Patent Grant
9253196
The disclosed embodiments relate generally to social networking. More particularly, the disclosed embodiments relate to access control for content in a social network.
Computers and mobile devices, such as mobile phones, have become increasingly interconnected due to the widespread availability of wired and wireless connections to communications networks such as the Internet. This interconnectivity has enabled ways for people to communicate with people far and near and to maintain social and professional bonds.
A popular means of communication that takes advantage of the interconnectivity are web-based social network applications. In such social network applications, a user can post a variety of comments, from short messages or comments about his status or activities or just about anything, to photos and videos and articles of interest. Users can find other users that they know or with whom they share interests and become followers of each others' postings. As such, social network applications offer their users opportunities to communicate and connect with each other through their social bonds and/or common interests. At the same time, a user in a social network may have different social circles and wish to keep the social circles separate. Content posted by the user for one social network circle may be irrelevant to or inappropriate for access by another social network circle.
In accordance with some embodiments, a method is performed at a client system. The method includes concurrently displaying a content item area and access control list (ACL) information corresponding to an access control list of distribution entities; receiving, from a user of the client system, input in the content item area, the input including a content item; presenting to the client system user an affordance that enables the client system user to update the access control list to produce an updated access control list including one or more distribution entities, at least one distribution entity of the one or more distribution entities corresponding to one or more recipient entities; and transmitting the content item and access control list to a server system for storing the content item in conjunction with the access control list. The server system enables access to the content item to one or more recipient entities in accordance with the access control list.
These and other embodiments can include one or more of the following features. In the method, a respective recipient entity may be an individual user. The method may include receiving, from the client system user, input updating the access control list to produce an updated access control list, and prior to receiving the input updating the access control list, the access control list may be empty. The method may include receiving, from the client system user, input updating the access control list to produce an updated access control list, and prior to receiving the input updating the access control list, the access control list may be an initial access control list that includes one or more distribution entities. The one or more distribution entities included in the initial access control list may includes one or more distribution entities in an access control list associated with a most recent prior content item input by the client system user.
In the method, a respective distribution entity corresponding to the displayed access control list information may be represented by a displayed graphical object. The method may include distributing the content item to one or more of the recipient entities to whom access has been enabled. Optionally, a respective distribution entity may be a social network circle of one or more recipient entities, the client system user may be a member of a social network, the one or more recipient entities in the social network circle may include an individual user who is not a member of the social network, and distributing the content may include sending an email message to the individual user who is not a member of the social network, the email message including the content item or a location of the content item.
Optionally, a respective distribution entity is a single recipient entity, the client system user is a member of a social network, the single recipient entity is an individual user who is not a member of the social network, and distributing the content item includes sending an email message to the individual user who is not a member of the social network, the email message including the content item or a location of the content item.
Optionally, the client system user is a member of a social network, and a respective distribution entity is a social network circle of one or more recipient entities. Further, the one or more recipient entities in the social network circle may include an individual user who is a member of the social network. Optionally, the one or more recipient entities in the social network circle may include an individual user who is not a member of the social network. Optionally, the respective distribution entity is a set of one or more social network circles, each social network circle having one or more recipient entities. Optionally, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with the client system user and one or more recipient entities associated with a respective recipient entity associated with the client system user. Optionally, a respective distribution entity is a domain, the domain including one or more recipient entities. Optionally, a respective distribution entity is a single recipient entity, the single recipient entity being an individual user. Further, the client system user and the individual user may both be members of a social network. Alternatively, the client system user may be a member of a social network, while the individual user is not a member of the social network.
Optionally, a respective distribution entity is a content feed associated with the client system user. The method may further include receiving from the client system user input providing credentials to access the content feed.
Optionally, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with a specified geographical region. Optionally, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with a specified institution.
In accordance with some embodiments, a client system includes one or more processors, memory, and one or more programs; the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors and the one or more programs include instructions for performing the operations of the method described above. In accordance with some embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium has stored therein one or more programs including instructions which, when executed by a client system, cause the client system to perform the operations of the method described above. These and other embodiments can include one or more of the additional features listed above.
Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the drawings.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the various embodiments may be practiced without many of these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, circuits, and networks have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments.
It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first contact could be termed a second contact, and, similarly, a second contact could be termed a first contact. The first contact and the second contact are both contacts, but they are not the same contact.
