Abstract:
Content maintained in an online social network or other online communities is tracked for changes and updates. The content may include user profiles, digital photos, digital audio and video files, testimonials, and identification of users who are friends. When such change or update occurs, users of the online social network or online community are notified according to various criteria that they have set. The notification may be provided by e-mail, an RSS feed, or a web page when accessed. With this feature, users can browse through content of other users with efficiency.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present invention generally relates to processing of online social network data, and more particularly, to a method and system for tracking changes to user content in an online social network. 
     Description of the Related Art 
     Over the past several years, the amount of personal information that individuals share online has increased dramatically. Many web sites provide an online community that provides content focusing on a common interest or theme, and allows people to join the online community and share personal information with other users of the online community. Online social networking sites have also been rapidly gaining in popularity. Typically, users of an online social network communicate with one another and meet other users based on personal information captured in the other user profiles. 
     Also, users of online social networks often request their existing friends to join, creating a web of online relationships that mirror offline ones. Operators of online social networking sites typically require that new users provide certain personal information to join, including contact information (e.g., physical and e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, instant messaging nicknames, etc.) and identifying information (e.g. a name, location, personal interests, age, etc.). 
     A positive consequence of this general trend is the greater ability for groups of friends, families and other acquaintances to communicate online with, and about, each other as users of a social network. For example, a group of friends may share personal information with each other about common interests, individual personal attributes, events, schedules and activity plans and may also access each others&#39; personal information. Another benefit of online social networks is that their users can more easily find others who share common interests, goals, lifestyles, etc., without being limited to an online community dedicated to a particular interest. Doing so allows members to expand their social networks. 
     With access to cheap storage and higher bandwidths, the amount of information stored by users of online social networks has grown exponentially. In addition to profile information, the users now often store large amounts of multimedia files, including digital photos, and digital audio and video files. As a consequence, the process of browsing the content of other users has become highly inefficient. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a system and a method for improving the efficiency of finding and viewing content of users or groups of an online social network or other online communities. According to embodiments of the present invention, changes and updates to user or group content are tracked, and users are notified of certain of these changes and updates according to various criteria. The notification may be given by e-mail, a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, or a web page when accessed. 
     The system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a database of users in which content for each user is stored, and a processing unit that is programmed to carry out the steps of receiving and storing inputs from users that reflect changes in their content and communicating to applicable users that such changes have occurred. For example, if a first user is tracking changes to the content of a particular type of a second user and the second user changes such content, the first user will be notified that the content of that particular type of the second user has changed. 
     The method according to an embodiment of the present invention is carried out in a computer system having a database of users in which content for each user is stored, and includes the steps of receiving and storing inputs from users that reflect changes to their content and communicating to applicable users that such changes have occurred. 
     The method according to another embodiment of the present invention is carried out in an online community of users, and includes the steps of receiving inputs from a user that specify one or more types of content that are to be tracked and users who are to be tracked, monitoring updates to the content of the users and identifying those updates that are made to content that is of one of the specified types and of one of the specified users, and notifying the user of the identified updates. 
     The advantages of the tracking and notification techniques employed in the embodiments of the present invention are several. First, a user need not constantly browse through the content of other users to see if such content has been updated. Second, a member can define a filter for the content updates by selecting the users that he or she would like to track and the type of content updates that he or she is interested in tracking. Third, a user can select different ways of being notified of the content updates as well as the frequency of the notifications. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram that graphically represents the relationships between users of an online social network; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating components of a system for managing an online social network; 
         FIG. 3  schematically illustrates the process for tracking changes and updates to content in an online social network and managing the notification of such changes and updates; 
         FIG. 4A  is a schematic illustration of a web page used to specify various notification settings; 
         FIG. 4B  is a schematic illustration of a web page used to communicate changes and updates to user content; and 
         FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating the process steps for filtering the changes and updates to user content. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is a graph representation of a social network centered on a given individual (ME). Other users of this social network include A-U whose position, relative to ME&#39;s, is referred to by the degree of separation between ME and each other user. Friends of ME, which includes A, B, and C, are separated from ME by one degree of separation (1 d/s). A friend of a friend of ME is separated from ME by 2 d/s. As shown, D, E, F, G, and H are each separated from ME by 2 d/s. A friend of a friend of a friend of ME is separated from ME by 3 d/s.  FIG. 1  depicts all nodes separated from ME by more than 3 degrees of separation as belonging to the category ALL. 
