Social circles in social networks

• US 9,338,197 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Smarr, Joseph, Adams, Paul, Ben-Yair, Shimrit, Terleski, Jonathan, Sladden, Mandy R.
• Primary Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US13/164,562
• Publication Number:
  US 20120110096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-205, 709217-219, 715/700, 715/758, 715/753, 715/751, 715/733
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1044 Group management mechanisms management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Claims

1. An electronic social networking system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more computer-readable media coupled to the one or more computing devices and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising;

transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of people profiles for display to a user, the people profiles being contacts of a user profile of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service;

generating a first social circle of the user profile, the first social circle comprising a first subset of people profiles of the user profile within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for a digital content item of the user profile, wherein the digital content item includes information that identifies the user profile to the contacts of the user;

generating a second social circle of the user profile, the second social circle comprising a second subset of people profiles of the user profile within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for the digital content item;

processing the first social circle to provide a first access control list that specifies which of the first subset of people profiles are granted access to the digital content item;

processing the second social circle to provide a second access control list that specifies which of the second subset of people profiles are granted access to the digital content item; and

in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of the digital content item from the user profile, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution based on the first access control list and the second distribution based on the second access control list, wherein the digital content item is distributed from the user profile to each people profile of the first subset of people profiles based on the first access control list and the digital content item is distributed from the user profile to each people profile of the second subset of people profiles based on the second access control list.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting an indication to each people profile of the first subset of people profiles, the indication informing each people profile of membership in the first social circle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting an indication to each people profile of the first subset of people profiles, the indication informing each people profile of identities of each of the people profiles in the first subset of people profiles.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the indication informs each people profile in the first subset of people profiles of a name of the first social circle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise maintaining people profile confidentiality within the second subset of people profiles such that people profiles of the second subset of people profiles are not informed of identities of other people profiles in the second subset of people profiles.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting an invitation message to people profiles of the user in the social networking service;

receiving a confirmation indication from at least one people profile; and

including the at least one people profile in the first subset of people profiles in response to receiving the confirmation indication.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise receiving message text from the user, the invitation message including the message text.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing standard message text for display to the user; and

receiving user input editing the standard message text to provide edited message text, the invitation message including the edited message text.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that an email address of an intended recipient of the invitation message is not associated with a particular email service; and

generating the invitation message as a plain text email message in response to the determining.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that an email address of an intended recipient of the invitation message is associated with a particular email service;

determining that the intended recipient is not a user of the social networking service; and

generating the invitation message to include an advertisement for the social networking service in response to the determining.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that an email address of an intended recipient of the invitation message is associated with a particular email service;

determining that the intended recipient is a user of the social networking service; and

generating the invitation message as a rich text message in response to the determining.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one people profile of the first subset of people profiles is also a people profile of the second subset of people profiles.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital content item comprises at least one of text, an image file, a video file, an audio file, and a uniform resource indicator (URI).

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise expanding the first subset of people profiles to include additional people profiles in response to user input.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a search query from a searching user;

processing the search query;

identifying the first social circle based on processing the search query; and

transmitting data corresponding to the first social circle for display to the searching user.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the searching user is a user of the social networking service.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the searching user is a user of the Internet.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the searching user, the request comprising a request to join the first social circle;

transmitting the request to the user;

receiving an approval indication from the user; and

in response to receiving the approval indication, adding a people profile of the searching user to the first subset of people profile.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more people profiles of the first subset of people profiles or the second subset of people profiles is a non-social networking contact of the user profile.

20. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of a profile of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service;

generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the profile within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for a digital content item of the profile;

generating a second social circle of the profile, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the profile within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for the digital content item;

processing the first social circle to provide a first access control list that specifies which of the first subset of contacts are granted access to the digital content item;

processing the second social circle to provide a second access control list that specifies which of the second subset of contacts are granted access to the digital content item; and

in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of the digital content item from the profile, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution based on the first access control list and the second distribution based on the second access control list, wherein the digital content item is distributed from the profile to each contact the first subset of contacts based on the first access control list and the digital content item is distributed from the profile to each contact of the second subset of contacts based on the second access control list.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of people profiles for display to a user, the people profiles being people profiles of a user profile for the user within a computer-implemented social networking service;

generating a first social circle of the user profile, the first social circle comprising a first subset of people profiles of the user profile within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for a digital content item of the user profile, wherein the digital content item includes information that identifies the user profile to the contacts of the user;

generating a second social circle of the user profile, the second social circle comprising a second subset of people profiles of the user profile within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for the digital content item;

processing the first social circle to provide a first access control list that specifies which of the first subset of people profiles are granted access to the digital content item;

processing the second social circle to provide a second access control list that specifies which of the second subset of people profiles are granted access to the digital content item; and

in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of the digital content item from the user profile, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution based on the first access control list and the second distribution based on the second access control list, wherein the digital content item is distributed from the user profile to each people profile of the first subset of people profiles based on the first access control list and the digital content item is distributed from the user profile to each people profile of the second subset of people profiles based on the second access control list.

22. An electronic social networking system comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

one or more computer-readable media coupled to the one or more computing devices and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising;

receiving first digital content from a first user of a computer-implemented social networking service, the first digital content being associated with a first profile of the first user and including information that identifies the first profile to other profiles, and a distribution, the distribution comprising a second profile of a second user;

processing the distribution to provide an access control list that specifies that the second profile is granted access to the first digital content;

transmitting, from the first profile and based on the access control list, the first digital content for display to the second user;

receiving first user input from the second user, the first user input indicating a command to add the first profile as a contact of the second profile within the computer-implemented social networking service;

requesting that the second user identify at least one social circle of the second profile, to which the first profile is to be assigned;

receiving second user input from the second user, the second user input indicating an assignment of the first profile as a member of one or more social circles of the second profile;

assigning the first profile as a member of each of the one or more social circles of the second profile in response to the second user input; and

processing the one or more social circles of the second profile to provide one or more access control lists that specify that the first profile is granted access to second digital content received from the second profile, the second digital content associated with a second distribution and including information that identifies the second profile to other profiles.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving third digital content from the first profile, the third digital content being associated with a third distribution and including information that identifies the first profile to other profiles, the third distribution comprising the second profile; and

transmitting the third digital content for display to the second user, such that the third digital content is displayed on one or more pages, each page of the one or more pages corresponding to a social circle of the one or more social circles and identifying the first profile.