The terminology used in the description herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the claims. As used in the description of the embodiments and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof
As used herein, the term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “in response to detecting,” that a stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined [that a stated condition precedent is true]” or “if [a stated condition precedent is true]” or “when [a stated condition precedent is true]” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “upon detecting” or “in response to detecting” that the stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context.
In some embodiments, the client devices 104-1, 104-2 . . . 104-N can be computing devices such as laptop or desktop computers, smart phones, personal digital assistants, portable media players, tablet computers, or other appropriate computing devices that can be used to communicate with an electronic social network. In some embodiments, the social network server system 108 can be a single computing device such as a computer server, while in other embodiments, server system 108 is implemented by multiple computing devices working together to perform the actions of a server system (e.g., cloud computing). In some implementations, the network(s) 106 can be a public communication network (e.g., the Internet, cellular data network, dialup modems over a telephone network) or a private communications network (e.g., private LAN, leased lines) or a combination of such communication networks.
Users 102-1 through 102-N of the client devices 104-1 through 104-N access the social network server system 108 to participate in a social networking service. For example, one or more of the client devices 104-1, 104-2 . . . 104-N execute web browser applications that can be used to access the social networking service. In another example, one or more of the client devices 104-1, 104-2 . . . 104-N execute software applications that are specific to the social networking service (e.g., social networking “apps” running on smart phones).
Users interacting with the client devices 104-1, 104-2 . . . 104-N can participate in the social networking service provided by the server system 108 by posting information, such as text comments (e.g., updates, announcements, replies, notes, tweets), digital photos, videos, or other appropriate electronic information. Users of the social networking service can also annotate information posted by other users of the social networking service (e.g., endorsing or “liking” a posting, commenting on a posting). In some embodiments, information can be posted on a user's behalf by systems and/or services external to the social networking service or the server system 108. For example, the user may post a review of a movie to a movie review website, and with proper permissions that website may cross-post the review to the social network on the user's behalf. In another example, a software application executing on a mobile device, with proper permissions, may use global positioning system (GPS) capabilities to determine the user's location and automatically update the social network with his location (e.g., “At Home”, “At Work”, “In Brownsdale, MN”).
The information posted by users 102 to the social networking service may include content posted directly into the social networking service (e.g., text comment entered into a text entry field of the social networking service, photos uploaded from client systems 104 to the social network server system 108, etc.). The posted information may also include links to content external to the social networking service or external content embedded into a posting in the social networking service. In some embodiments, the external content is located at content hosts 110. For example, the external content may be articles (or more generally, web pages) hosted outside of the social networking service or online videos hosted by a video sharing site external to the social networking service. In some embodiments, the social network server system 108 may retrieve all or parts of the external content from content host 108 in order to generate information (e.g., article snippet and other information, sample frame of video, video information) to help users identify the external content.
Users interacting with the client devices 104-1, 104-2 . . . 104-N can also use the social network provided by the server system 108 to define social network circles, in order to organize and categorize the user's relationships to other users of the social networking service and to regulate which users in the social networking service and beyond will have access to information posted to the social networking service by the user.
In some embodiments, the social network server system 108 may communicate with one or more third party services 112 through the network 106. Examples of third-party services include other social networking services and microblogging services. The social network server system 108 communicates with a third-party service 112 using one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) corresponding to the third party service 112. For example, the social network server system 108 may communicate with a third-party service 112 to post content to a content feed at the third-party service.
Social circle 210 is a personal circle. In some embodiments, personal circles are groupings created by and known only to the user 202 (e.g., the contacts 204-A, 204-B receive no indication that they are in the user's 202 private social circle 210). In some embodiments, personal circles are groupings created by the user 202 and known to the user 202 as well as the contacts (e.g., contacts 204-A, 204-B) that are members of the social circle (e.g., the contacts 204-A, 204-B receive an indication that they have been added to the private social circle 210).
In some embodiments, private circles are used to organize and categorize the contacts 204-A-204-H in ways that are relevant to the user 202. In some embodiments, user 202 uses personal circles to organize contacts in order to discretely target which of his contacts 204-A-204-H will see certain postings or have access to particular information. For example, user 202 may be politically active and tend to post items that would be appreciated by some contacts and vigorously opposed by others. As such, the user can organize his contacts into “Left Political Philosophy Friends” and “Right Political Philosophy Friends” personal circles. By doing so, user 202 may better target selected postings to the people who would be most appreciative of such information, or conversely, may prevent contacts (e.g., a subset of contacts 204-A-204-H) who may be offended by such information from seeing such information.
