Automatically generating multi-image posts on online social networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10642914-B2
Application number	US-201715660731-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 26, 2017
Priority date	Jul 26, 2017
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing, by a crawling module, a first structured document from an external server, where the first structured document is associated with a first post by a third-party content provider and includes multiple image objects and information associated with the image objects, extracting from the first structured document a sub-set of image objects and information associated with each of the image objects, analyzing the extracted image objects and information to identify categories of image objects based on their features, selecting a first category of image objects that has a highest number of image objects compared to a number of image objects in each other category of image objects, and generating a second post including a multi-image display that includes two or more of the image objects from the first category of image objects.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices of an online social network:
accessing, by a crawling module, a first structured document from an external server, the first structured document being associated with a first post on the online social network by a third-party content provider, and the first structured document comprising a plurality of image objects and information associated with each of the plurality of image objects;
extracting, from the first structured document, a sub-set of image objects from the plurality of image objects and the respective information associated with each of the image objects in the sub-set;
analyzing, by an image-categorization module, the extracted image objects and information to identify one or more categories of image objects within the sub-set of image objects, each category of image objects being identified based on one or more features of the image objects;
selecting, from among the one or more categories, a first category of image objects comprising a plurality of image objects within the sub-set of image objects, wherein the first category of image objects has a highest number of image objects compared to a number of image objects in each other category of the one or more categories of image objects; and
generating, by a post-composer module, a second post comprising a link to the first structured document and a multi-image display, wherein the multi-image display comprises at least two or more of the image objects from the first category of image objects.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing, by the crawling module, a second structured document responsive to a tracking script on the first structured document being executed by the crawling module, wherein the second structured document is an online product catalog associated with the third-party content provider comprising a plurality of product images and product information associated with each of the product images, and wherein the tracking script is associated with one or more product identifiers (IDs); and
extracting, from the online product catalog, the product images and product information associated with one or more of the product IDs associated with the tracking script.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising accessing the first post, wherein the first post comprises a single-image object, information associated with the single-image object, and a link to the first structured document, and wherein the crawling module accesses the first structured document responsive to determining that the first post comprises a single-image object.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, by the post-composer module, a post-composer interface to a client device of the third-party content provider, wherein the post-composer interface is operable to compose the first post; and
receiving, from the client device, post content for the first post inputted via the post-composer interface, wherein the post content comprises a link to the first structured document, and wherein the crawling module accesses the first structured document responsive to receiving the post content comprising the link to the first structured document.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first structured document is a webpage associated with the third-party content provider.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first structured document is an interface of a native application associated with the third-party content provider.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a notification to the third-party content provider, wherein the notification is a link to an interface configured to display the second post.

8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving instructions from the third-party content provider to modify the second post; and
posting the modified second post on the online social network.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the features is a size of the image object in the structured document.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the features is an aspect ratio of the image object in the structured document.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the features is a positioning of the image object in the structured document.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the features is a text string in the structured document that is associated with the image object.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the text string describes one or more of:
a description of a product in the image object;
a price of a product in the image object;
a title of the image object;
a manufacturer's product number of a product in the image object; or
a universal product number of a product in the image object.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sub-set of image objects comprises a predefined number of images.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the features is an aspect ratio of the image object, wherein the aspect ratio is analyzed when two or more categories of image objects within the sub-set of image objects have a same number of objects compared to a number of image objects in each other category of the one or more categories of image objects.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-image display comprises a carousel display interface, wherein the carousel display interface displays at least one image object from the first category of image objects, and is operable to swipe through one or more additional image objects from the first category of image objects.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-image display comprises a grid-based interface, wherein the grid-based interface displays a plurality of image objects from the first category of image objects in a grid-based orientation comprising at least one row and at least one column.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the grid-based interface is operable to scroll through a plurality of additional image objects from the first category of image objects, the additional images being displayed in a grid-based orientation.

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
access, by a crawling module, a first structured document from an external server, the first structured document being associated with a first post on the online social network by a third-party content provider, and the first structured document comprising a plurality of image objects and information associated with each of the plurality of image objects;
extract, from the first structured document, a sub-set of image objects from the plurality of image objects and the respective information associated with each of the image objects in the sub-set;
analyze, by an image-categorization module, the extracted image objects and information to identify one or more categories of image objects within the sub-set of image objects, each category of image objects being identified based on one or more features of the image objects;
select, from among the one or more categories, a first category of image objects comprising a plurality of image objects within the sub-set of image objects, wherein the first category of image objects has a highest number of image objects compared to a number of image objects in each other category of the one or more categories of image objects; and
generate, by a post-composer module, a second post comprising a link to the first structured document and a multi-image display, wherein the multi-image display comprises at least two or more of the

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Khandelwal Shashikant
• Gaudet Eric
• Aftab Hamza
• Chheda Risha Nagin
• Chen Xintao
• Haile Mary Ann
• Hajiyani Zoheb I

Classifications

• G06F16/583

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• G06K9/00671

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/4604

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L51/32

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title