Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120084160 | Providing Social Endorsements with Online Advertising - Third-party publishers (such as websites) provide online advertisements combined with social endorsement information to users. A request for an advertisement is received from a viewing user via a third-party publisher system. A particular advertisement is selected in response to this request, and one or more advertisement tags associated with the advertisement are retrieved. The advertisement tags comprise information related to the advertisement. Social networking system data for users related to the viewing user is retrieved. Social endorsement information is obtained using the social networking system data and the advertisement tags associated with the advertisement. The social endorsement information and the advertisement are then combined and transmitted to the third-party publisher system, or are transmitted individually for combination by the third-party publisher system. | 04-05-2012 |
20120203831 | Sponsored Stories Unit Creation from Organic Activity Stream - Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to sponsored story generation from an organic activity stream in a social networking site. A user wishing to promote an entry from an organic activity stream may, using a sponsor user interface, specify the types of stories to promote to a portion of the home page displayed to a member of a social network. | 08-09-2012 |
20120232998 | SELECTING SOCIAL ENDORSEMENT INFORMATION FOR AN ADVERTISEMENT FOR DISPLAY TO A VIEWING USER - A social networking system provides an advertisement for display to a viewing user along with a social endorsement, which contains information about a friend of the viewing user in the social networking system. The social endorsement is selected from the social information maintained by the social networking system. To select the social endorsement, the social networking system identifies social networking system objects related to the advertisement as well as interactions between these objects and other users who are connected to the viewing user in the social networking system, where each interaction relates to a candidate social endorsement. An affinity score may be computed for each candidate social endorsement, where the affinity scores represent a measure of the viewing user's likely interest in each candidate social endorsement. The social networking system selects a social endorsement and provides it for display to the viewing user with the advertisement. In one embodiment, the selection is based upon the computed affinity scores. | 09-13-2012 |
20120323998 | Social Networking System Data Exchange - An online publisher provides content items such as advertisements to users. To enable publishers to provide content items to users who meet targeting criteria of the content items, an exchange server aggregates data about the users. The exchange server receives user data from two or more sources, including a social networking system and one or more other service providers. To protect the user's privacy, the social networking system and the service providers may provide the user data to the exchange server without identifying the user. The exchange server tracks each unique user of the social networking system and the service providers using a common identifier, enabling the exchange server to aggregate the users' data. The exchange server then applies the aggregated user data to select content items for the users, either directly or via a publisher. | 12-20-2012 |
20130013418 | Selection And Presentation Of Related Social Networking System Content And Advertisements - A social networking system uses information that it obtains from and about its users to select social networking content and advertising for presentation to users in a way that optimizes for one or more optimization goals. Example optimization goals include monetization, user sharing, user engagement, system growth, and user communication. The social networking system may select social networking content and advertising based on their relevance to a particular user. The selected social networking content and advertising may be related to each other to provide a more interesting display to the user. The selected social networking content and advertising may be presented in a supplemental portion of a display, and be selected based on their relatedness to content in the main portion of the display. | 01-10-2013 |
20130080523 | INSTANTANEOUS RECOMMENDATION OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - As a user of a social networking system views a page that includes information provided by the system, certain types of social interactions are monitored. If an interaction monitored for is detected, at least one recommendation unit is identified to present to user on the page. The recommendation unit is identified based on a description of the interaction. The recommendation unit suggests that the user perform a social interaction in the social networking system. The recommendation unit is transmitted to a device of the user and is presented to the user on the page without having to reload the entire page. | 03-28-2013 |
20130080524 | INSTANTANEOUS RECOMMENDATION OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - When a social interaction by a user in a social networking system is detected, a description of the interaction is created. A service level auction is performed to select one or more service modules to provide recommendation units from a plurality of service modules. Each of the plurality of service modules is configured to provide recommendation units that suggest that the user engage in a social interaction in the social networking system. The description of the interaction is provided to each service module selected and recommendation units are requested. A plurality of recommendation units are received from the selected service modules. A unit level auction is performed to select one of more recommendation units to present to the user from the plurality of recommendation units. The selected recommendation units are transmitted to a device of the user for presentation. | 03-28-2013 |
