing the content item to one or more connections via the communication channel, wherein the content item is published subject to the privacy setting associated with the content item, and a privacy module for managing the access to the content item.
-
-
23. A method for managing communication of content within a social networking service, the method comprising:
-
maintaining in a profile database a set of user profiles for users of the social networking service and a set of connections among the user profiles; providing an interface for users of the social networking service enabling users to post content items and to specify privacy settings for accessibility of the posted content items; maintaining in a content database a plurality of received content items and associated privacy settings from users posting content items via the interface; for each of one or more of the users of the social networking service, generating a stream of content items for the user based on the user'"'"'s connection to other users who posted the content items and limited according to the privacy settings associated therewith; and providing the streams of content items to users of the social networking service via a computer display. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification