Profile Page with Biographical Summary for Social Networking System User

• US 20120144280A1
• Filed: 12/04/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Deng, Peter, Cahill, Matthew, Zuckerberg, Mark E., Flynn, William Joseph III, Wiseman, Josh
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A social networking system provides a short, unbiased biographical summary for a user of the social networking system. The short biography includes a few relevant biographical information items selected from the user'"'"'s profile and is displayed on the profile page. The short biography may be displayed with a set of photographs also selected from the profile for their relevance. Relevance may be based on various information including temporal relevance and relevance to the viewing user. Display of the short biography allows a viewer to easily find current biographical information about the user in an abbreviated format.

Claims

1. A method for creating a short biography for a user of a social networking system, comprising:

maintaining a user profile including biographical information items about the user, wherein a subset of the biographical information items comprise a temporal element;

selecting two or more biographical information items from the user'"'"'s user profile as most temporally relevant based at least in part on the temporal elements associated with the two or more biographical information items;

concatenating the two or more selected most temporally relevant biographical information items from the user'"'"'s user profile into a short biography for the user; and

transmitting the short biography to a viewer for display in connection with the user'"'"'s user profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the biographical information items comprise one or more of the user'"'"'s work information, residence location, relationship status, current place of residence, hometown, educational information, languages spoken, birth date, media content, and check-ins.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal element for a biographical information item comprises one or more of a time the information item was posted to the user'"'"'s profile, a time of the biographical information item, and a time range.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting two or more biographical information items from the user'"'"'s profile as most temporally relevant based at least in part on the associated temporal elements comprises applying a decay factor to one or more of the temporal elements based on a type of biographical information item with which the temporal element is associated, wherein temporal relevance of the biographical information item is diminished based on the decay factor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a first biographical information item is a first type and a second biographical information item is a second type, and wherein the decay factor for the first type is greater than the decay factor for the second type, and thus the temporal relevance for the second biographical item is less than the temporal relevance for the first biographical item over time.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of photographs for the user, wherein a subset of the photographs comprise a temporal element;

selecting two or more most temporally relevant photographs based at least in part on the temporal element associated with the two or more photographs;

concatenating the two or more selected most temporally relevant photographs to include with the short biography for the user; and

transmitting the concatenated photographs with the short biography to the viewer for display in connection with the user'"'"'s profile.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the selecting the two or more most temporally relevant photographs is based in part on a last action performed on the photograph in the social networking system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the last action performed on the photograph is selected from a post of the photograph, a tag on the photograph, and a comment added to the photograph.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the short biography is displayed at the top of the user'"'"'s user profile.

11. A method for producing a short biography for a social networking system user, comprising:

producing a user interface including a user profile comprising the short biography, comprising;

providing a plurality of biographical information items, wherein a subset of the biographical information items comprise a temporal element;

providing a plurality of photographs, wherein a subset of the photographs comprise a temporal element;

providing a short biography section for displaying two or more concatenated temporally relevant biographical information items selected from the social networking system user'"'"'s profile based at least in part on the temporal element associated with each biographical information item; and

producing a photograph section, visually distinguished from the short biography section, for displaying two or more temporally relevant photographs selected from the social networking system user'"'"'s profile based at least in part on the temporal element associated with each photograph.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the short biography includes a set of default biographical information items.

13. A method for creating a short biography for a user of a social networking system, comprising:

maintaining a user profile including biographical information items about the user, wherein a subset of the biographical information items comprise an element indicating association of another user with the biographical information item;

selecting two or more biographical information items from the user'"'"'s user profile as most relevant to a viewing user based at least in part on the element indicating association of another user with the biographical information item;

concatenating the two or more selected biographical information items most relevant to the viewing user from the user'"'"'s user profile into a short biography for the user; and

transmitting the short biography to the viewing user for display in connection with the user'"'"'s user profile.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the element indicating association of another user indicates association of the viewing user.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the element indicating association of another user indicates association of a connection of the viewing user.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of photographs for the user, wherein a subset of the photographs comprise an element indicating association of another user with the biographical information item;

selecting two or more most photographs as most relevant to a viewing user based at least in part on the element indicating association of another user with the two or more photographs;

concatenating the two or more selected most relevant photographs to include with the short biography for the user; and

transmitting the concatenated photographs with the short biography to the viewer for display in connection with the user'"'"'s profile.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

19. A method for creating a short biography for a user of a social networking system, comprising:

maintaining a user profile including biographical information items for the user;

selecting two or more of the biographical information items from the user'"'"'s user profile as most relevant based at least in part on additional information associated with the biographical information items;

concatenating the two or more selected most relevant biographical information items from the user'"'"'s profile into a short biography for the user; and

transmitting the short biography to a viewer for display in connection with the user'"'"'s profile.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the selected two or more most relevant biographical information items comprise a set of default biographical information items specific to the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the set of default biographical information items specific to the user comprise work information, residence location information, relationship information, hometown information, educational information, languages spoken, and birth date.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining whether the user'"'"'s user profile includes each item in the set of default biographical information items; and

in response to one or more items in the set of default biographical information items being absent from the user'"'"'s user profile, including a control within the short biography for the user to add the one or more items to the user'"'"'s user profile.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining that a biographical information item from the user'"'"'s user profile has a greater relevance that one or more of the items in the set of default biographical information items; and

replacing the one or more of the items in the set of default biographical information items with the item from the user'"'"'s user profile with the greater relevance.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the item from the user'"'"'s user profile with the greater relevance has greater temporal relevance based on a temporal element associated with the item from the user'"'"'s user profile with the greater relevance.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the item from the user'"'"'s user profile with the greater relevance has greater relevance to the viewing user based on an element indicating association of another user with the item from the user'"'"'s user profile with the greater relevance.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the biographical information items comprise one or more of the user'"'"'s work information, residence location, relationship status, current place of residence, hometown, educational information, languages spoken, birth date, media content, and check-ins.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of photographs for the user;

selecting two or more most relevant photographs based at least in part on additional information associated with the two or more photographs;

concatenating the two or more selected most relevant photographs to include with the short biography for the user; and

transmitting the concatenated photographs with the short biography to the viewer for display in connection with the user'"'"'s profile.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the method is performed for a plurality of users of the social networking system.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the selecting of the two or more most relevant biographical information items and the two or more most relevant photographs is based on temporal relevance of the two or more items and two or more photographs.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the selecting of the two or more most relevant biographical information items and the two or more most relevant photographs is based on relevance of the two or more items and two or more photographs to the viewing user.