20130151346 | REDACTING PORTIONS OF ADVERTISEMENTS DELIVERED TO UNDERAGE USERS - An advertising system provides online advertisements to users of an online system, where portions of the advertisements are redacted if served to users who are underage. The system includes a data store, which stores advertisements that have a plurality of components. When a user is to be served an advertisement, the system determines the user's age, and then redacts portions of the advertisement that the user is not old enough to view. | 06-13-2013 |
20130151610 | Bookmarking Social Networking System Content - A social networking system allows users to bookmark content within the social networking system to view at a later time and/or to share with other users. The content that may be bookmarked may include advertisements, user posted content, user comments on posted content, or any other content viewable within the social networking system, as well as links to content outside of the social networking system. A user may save the content by selecting a bookmark link corresponding to the content. The bookmarked content may be viewed later, such as in a bookmarked content dashboard, and it may also be used to provide additional content to the user that is related to the bookmarked content. Additionally, the user's bookmarking activity may be published to the user's connections in the social networking system to enable others to find and view the content that the user deems worthy of bookmarking. | 06-13-2013 |
20130297702 | SPONSORED-STORIES-UNIT CREATION FROM ORGANIC ACTIVITY STREAM - A method includes receiving sponsor specifications designating story characteristics, monitoring an organic activity stream for entries matching the story characteristics, and, in response to identifying an entry as matching the story characteristics, providing for display the entry in a predetermined area of a web page. | 11-07-2013 |
20140040042 | MONITORING ACTIVITY STREAM FOR SPONSORED STORY CREATION - A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user. | 02-06-2014 |
20140108550 | INSTANTANEOUS RECOMMENDATION OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - As a user of a social networking system views a page that includes information provided by the system, certain types of social interactions are monitored. If an interaction monitored for is detected, at least one recommendation unit is identified to present to user on the page. The recommendation unit is identified based on a description of the interaction. The recommendation unit suggests that the user perform a social interaction in the social networking system. The recommendation unit is transmitted to a device of the user and is presented to the user on the page without having to reload the entire page. | 04-17-2014 |
20140108965 | SPONSORED STORY SHARING USER INTERFACE - A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user. | 04-17-2014 |
20140115500 | SPONSORED STORY USER INTERFACE - A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user. | 04-24-2014 |
20140122249 | SPONSORED STORY CREATION USING INFERENTIAL TARGETING - A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user. | 05-01-2014 |
20140123034 | SPONSORED STORY CREATION USER INTERFACE - A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user. | 05-01-2014 |
20140324587 | Bookmarking Social Networking System Content - A social networking system allows users to bookmark content within the social networking system to view at a later time and/or to share with other users. The content that may be bookmarked may include advertisements, user posted content, user comments on posted content, or any other content viewable within the social networking system, as well as links to content outside of the social networking system. A user may save the content by selecting a bookmark link corresponding to the content. The bookmarked content may be viewed later, such as in a bookmarked content dashboard, and it may also be used to provide additional content to the user that is related to the bookmarked content. Additionally, the user's bookmarking activity may be published to the user's connections in the social networking system to enable others to find and view the content that the user deems worthy of bookmarking. | 10-30-2014 |
20140324597 | SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM DATA EXCHANGE - An online publisher provides content items such as advertisements to users. To enable publishers to provide content items to users who meet targeting criteria of the content items, an exchange server aggregates data about the users. The exchange server receives user data from two or more sources, including a social networking system and one or more other service providers. To protect the user's privacy, the social networking system and the service providers may provide the user data to the exchange server without identifying the user. The exchange server tracks each unique user of the social networking system and the service providers using a common identifier, enabling the exchange server to aggregate the users' data. The exchange server then applies the aggregated user data to select content items for the users, either directly or via a publisher. | 10-30-2014 |