Acquiring structured user data using composer interface having input fields corresponding to acquired structured data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9436687-B2
Application number	US-201213544860-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2012
Priority date	Jul 9, 2012
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

A social networking system obtains specific structured data about a user via a composer interface having textual content with incomplete portions and input fields corresponding to the incomplete potions. The input fields map to data fields in the user's profile and are selected based on the social networking system's need for the information associated with the data fields.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
maintaining a profile for a user of a social networking system, the profile including a plurality of information items, each information item of the plurality of information items associated with a data field;
selecting a set of candidate data fields from the profile for the user;
for each candidate data field of the set of candidate data fields, determining a value to the social networking system of having an information item of the plurality of information items for the user, the information item being associated with the candidate data field, the determined value based on a cost of a composer interface displacing social content or an advertisement that otherwise would have been presented to the user;
selecting a candidate data field from the set of candidate data fields based on the determined values;
selecting, by the social networking system, a phrase related to the selected candidate data field, the phrase having a missing portion to be filled in by the user with structured data about the user to complete the phrase, the phrase designed to solicit the information item associated with the selected candidate data field;
generating, by the social networking system, the composer interface that comprises the phrase having the missing portion and an input field corresponding to the missing portion;
providing the generated composer interface for display to the user in the place of social content or an advertisement that otherwise would have been presented to the user;
receiving the structured data entered by the user using the input field of the generated composer interface;
determining the information item associated with the selected candidate data field based on the received structured data; and
storing the determined information item with the selected candidate data field in the profile for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a score for each candidate data field in the set of candidate data fields based on a function evaluating the determined value to the social networking system of having the information item associated with the candidate data field for the user.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the selected candidate data field is selected based on the determined score of the selected candidate data field.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the score for each candidate data field is based in part on a probability of getting a response containing the structured data from the user.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the probability of getting the response from the user is based on a historical response rate for the user.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the probability of getting the response from the user is based on a historical response rate for connections of the user.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined value to the social networking system of having the information item for the user is based further on projected revenue generated from using the information item.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined value to the social networking system of having the information item for the user is based further on projected increase in user engagement generated from using the information item.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generated composer interface is sent to the user in a newsfeed story.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generated composer interface is sent for display to the user responsive to an action by the user with a newsfeed story.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generated composer interface is sent for display to the user responsive to a connection of the user posting content to the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of candidate data fields have no associated information items.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the input field is configured to accept a category of words.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the category of words is selected from the group consisting of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving input entered by the user into the input field of the generated composer interface;
identifying one or more graph objects represented as nodes in a social graph based on the received input, the social graph recording interactions between users and objects as edges connecting nodes in the social graph; and
presenting a list of selectable options to the user that the user can select as the input for the input field, the one or more selectable options corresponding to the one or more identified graph objects.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by a server system, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:
maintaining a profile for a user of a social networking system, the profile including a plurality of information items, each information item of the plurality of information items associated with a data field;
selecting a set of candidate data fields from the profile for the user;
for each candidate data field of the set of candidate data fields, determining a value to the social networking system of having an information item of the plurality of information items for the user, the information item being associated with the candidate data field, the determined value based on a cost of a composer interface displacing social content or an advertisement that otherwise would have been presented to the user;
selecting a candidate data field from the set of candidate data fields based on the determined values;
selecting, by the social networking system, a phrase related to the selected candidate data field, the phrase having a missing portion to be filled in by the user with structured data about the user to complete the phrase, the phrase designed to solicit the information item associated with the selected candidate data field;
generating, by the social networking system, the composer interface that comprises the phrase having the missing portion and an input field corresponding to the missing portion;
providing the generated composer interface for display to the user in the place of social content or an advertisement that otherwise would have been presented to the user;
receiving the structured data entered by the user using the input field of the generated composer interface;
determining the information item associated with the selected candidate data field based on the received structured data; and
storing the determined information item with the selected candidate data field in the profile for the user.

17. A method comprising:
maintaining a profile for a user of a social networking system, the profile including a plurality of data fields;
selecting a set of candidate data fields from the profile for the user;
for each candidate data field of the set of candidate data fields, scoring the candidate data field based on a function evaluating a value to the social networking system of having an information item about the user associated with the candidate data field, the determined value based on a cost of a composer interface displacing social content or an advertisement that otherwise would have been presented to the user;
selecting a candidate data field from the set of candidate data fields based on the scoring for the selected candidate data fields;
selecting, by the social networking system, a phrase related to the selected candidate data field, the phrase having a missing portion to be filled in by the user with structured da

Assignees

• Lindsay Robert Taaffe
• Lessin Samuel
• Shaffer Justin Alexander
• Felton Nicholas
• Case Ryan
• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Lindsay Robert Taaffe
• Lessin Samuel
• Shaffer Justin Alexander
• Felton Nicholas
• Case Ryan

Classifications

• G06Q10/40 Primary

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F16/24578

  using ranking · CPC title

• G06F9/44505

  Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files · CPC title

• G06F16/437

  Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution · CPC title

• G06F16/335

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles (filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536) · CPC title