Patent ID: 8874612

Claim:
A method comprising, by one or more computer systems of an online social network: receiving a request to access a web page associated with a first user of the online social network from a second user of an online social network, the online social network comprising a graph structure defining relationships between users, the graph structure comprising a plurality of nodes and information defining connections between the nodes, wherein each node corresponds to a particular user and a profile page of the particular user, and wherein a degree of separation between any two nodes is a minimum number of connection hops required to traverse the graph structure from one node to the other, wherein the first and second users are separated by a single degree of separation in the graph structure, and wherein the second user is associated with tracking preferences; in response to the request, accessing, at a first time, the web page associated with the first user of the online social network, the web page comprising: a first content associated with the first user; an identifier of a web site that is external to the online social network and an identifier of a uniform resource locator (URL) specifying a first feed for receiving updated content from the web site; and a timer specifying a minimum lifetime for accessing cached content from the first feed; accessing a cached content from the first feed, wherein the cached content was last updated at a second time; determining the last time content from the first feed was updated based on the first time and the second time; if the last time content from the first feed was updated was before the minimum lifetime, then updating the web page associated with the first user to include the cached content; else, accessing the first feed for the web site, wherein the first feed comprises updated content from the web site, and updating the web page associated with the first user to include the updated content; and sending a notification to the second user that the web page associated with the first has updated content if the updated content is a type of content that substantially matches the tracking preferences.