Social circle 220 is a shared private circle, which may also be referred to simply as a shared circle. In general, shared private circles are social circles that user 202 creates and invites, rather than assigns, contacts to voluntarily join. Contacts that accept the invitation become members of the shared private circle. Members of a shared private circle can see information posted to that circle by the user 202 and can post information to be shared with other members of the shared private circle. For example, user 202 may tend to post a large number of jokes to the social network. However, while some of the contacts 204-A-204-H may find the jokes to be entertaining, others may simply find them to be simply annoying. Realizing this, user 202 may create a “jokes” shared private circle and invite some or all of the contacts 204-A-204-H to join. With the “jokes” social circle in place, the user 202 may post witticisms to the “jokes” circle, and only those contacts who have accepted the invitation are able to see user's 202 comicality. Similarly, members of the shared private circle are able to post messages to the social circle, and those posts are visible to other members of that circle.
Social circle 230 is a shared public circle. In general, shared public circles are social circles that the user 202 creates, and invites, rather than assigns, contacts to voluntarily join. Further, the existence of a shared public circle is publicly available such that other members of the social networking service (e.g., not necessarily just the user's 202 contacts 204-A-204-H) may request to join the public social circle. Members of shared public circles may post information to, and see updates posted by, other members of the same public shared circle. In some embodiments, public shares circles include “fan” or “group” circles (e.g., circles dedicated to a particular place, event, product, movie, celebrity, sports team, company, concept, philosophy, organization, support network, etc.). For example, the user 202 may create a shared public circle for his band, and fans of his act may join the social circle to discuss upcoming shows, download MP3s of the band's music, or post videos from recent concerts. In another example, user 202 may create a shared public circle for alumni of his high school graduating class, which his former classmates may find and join in order to stay in touch with one another and post pictures from their school days. Once a shared public circle is created, in some embodiments user 202 can invite people to join the social circle. In some embodiments, nonmembers of the social circle can request membership in the shared public circle, and membership in a shared public circle is automatic upon request, or alternatively membership requires the user's 202 approval.
In some embodiments, one or more default social circles can be provided or suggested to a user when the user subscribes to a social networking service. For example, “Friends,” “Family,” and “Coworkers” social circles can automatically be provided in a user's profile upon the user subscribing to the particular social networking service. Other social circles can automatically be provided including, for example, an “Acquaintances” social circle and/or a “Just following” social circle. In some embodiments, the automatically created or suggested social circles can include personal social circles. Although default social circles can be automatically provided, it may be left to the user to actually populate the default social circles with contacts. For example, each of the default social circles may initially be empty of contacts, and the user populates each of the default social circles as discussed in further detail herein.
In some embodiments, one or more default social circles can be automatically generated based on the user's profile information. For example, the user's profile may include demographic data (e.g., age), job data and/or interests data (e.g., sports, hobbies). Through data mining techniques (e.g., clustering social circle creations over a threshold number of users), a provider of the social networking service may determine that users within a particular demographic typically create one or more particular types of social circles. By categorizing a user within a particular demographic, the provider of the social networking service can suggest or automatically generate one or more particular default social circles. For example, if a particular user falls within a demographic that corresponds to a high school student, a default “School Friends” social circle is suggested to or automatically created for the user. As another example, if a particular user falls within a demographic that corresponds to a college student, a default “College Friends” social circle is suggested to or automatically created for the user. Social circles can also be suggested or created based on interest data provided in a user's profile. For example, if a particular user's interests include skiing, a default “Ski Buddies” social circle may be suggested to or automatically created for the user.
As discussed herein, posts can be distributed to contacts within (and in some embodiments, also to recipients not within) the social network including one or more social circles, such that they are exclusively viewable by the indicated contacts and/or contacts within one or more indicated social circles. For example, and as discussed in further detail below with regard to
The social circles, contacts, groups, etc. that the user includes in the ACL of a post are sometimes herein referred to as distribution entities. Thus, an ACL may include one or more distribution entities. In some embodiments, a distribution entity is a set of one or more social circles or a set of one or more contacts or a set of one o more groups. For example, a distribution entity may be a social circle (e.g., a “friends” circle) or a set of the user's circles (e.g., “my circles”). As another example, a distribution entity may be an individual contact or the user's first and second degree contacts (e.g., the user's “friends” and “friends of friends”). As a further example, a distribution entity may be contacts that list a particular university as an affiliation or everybody in the social networking service. The contacts that are the ultimate distributive targets of a post by virtue of belonging to a distribution entity in the ACL are sometimes herein referred to as recipient entities.
Memory 312 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 312 may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located from the processor(s) 302. Memory 312, or alternatively the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory 312, comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 312 or the computer readable storage medium of memory 312 stores the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
In some embodiments, the social network module 328 is a standalone application separate from the web browser module 326. For example, social network module 328 may be an “app” on a smart phone client device 104. In some embodiments, the social network module 328 includes a web browser sub-module (e.g., for browsing external web pages linked to in a post without opening a separate web browser module).
Memory 412 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 412 may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located from the processor(s) 402. Memory 412, or alternatively the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory 412, comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 412 or the computer readable storage medium of memory 412 stores the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
The social network server system 108 typically includes a database 340 for storing and accessing posted content. As shown in
Social network module 426 utilizes posted content database 340 to determine what items to include in a content stream 502 (
The content stream 502 includes a number of posts 504-A thru 504-B. In some embodiments, the content stream 502 can include posts that are automatically selected based on the user's preferences and/or web history. For example, the post 504-B is a post that was selected and presented to the user based on the user's expressed interest in music videos. A banner 506 explains to the user why the post 504-B was presented to him, and an edit link 508 when selected presents an interface with which the user can interact to modify the criteria that are used to control the presentation of automatic posts.
A “latest” selector 510, when selected, causes the posts 504-A thru 504-B to be arranged chronologically (e.g., arranged by length of time elapsed since they were posted). A “best” selector 512, when selected, causes the posts 504-A thru 504-B to be arranged by quality. Optionally, when the best selector 512 is selected, the posts included in the user's content stream are also selected in accordance with predefined quality criteria, thereby excluding posts having low estimated relevance to the user. In some embodiments, the quality of posts is determined by the user's relationship to the author of the post, the reputation of the author, the number of other people who read, endorsed, commented on, or shared the post, how well the subject matter of the post aligns with the user's preferences or interests, or other appropriate criteria that can be used to estimate a post's relevance to the user. In some embodiments, a stream arranged according to the estimated relevancies of the posts it includes can be called a “perfect stream.” The page 500 also includes a post input area 514. The user can click on the post input area 514, indicating intent to post something to the social network.
The post region 550 includes a sharing region 560. In some embodiments, the sharing region 560 provides an interface that lets the user determine the visibility of a post he is authoring, i.e., specify an ACL for the post. For example, the user may add or remove contacts, social circles, groups, or other distribution entities from the sharing region to specify an ACL for controlling who is allowed to see (or otherwise access) the post. In the illustrated example, a “Friends” icon 562-A and a “Family” icon 562-B appear in the sharing region 560 to indicate that the post is intended to be shared with only contacts that are members of the user's friends and/or family social circles; the ACL includes the “Friends” circle and the “Family” circle. In some embodiments, icons (e.g., icons 562) that represent distribution entities (e.g., social circles, a set of social circles, other groupings of contacts, individual contacts, etc.) may be referred to as “chips.” An add link 564 (also herein called an affordance), when selected, presents an interface in which the user is able to select people and or circles to be added to the sharing region 560. Each of the icons 562-A and 562-B includes a remove button 566 that removes the corresponding icon from the sharing region, and the corresponding distribution entity from the ACL of the post, when the button 566 is activated. An icon 562 corresponding to a social circle or a set of social circles may include a count indicator 568 that displays the number of contacts in the corresponding circle or set of circles.
In some embodiments, when the user selects the post input area 514 to initiate a post, the sharing region 560 is initially populated with one or more icons 562. The icons 562 in the initial population are the icons 562 that were included in the ACL of the last post posted by the user. In some other embodiments, the sharing region 560 is initially empty (i.e., no icon 562) when the user selects the post input area 514.
A selector 570 provides the user with a way to indicate whether the post should be shared through email to contacts who are not members of the social networking service. For example, the user's family social circle may include contacts who have email addresses but who are not members of the social networking service (e.g., his grandmother receives email through a non-web capable cell phone, or through a fixed purpose email appliance that is incapable of giving her access to the social networking service). By toggling the selector 570, the user can choose whether or not the post should be sent by email to those nonmembers. An example of a post that the user may not wish to send by email can be a link to a video, since the user's aforementioned grandmother may not be able to view the video on her non-web capable equipment. A count indicator 572 displays the number of contacts who, from among the selections of distribution entities chosen by the user and displayed in the sharing region 560, are not members of the social networking service and would therefore receive an emailed version of the post if the user so chooses.
