DISPLAYING NEWS TICKER CONTENT BASED ON VALUE IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20140164979A1
• Filed: 12/09/2012
• Published: 06/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Deeter, Ken, Cathcart, Robert William
• Granted Patent: US 10,168,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/774
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/30 Authentication, i.e. establishing the identity or authorisation of security principals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission

Abstract

A social networking system displays stories describing actions to a user in a news ticker. The stories may be selected so that a variety of types of stories, stories associated with a variety of users, or stories associated with a variety of actions are presented via the news ticker. Additionally, stories having a common characteristic, such as being associated with a common user, may be aggregated and a description of the aggregated stories is presented in the news ticker. For example, stories aggregated based on acting user may identify the user common to the stories and a description of the aggregated stories may be displayed. Further, the value to the social networking system of displaying different types of content may be used to modify how different types of content are displayed in the news ticker.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a social networking system, a request from a target user for news ticker content from a target user;

identifying a plurality of types of content for display in a news ticker;

determining a value to the social networking system of displaying each type of content in the news ticker based in part on characteristics of the target user;

selecting one or more of the types of content based on the determined values;

retrieving content associated with each of the selected one or more types of content; and

presenting the retrieved content in the news ticker.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the retrieved content in the news ticker comprises:

allocating a portion of the news ticker to retrieved content associated with a selected type of content, a size of the portion proportional to the value of the social networking system of displaying the selected type of content; and

displaying retrieved content associated with the selected type of content in the portion of the news ticker.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein presenting the retrieved content in the news ticker comprises:

identifying an additional selected type of content;

allocating an additional portion of the news ticker to retrieved content associated with the additional selected type of content, a size of the additional portion proportional to the value of the social networking system of displaying the additional selected type of content; and

displaying retrieved content associated with the additional selected type of content in the additional portion of the news ticker.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of content are selected from a group consisting of:

a news story, an advertisement, a survey, a question, a recommendation, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting one or more of the types of content based on the determined values comprises selecting a type of content associated with a highest determined value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a value to the social networking system of displaying a type of content in the news ticker based comprises an expected revenue to the social networking system from displaying each type of content in the news ticker.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a value to the social networking system of displaying a type of content in the news ticker comprises an amount of received data resulting from the display of the type of content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the target user are selected from a group consisting of:

biographic characteristics, geographic characteristics, interests, actions, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the target user include a number of additional users connected to the target user.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, at a social networking system, a request from a target user for news ticker content;

identifying a plurality of types of content for display in a news ticker;

determining a value to the social networking system of displaying each type of content in the news ticker based in part on characteristics of the target user;

selecting a type of content based on the determined values;

selecting an additional type of content based on the determined values;

allocating a portion of the news ticker to the selected type of content, a size of the portion of the news ticker based on the determined value associated with the selected type of content;

allocating an additional portion of the news ticker to the selected additional type of content, a size of the additional portion of the news ticker based on the determined value associated with the selected additional type of content;

presenting content associated with the selected type of content in the portion of the news ticker; and

presenting content associated with the additional type of content in the additional portion of the news ticker.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of types of content are selected from a group consisting of:

a news story, an advertisement, a survey, a question, a recommendation, or any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting the type of content based on the determined values comprises selecting a type of content associated with a highest determined value.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the value to the social networking system of displaying the type of content in the news ticker comprises an expected revenue to the social networking system from displaying each type of content in the news ticker.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein a value to the social networking system of displaying a type of content in the news ticker comprises an amount of received data resulting from the display of the type of content.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the value to the social networking system of displaying the type of content in the news ticker is based at least in part on whether characteristics of the target user satisfy one or more value criteria.

16. A method comprising:

receiving, at a social networking system, a request from a target user for news ticker content from a target user;

identifying a plurality of types of content for display to the target user;

determining a value to the social networking system of displaying each type of content to the target user based in part on characteristics of the target user;

selecting a type of content based on the determined values;

selecting an additional type of content based on the determined values;

allocating a portion of a display to the selected type of content, a size of the portion of the display based on the determined value associated with the selected type of content;

allocating an additional portion of the display to the selected additional type of content, a size of the additional portion of the display based on the determined value associated with the selected additional type of content;

presenting content associated with the selected type of content in the portion of the display; and

presenting content associated with the additional type of content in the additional portion of the display.