     Degrees of separation in a social network are defined relative to an individual. For example, in ME&#39;s social network, H and ME are separated by 2 d/s, whereas in G&#39;s social network, H and G are separated by only 1 d/s. Accordingly, each individual will have their own set of first, second and third degree relationships. 
     As those skilled in the art understand, an individual&#39;s social network may be extended to include nodes to an Nth degree of separation. As the number of degrees increases beyond three, however, the number of nodes typically grows at an explosive rate and quickly begins to mirror the ALL set. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a system  250  for creating and managing an online social network. The system  250  represents one example embodiment of a system for creating and managing an online social network, and includes an application server  251  and one or more graph servers  252 . As known in the art, a server is a computer having a processing unit and system memory that is programmed to carry out certain functions. The system  250  is connected to a network  260 , e.g., the Internet, and accessible over the network by a plurality of remote computers (only three of which are shown), collectively designated as  270 . 
     The application server  251  manages a user database  254 , a relationship database  255 , a search database  256 , and other databases  257 . The user database  254  contains profile information for each of the user in the online social network managed by the system  250 . The profile information may include, among other things: a unique user identifier (user ID), name, age, gender, location, hometown, references to image files, listing of interests, attributes, and the like. The user database  254  also contains information about groups (e.g., organizations, school alumni associations, family, etc.) that users have defined. The group information may include, among other things: a unique group identifier (group ID), name, description of the group, and members of the group. The relationship database  255  stores for each user, the user IDs of all users with whom the user has a direct relationship, i.e., direct friends of the user who are users of the online social network. In addition, the contents of the user database  254  are indexed and optimized for search, and stored in the search database  256 . The other databases  257  may include a database for storing testimonials, and various other information commonly stored in online social networks and communities. The user database  254 , the relationship database  255 , the search database  256 , and the other databases  257  are updated to reflect inputs of new user information and edits of existing user information that are made through the remote computers  270 . 
     The application server  251  also manages the information exchange requests that it receives from the remote computers  270 . The graph servers  252  receive a query from the application server  251 , process the query and return the query results to the application server  251 . The graph servers  252  manage a representation of the social network for all users in the member database. The graph servers  252  have a dedicated memory device  253 , such as a random access memory (RAM), in which an adjacency list that indicates all first degree relationships in the social network is stored. The graph servers  252  respond to requests from application server  251  to identify relationships and the degree of separation between users of the online social network. 
     In the embodiments of the present invention described below, users are respectively operating the remote computers  270  that are programmed to execute web browser programs, and access the web pages managed by the application server  251  using the web browser programs. The web pages that are displayed to a user are transmitted from the application server  251  to that user&#39;s remote computer and processed by the web browser program stored in that user&#39;s remote computer for display through the monitor of that user&#39;s remote computer. 
       FIG. 3  schematically illustrates the process for tracking changes and updates to content in an online social network and managing the notification of such changes and. Blocks  310 ,  320 ,  330 ,  335 ,  340  represent the operations that are being carried out by the application server  251 . Block  312  represents the user inputs that are made through a browser running on a remote computer and are transmitted over the Internet to the application server  251 . Block  314  represents certain inputs that are made at third party web sites  314 , such as flickr, YouTube, xanga.com, and eBay, and transmitted over the Internet to the application server  251  using an RSS feed. All such inputs are aggregated and stored in a queue  310  that is managed by the application server  251 . 