A post button 574, when selected, causes the newly authored post to be published to the social networking service and made accessible to only those contacts that are members of the distribution entities chosen by the user and displayed in the sharing region 560. A close button 576, when selected, cancels the authoring of a post and closes the post region 550.
A sharing menu 580 is also displayed when the user selects the add link 564. The sharing menu 580 shows the authoring user's circles, groups, etc. that are selectable for inclusion in the sharing region 560 and not already in the sharing region 560. For example, the sharing menu 580 includes “My circles,” which is a distribution entity that includes all of the authoring user's circles (except for a “Just following” circle). The sharing menu 580 also includes one or more social circles not already included in the sharing region 560 (e.g., “Book club,” “Acquaintances,” “Church”). As another example, the sharing menu 580 also includes the distribution entity “Anyone (public on the web),” which makes the post publicly accessible, and the distribution entity “Extended network,” which makes the post accessible to first degree contacts of the user and second degree contacts of the user (e.g., contacts within the networks of the contacts in the user's network). As a further example, the sharing menu 580 includes recent combinations of distribution entities to whom the user has recently shared posts. For example, the user's most recent posts were shared with, in one instance, “My circles” and John Johnson, and in another instance, the “Friends” circle and the “Family” circle and John Smith. In some embodiments, the list of recent combinations is displayed as empty when the distribution entities in the list are all already in the sharing region 560. The user may select any of the distribution entities or combinations of distribution entities in the sharing menu 580 to add the selected distribution entity or combination to the sharing region 560.
When the user is finished adding and/or removing distribution entities from the ACL, the user may select (e.g., click on) an area outside of the sharing region 560 to complete the adding and removing of icons 526 to/from the sharing region 560.
The selector 570, as described above, provides the user with a way to indicate whether the post should be shared through email to contacts who are not members of the social networking service. Optionally, selector 570 is accompanied by a change link 584. When the user selects the change link 584, the user may further refine the sharing of the post through email. For example, an email sharing dialog 586 (
In some embodiments, if the distributive entity is an individual (e.g., “Tim Tam” 588-3), a checkbox 594 is shown. The user checks the checkbox 594 to confirm “Tim Tam” as a recipient for the email sharing the post, or unchecks the checkbox 594 to remove “Tim Tam” as a recipient for the email.
When the user has completed selecting the emailing options and recipient choices, the user may select the submit button 596 to save the selections or select the cancel button 598 to discard any changes to the selections.
Returning to
When the user selects the “Third-party service” entity, the user is prompted for authorization credentials for accessing a content feed (e.g., a content stream associated with the user's account) at the third party service. An example of a dialog box for entering the authorization credentials is illustrated in
In some embodiments, the social networking service is a service provided for members of an organization or domain external to the social network server system 108 (e.g., within a private corporate network) (hereinafter “domain” for convenience). A user within the domain may be a member of the social networking service and may have within his social network contacts within the domain and contacts outside the domain.
In some embodiments, the user within the “XYZ Company” domain may also share content with contacts outside of the domain. For example, the “Friends” icon 562-L corresponds to a “Friends” circle that includes contacts outside of the domain. In some embodiments, the “Friends” icon 562-L is differentiated from the “Friends” icon 562-A in a social networking service that is not domain-specific by different coloring of the icons (e.g., as represented by the vertical lines on the icon 562-L) or other visual indicia; the differentiated visual presentation of the icons alerts the user of the need to use caution when sharing content with contacts outside of the domain (for fear of exposing sensitive information).
In some embodiments, when a mouse pointer or the like hovers over an icon 562, an information pop-up is displayed. The pop-up displays information about the distribution entity corresponding to the hovered-over icon 562. For example, when a mouse pointer hovers over the “Friends” icon 562-L, a pop-up 5108 (
In some embodiments, when the social networking service is provided for a domain, the user is in the domain, and the distribution entity corresponding to the icon 562 includes non-member contacts, the pop-up includes a message 5110 alerting the user that the entity includes contacts outside of the domain. Additional example of entity information pop-ups are described below, with reference to
In some embodiments, when the user submits the post for posting, and the sharing region includes a distribution entity that includes one or more contacts outside of the domain, a posting confirmation dialog 5112 (
As described above, in some embodiments, when a mouse pointer or the like hovers over an icon 562, an information pop-up is displayed. The pop-up displays information about the distribution entity corresponding to the hovered-over icon 562.
