Social circles in social networks

A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• serving one or more web page documents to a client computing device operated by a user, each document containing instructions for a browser application to perform client-side operations, comprising:
• receiving, from a client computing device, information descriptive of a selection by a user of a first group of one or more social networking contacts of the user;
• receiving, from the client computing device, information descriptive of a selection by the user of a group type for the first group, wherein the selected group type is either a shared private social circle type or a shared public social circle type;
• populating, based on the received information descriptive of the selection of the group type for the first group, a shared social circle with the first group of social networking contacts;
• if the selected group type is a shared private circle type, then:
• classifying the shared social circle as a shared private social circle;
• and
• processing the populated shared social circle to provide an access control list which specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts are granted access to a collection of one or more digital content items of digital content shared by contacts in the first group and distributed for display to contacts in the first group across the network, and the access control list specifies that contacts not in the first group of social networking contacts are not granted permission to access the digital content item collection;
• and
• if the selected group type is a shared public circle type, then:
• classifying the shared social circle as a shared public social circle;
• and
• processing the populated shared social circle to provide an access control list which specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts and contacts outside the first group of contacts are granted access to a collection of one or more digital content items of digital content shared by contacts in the first group and distributed for display across the network, and the access control list specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts are granted permission to contribute to the collection, and the access control list specifies that contacts not in the first group of social networking contacts are not granted permission to contribute to the digital content item collection;
• wherein the shared public social circle type and the shared private social circle type are mutually exclusive.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• serving one or more web page documents to a client computing device operated by a user, each document containing instructions for a browser application to perform client-side operations, comprising:
• receiving, from a client computing device, information descriptive of a selection by the user of a first group of one or more social networking contacts of the user;
• receiving, from the client computing device, information descriptive of a selection by the user of the group type for the first group, wherein the selected group type is either a shared private social circle type or a shared public social circle type, but not both;
• populating, based on the received information descriptive of the selection of the group type for the first group, a shared social circle with the first group of social networking contacts;
• if the selected group type is a shared private circle type, then:
• classifying the shared social circle as a shared private social circle;
• and
• processing the populated shared social circle to provide an access control list which specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts are granted access to a collection of one or more digital content items of digital content shared by contacts in the first group and distributed for display to contacts in the first group across the network, and the access control list specifies that contacts not in the first group of social networking contacts are not granted permission to access the digital content item collection;
• and
• if the selected group type is a shared public circle type, then:
• classifying the shared social circle as a shared public social circle;
• and
• processing the populated shared social circle to provide an access control list which specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts and contacts outside the first group of contacts are granted access to a collection of one or more digital content items of digital content shared by contacts in the first group and distributed for display across the network, and the access control list specifies that contacts in the first group of social networking contacts are granted permission to contribute to the collection, and the access control list specifies that contacts not in the first group of social networking contacts are not granted permission to contribute to the digital content item collection.