Social advertisements and other informational messages on a social networking website, and advertising model for same
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- accessing profiles for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a viewing user;
receiving a message from a third party system that is in a different domain than the social networking system, the message identifying the third party system and describing an action performed on a web page of the third party system by the viewing user;
generating, by a computer of the social networking system, a confirmation message for display in a user interface to the viewing user on the third party system, the confirmation message providing an example of a story that could be provided to a plurality of connections of the viewing user, the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user;
sending, by the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, the generated confirmation message for display in the user interface within a nested iframe on the web page of the third party system, the nested iframe being within a domain of the social networking system and allowing communication from the social networking system to the user on the web page of the third party system without sharing personal information that the social networking system has for the viewing user;
receiving an indication of whether the viewing user opts in or opts out of allowing the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user to be provided to the plurality of connections based on the user having selected an opt in or opt out feature in the nested iframe on the user interface;
based on the viewing user opting in to allowing the story to be provided to the plurality of connections, generating a plurality of news feeds each including the story describing the action in addition to a plurality of other stories describing other actions taken by other users of the social networking system; and
providing for display to each of the plurality of connections a user interface including the generated news feed for the connection, wherein different connections receive different sets of other stories in the news feed.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
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.
248 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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accessing profiles for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a viewing user; receiving a message from a third party system that is in a different domain than the social networking system, the message identifying the third party system and describing an action performed on a web page of the third party system by the viewing user; generating, by a computer of the social networking system, a confirmation message for display in a user interface to the viewing user on the third party system, the confirmation message providing an example of a story that could be provided to a plurality of connections of the viewing user, the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user; sending, by the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, the generated confirmation message for display in the user interface within a nested iframe on the web page of the third party system, the nested iframe being within a domain of the social networking system and allowing communication from the social networking system to the user on the web page of the third party system without sharing personal information that the social networking system has for the viewing user; receiving an indication of whether the viewing user opts in or opts out of allowing the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user to be provided to the plurality of connections based on the user having selected an opt in or opt out feature in the nested iframe on the user interface; based on the viewing user opting in to allowing the story to be provided to the plurality of connections, generating a plurality of news feeds each including the story describing the action in addition to a plurality of other stories describing other actions taken by other users of the social networking system; and providing for display to each of the plurality of connections a user interface including the generated news feed for the connection, wherein different connections receive different sets of other stories in the news feed.
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2. The method of claim 1, wherein the story comprises a social advertisement for display to the connections of the viewing user based on the action taken by the viewing user on the third party system.
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3. The method of claim 1, wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of:
- conducting a purchase, registering for an account, viewing an item, saving an item to an account, renting an item, making a reservation, and subscribing to an informational resource.
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4. The method of claim 1, wherein nested iframes allow communication between the social networking system and the third party system without requiring the viewing user to log into the social networking system.
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5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, based on the viewing user opting out, preventing the story describing the action performed on the third party system from being provided to connections of the viewing user.
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6. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the viewing user to opt in or opt out of allowing types of stories describing the action performed by the viewing user on the third party system to be provided to connections of the viewing user, the viewing user allowed to opt in or opt out in advance of taking the action on the third party system.
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7. The method of claim 1, further comprising based on the viewing user opting out of allowing the story to be provided to the one or more connections, preventing the story describing the action performed on the third party system from being provided to connections of the viewing user.
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8. The method of claim 1, wherein the nested iframe further presents a list of the plurality of connections of the viewing user on the webpage of the third party system and allows the viewing user to select a connection in the list.
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9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
in response to the selection of the connection by the viewing user, communicating, from the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, one or more actions performed by the connection on the web page of the third party system.
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10. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium that includes instructions that, when loaded into memory, cause a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
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accessing profiles for a plurality of users of the social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a viewing user; receiving a message from a third party system that is in a different domain than the social networking system, the message identifying the third party system and describing an action performed on a web page of the third party system by the viewing user; generating, by a computer of the social networking system, a confirmation message for display in a user interface to the viewing user on the third party system, the confirmation message providing an example of a story that could be provided to a plurality of connections of the viewing user, the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user; sending, by the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, the generated confirmation message for display in the user interface within a nested iframe on the web page of the third party system, the nested iframe being within a domain of the social networking system and allowing communication from the social networking system to the user on the web page of the third party system without sharing personal information that the social networking system has for the viewing user; receiving an indication of whether the viewing user opts in or opts out of allowing the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user to be provided to the plurality of connections based on the user having selected an opt in or opt out feature in the nested iframe on the user interface; based on the viewing user opting in to allowing the story to be provided to the plurality of connections, generating a plurality of news feeds each including the story describing the action in addition to a plurality of other stories describing other actions taken by other users of the social networking system; and providing for display to each of the plurality of connections a user interface including the generated news feed for the connection, wherein different connections receive different sets of other stories in the news feed.
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11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the story comprises a social advertisement for display to the connections of the viewing user based on the action taken by the viewing user on the third party system.
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12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of:
- conducting a purchase, registering for an account, viewing an item, saving an item to an account, renting and item, making a reservation, and subscribing to an informational resource.
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13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein nested iframes allow communication between the social networking system and the third party system without requiring the viewing user to log into the social networking system.
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14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising, based on the viewing user opting out, preventing the story describing the action performed on the third party system from being provided to connections of the viewing user.
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15. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising allowing the viewing user to opt in or opt out of allowing types of stories describing the action performed by the viewing user on the third party system to be provided to connections of the viewing user, the viewing user allowed to opt in or opt out in advance of taking the action on the third party system.
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16. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising based on the viewing user opting out of allowing the story to be provided to the one or more connections, preventing the story describing the action performed on the third party system from being provided to connections of the viewing user.
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17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the story generated is provided for display to the connections of the viewing user in a newsfeed of stories.
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18. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the nested iframe further presents a list of the plurality of connections of the viewing user on the webpage of the third party system allows the viewing user to select a connection in the list.
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19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:
in response to the selection of the connection by the viewing user, communicating, from the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, one or more actions performed by the connection on the web page of the third party system.
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20. A system comprising:
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a member profile store configured for storing a plurality of member profiles, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a viewing user; a web server configured for receiving a message from a third party system that is in a different domain than the social networking system, the message identifying the third party system and describing an action performed on a webpage of the third party system by the viewing user; a newsfeed generator configured for; generating a confirmation message for display in a user interface to the viewing user on the third party system the confirmation message providing an example of a story that could be provided to a plurality of connections of the viewing user, the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user; sending, by the computer of the social networking system to the third party system, the generated confirmation message for display in the user interface within a nested iframe on the web page of the third party system, the nested iframe being within a domain of the social networking system and allowing communication from the social networking system to the user on the web page of the third party system without sharing personal information that the social networking system has for the viewing user; receiving an indication of whether the viewing user opts in or opts out of allowing the story describing the action performed on the third party system by the viewing user to be provided to the plurality of connections based on the user having selected an opt in or opt out feature in the nested iframe on the user interface; based on the viewing user opting in to allowing the story to be provided to the plurality of connections, generating a plurality of news feeds each including the story describing the action in addition to a plurality of other stories describing other actions taken by other users of the social networking system; and providing to the web server for display to each of the plurality of connections a user interface including the generated news feed for the connection, wherein different connections receive different sets of other stories in the news feed.
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Specification