In some embodiments, pop-ups 5116, 5118, and 5120 are displayed for icons 562 corresponding to the entities “Extended network,” “My circles,” and “Anyone (public on the web),” respectively. Each of these pop-ups 5116, 5118, and 5120 include a name 5109-A and a description 5109-C.
In some embodiments, pop-up 5122 is displayed when a mouse pointer hovers over an icon 562 corresponding to an individual contact who is a member of the social networking service. The pop-up 5122 includes information on the contact, such as circles in which the contact is a member, mutual contacts with the user, and status updates. The user may also access, from the pop-up 5122, one or more modalities for communicating with the user, such as chat, email, and voice.
In some embodiments, if the contact is not a member of the social networking service, pop-up 5124 or 5126 is displayed. Pop-up 5124 includes an email address of the contact. In some implementations, pop-up 5124 or 5126 includes a link 5125 which, when selected by a user, activates sending of an invitation to the contact to join the social networking service at the email address of the contact. In some implementations, if the contact's name is known, pop-up 5124 may be displayed. If the contact's name is not known, pop-up 5126 may be displayed instead.
The visibility preview 5128 includes an access control list 5132 that displays icons 562 corresponding to the distribution entities that have permission to view the post 504-C. In some embodiments, the recipient list 5132 can initially include the distribution entities selected by the user in the sharing region 560 (for example,
In some embodiments, an icon 562 includes a graphic that visually indicates the type of distribution entity to which the icon corresponds. The graphic may be different for a personal circle, a shared circle, a domain, and different types of groups (e.g., “anyone,” “extended network,” “my circles”).
A client system concurrently displays a content item area and access control list information corresponding to an access control list of distribution entities (602). A user, viewing a content stream 502 in a social networking page 500 (
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity corresponding to the displayed access control list information is represented by a displayed graphical object (604). A distribution entity in the access control list is represented by an icon 562 displayed in the sharing region 560.
The client system receives, from a user of the client system, input in the content item area, the input comprising a content item (606). The user may input a content item in the input box 552. The user may input, for example, a textual message (e.g., a status update), one or more photos, a link to external content (e.g., a web page), or embed a video from an external source (e.g., a video sharing site).
The client system presents to the client system user an affordance that enables the client system user to update the access control list to produce an updated access control list comprising one or more distribution entities, at least one distribution entity of the one or more distribution entities corresponding to one or more recipient entities (608). An add link 564 may be displayed in the sharing region 560. When the user selects the add link 564, the user may add and/or remove icons 562 to/from the sharing region 560 to produce an updated access control list.
A distribution entity, represented by an icon 562, may be a social circle, an individual, or a group, for example, and correspond to one or more recipient entities. In some embodiments, a respective recipient entity is an individual user (e.g., a contact) (610). Ultimately, a distribution entity corresponds to at least one individual contact; the contact may be the distribution entity (when the entity is the individual contact) or a member of a distribution entity (e.g., when the entity is a social circle or a group).
In some embodiments, the client system receives, from the client system user, input updating the access control list to produce an updated access control list (618) (
In some embodiments, prior to receiving the input updating the access control list, the access control list is empty (612). The user populates the access control list by adding icons 562. In some other embodiments, prior to receiving the input updating the access control list, the access control list includes an initial access control list that includes one or more distribution entities (614) (represented by corresponding icons 562). In some embodiments, the one or more distribution entities included in the initial access control list includes one or more distribution entities in an access control list associated with a most recent prior content item input by the client system user (616). That is, the initial access control list is the same as the access control list for the last content post by the user.
The client system transmits the content item and access control list to a server system for storing the content item in conjunction with the access control list; the server system enables access to the content item to one or more recipient entities in accordance with the access control list (620). When the user submits the post with the content item (e.g., by selecting the post button 574), the post and the access control list are transmitted to a social network server system 108 and stored there (e.g., at a data store). The social network server system 108 makes the post available to one or more contacts in accordance with the access control list (e.g., in content streams, by email).
