Sharing digital content on a social network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9602605-B2
Application number	US-25925408-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 27, 2008
Priority date	Oct 26, 2007
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for more effectively and easily sharing on a social networking system digital content obtained from an external system. In one embodiment a user selects a control for sharing content from the external system that causes a sharing request to be sent. The sharing request is received by the social networking website, and an interface is presented to the user requesting sharing parameters. The user provides sharing parameters through the interface that are received by the social networking website. Content is retrieved from the external system and is transmitted to one or more destinations in the social networking website based at least in part on the sharing parameters. The sharing parameters may include selection parameters for indicating which content to share, formatting parameters for specifying how to format the content, and destination parameters indicating particular destinations in the social networking website for the content.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method comprising:
for each of a plurality of users of a social networking system, maintaining a user account and a set of connections to other users of the social networking system;
receiving a sharing request for sharing content from a web page, the sharing request initiated by a sharing user via a sharing control outside of the social networking system and received by the social networking system;
responsive to initiation of the sharing request via the sharing control, providing an interface to the sharing user enabling the sharing user to provide sharing parameters, the interface served to the sharing user by a server of the social networking system;
receiving via the interface a request and one or more sharing parameters for communicating the content from the web page to one or more other users of the social networking system; and
transmitting a communication containing at least a portion of the content to one or more other users with whom the sharing user has established a connection using one or more communication channels of the social networking system subject to the one or more sharing parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving one or more sharing parameters from the sharing user via the interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise formatting parameters, the formatting parameters indicating formatting to apply to the content for sharing in the social networking system.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise destination parameters, the destination parameters indicating the one or more communication channels within the social networking system for sharing the content.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
identifying a plurality of pieces of content on the web page suitable for sharing based on information in the sharing request; and
sending information to the sharing user identifying the plurality of pieces of content, and
wherein the sharing parameters comprise selection parameters, the selection parameters indicating which pieces of content the sharing user desires to share, and wherein the received portion of the content from the web page comprises the indicated pieces of content.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
tracking the received portion of content at the one or more communication channels in the social networking website, comprising:
determining whether the received portion of content at the web page has been modified; and
responsive to the received portion of content at the web page being modified, modifying the received portion of content at the one or more communication channels in the social networking system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more communication channels in the social networking system comprise a wall profile channel.

8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code that comprises:
a module configured to maintain a user account and a set of connections to other users of the social networking system for each of a plurality of users of a social networking system;
a formatting module configured to:
receive a sharing request for sharing content from a web page, the sharing request initiated by a sharing user via a sharing control outside of the social networking system and received by the social networking system;
responsive to initiation of the sharing request via the sharing control, provide an interface to the sharing user enabling the sharing user to provide sharing parameters, the interface served to the sharing user by a server of the social networking system; and
receiving from the sharing user via the interface a request and one or more sharing parameters for communicating the content from the web page to one or more other users of the social networking system; and

a transmission module configured to:
transmit a communication containing at least a portion of the content to one or more other users with whom the sharing user has established a connection using one or more communication channels of the social networking system subject to the one or more sharing parameters.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise selection parameters, the selection parameters indicating which content the sharing user desires to share.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise formatting parameters, the formatting parameters indicating formatting to apply to the received portion of content for sharing in the social networking system, and wherein the formatting module is further configured to:
format the content based on the formatting parameters.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise destination parameters, the destination parameters indicating one or more communication channels of the social networking system for sharing the received portion of content, and wherein the transmission module is further configured to:
transmit the received portion of content to the indicated communication channels within the social networking system.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the formatting module is further configured to:
identify a plurality of pieces of content on the web page suitable for sharing based on information in the sharing request; and
send information to the sharing user identifying the plurality of pieces of content, and
wherein the sharing parameters comprise selection parameters, the selection parameters indicating which pieces of content the sharing user desires to share, and wherein the received portion of content from the web page comprises the indicated pieces of content.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising:
a tracking module configured to track the received portion of content at the one or more communication channels in the social networking system, the tracking comprising:
determining whether the content at the web page has been modified; and
responsive to the content at the web page being modified, modifying the received portion of content at the one or more communication channels in the social networking system.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the one or more communication channels in the social networking system comprise a wall profile channel.

15. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sharing parameters comprise selection parameters, the selection parameters indicating which content from the web page the sharing user desires to share.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more communication channels used to transmit the received portion of content is selected from a plurality of communication channels associated with the sharing user.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sharing control is located on the web page.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sharing control is located on a toolbar of a browser application used by the sharing user to view the web page.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises an element enabling the sharing user to provide login information for the sharing user's account with the social networking system.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises an element enabling the sharing user to provide a comment, and wherein the transmitted communication comprises the comment.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the

Assignees

• Wang James
• Wable Akhil
• Cuervo Oswald Soleio
• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Wang James
• Wable Akhil
• Cuervo Oswald Soleio

Classifications

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06Q10/10 Primary

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• H04L51/52 Primary

  for supporting social networking services · CPC title