     The items stored in the queue  310  then undergo a filter process  320  one at a time on a first-in, first-out basis. The filter process  320  examines the items in the queue  310  and supplies them to updated content buckets  330 , which represents a series of memory regions that have been allocated to the users of the online social network. The filter process  320  selectively supplies the items in the queue  310  to the updated content buckets  330  in accordance with rules  335  that have been defined for the users. For example, the filter process  320  selectively supplies the items in the queue  310  to the updated content bucket  330  of user A in accordance with rules  335  that have been defined for user A; the filter process  320  selectively supplies the items in the queue  310  to the updated content bucket  330  of user B in accordance with rules  335  that have been defined for user B; and so forth. For each user, the rules  335  include an identification of those users or groups whose content he or she desires to track and specify the type of content updates or changes that he or she desires to track. By applying these rules to the filter process  320 , the items stored in the queue  310  are stored in an updated content bucket  330  of a user only if such items represent content updates or changes of another user or group that he or she desires to track and are of the type that he or she desires to track. 
     The items stored in the updated content buckets  330  undergo output processing  340 . The output processing  340  is carried out separately for each of the different updated content buckets  330  and in accordance with the rules  335  defined by the user who is associated with the updated content bucket. For each user, the rules  335  specify the frequency of the output processing  340 , and the method of notification, whether by e-mail  342 , a web page  344 , or an RSS feed  346 . 
       FIG. 4A  is a schematic illustration of a web page used to specify notification settings that define the rules  335 . In section  410 , the user selects the type of content updates or changes he or she desires to track. In section  420 , the user specifies those other users or groups whose content he or she desires to track. In section  430 , the user selects the method of notification. In section  440 , the user selects the frequency of notification. In section  450 , the user has the option of turning off all notifications. Certain selections on the web page require the user to supply additional information through the “specify” hyperlink. For example, the user selects from a list of friends, users, bookmarked profiles, or groups in section  420  if one of these options is checked. In certain embodiments, the user is given the option to select all friends who are within 1, 2, or 3 degrees of separation. Also, if the user selects the RSS feed option in section  430 , the user is asked to specify the URL to which the RSS feed will be transmitted and user ID and password that are required to access such URL. 
       FIG. 4B  is a schematic illustration of a web page used to communicate to a user of the changes and updates to content of other users of the online social network. This web page is displayed when the user accesses his or her homepage of the online social network. This means that the user has selected at least the “Home page” option in section  430  of  FIG. 4A . If the user has also selected the “E-mail” option and the “RSS feed” option, the user will be notified of the updates noted below by those methods as well. The first entry indicates that the user, Tammy, added new friends. The second entry indicates that the user, Sarah, received new testimonials. The third entry indicates that the user, Elton, updated his profile. The fourth entry indicates that the group, Giants Fan Club, added new members. These entries indicate that the user has selected at least the first, third, and fourth options in section  410 . They also indicate that the user is tracking the updates of at least Tammy, Sarah, Elton, and the Giants Fan Club. For simplicity, the user is notified of a fixed number of most recent content updates (in this example, 4). The user can view more updates by accessing the hyperlink, “More Friend Updates.” 
       FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating the process steps for filtering changes and updates to content in an online social network. These process steps are carried out by the application server  251  as it is carrying out the operations represented by blocks  310 ,  320  shown in  FIG. 3 , and represents one illustrative way of how changes and updates to content can be processed so that applicable users can be notified of such changes and updates. 
     In step  510 , user inputs that reflect updates and changes to content are received and stored in a queue. The items stored in the queue are then processed one at a time and per user in accordance with steps  514 - 522 . Step  514  represents the beginning of the loop. In this step, an item stored in the queue and a user are selected for processing. Each time through the loop, a next user is selected. If all users have been selected, then the first user and a next item stored in the queue are selected for processing. 
     In step  516 , the selected user&#39;s rules are examined to see if the queue item being processed is of the type that the user is tracking. If it is, the process continues to step  518 . If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop. In step  518 , the selected user&#39;s rules are examined to see if the queue item being processed is an update made by a user or group that the selected user is tracking. If it is, the process continues to step  520 . If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop. In step  520 , the item being processed is stored in the selected user&#39;s updated content bucket. Step  522  checks to see if all items in the queue have been processed for all users. If this condition is true, the process ends. If not, the process returns to the beginning of the loop. 
     While particular embodiments according to the invention have been illustrated and described above, those skilled in the art understand that the invention can take a variety of forms and embodiments within the scope of the appended claims.