In some embodiments, the content item is distributed from the server system to one or more of the recipient entities to whom access has been enabled (622). The post is distributed to contacts in the distribution entities in the access control list for the post. For example, the post is shared with contacts in the distribution entities in respective content streams and/or by email.
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity is a social circle having one or more recipient entities (624). In some circumstances, the client system user is a member of a social network, and the one or more recipient entities in the social circle include an individual user who is not a member of the social network (626). In some implementations, distributing the content item from the server system includes sending an email message to the individual user who is not a member of the social network, the email message including the content item or a location of the content item (628). As described above with reference to
In some circumstances, a respective distribution entity is a single recipient entity (630), the client system user is a member of a social network, and the single recipient entity is an individual user who is not a member of the social network (632). In some implementations, distributing the content item from the server system comprises sending an email message to the individual user who is not a member of the social network, the email message comprising the content item or a location of the content item (634). An individual contact may be added as a distributive entity (e.g., icon 562-D,
In some circumstances, the client system user is a member of a social network, and a respective distribution entity is a social circle of one or more recipient entities (636). As described above, the user authoring the post is a member of the social networking service and may have one or more associated social circles. A respective social circle may include one or more contacts and may be added as a distribution entity to the access control list.
In some circumstances, the one or more recipient entities in the social circle include an individual user who is a member of the social network (638). In some circumstances, the one or more recipient entities in the social circle include an individual user who is not a member of the social network (640). A contact in a social circle may be a member of the social networking service or not; a social circle may include members and non-members of the social networking service.
In some implementations, the respective distribution entity is a set of one or more social circles, each social circle having one or more recipient entities (642). A set of one or more social circles may be added as a distribution entity to the access control list as a shortcut to add multiple circles. For example, icon 562-E (
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with the client system user and one or more recipient entities associated with a respective recipient entity associated with the client system user (644). For example, an “extended network” distribution entity (e.g., “Extended network” icon 562-F,
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity is a domain, the domain including one or more recipient entities (646). As described above, a social networking service may be provided for users in an organization or domain (e.g., a private corporate network). The domain (e.g., icon 562-K,
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity is a single recipient entity, the single recipient entity being an individual user (648). An individual contact may be added as a distributive entity to the access control list. For example, “Tim Tam” icon 562-D (
In some circumstances, the client system user and the individual user are both members of a social network (650). In some other circumstances, the client system user is a member of a social network, and the individual user is not a member of the social network (652). An individual contact as a distributive entity may be a member of the social networking service, like the user authoring the post, or a non-member of the social networking service. Either type of contact may be a distributive entity in the access control list.
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity is a content feed associated with the client system user (654). A content feed (e.g., a content stream in another social networking service, a microblog consisting of short textual messages, etc.) associated with the user and provided by a third-party service may be a distributive entity in the access control list. The post may be shared with the content feed (i.e., posted in the content feed) using one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) corresponding to the third party service. To get authorized access to the feed, the client system receives, from the client system user, input providing credentials to access the content feed (656). When the user adds a third-party service content feed to the access control list, the user is prompted for login credentials for the third-party service (e.g., credentials dialog box 5102,
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with a specified geographical region (658). A user may add a geographic region (e.g., a city) as a distributive entity (e.g., icon 562-H,
In some embodiments, a respective distribution entity includes one or more recipient entities associated with a specified institution (660). A user may add an institution (e.g., a university, a company, an organization) as a distributive entity (e.g., icon 562-I,
For situations in which the systems discussed above collect information about users, the users may be provided with an opportunity to opt in/out of programs or features that may collect personal information (e.g., information about a user's preferences or a user's contributions to social content providers). In addition, in some examples, certain data may be anonymized in one or more ways before it is stored or used, so that personally identifiable information is removed. For example, a user's identity may be anonymized so that the personally identifiable information cannot be determined or associated for the user and so that identified user preferences or user interactions are generalized (for example, generalized based on user demographics) rather than associated with a particular user.
Although some of various drawings illustrate a number of logical stages in a particular order, stages which are not order dependent may be reordered and other stages may be combined or broken out. While some reordering or other groupings are specifically mentioned, others will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art and so do not present an exhaustive list of alternatives. Moreover, it should be recognized that the stages could be implemented in hardware, firmware, software or any combination thereof
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular uses contemplated. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the claims to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings.
This application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/360,279, filed Jan. 27, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application also claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/436,951, filed Jan. 27, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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| Child | 14811693 | US |
