System and Method for Managing Information Flow Between Members of an Online Social Network
AssigneeFacebook, Inc.
InventorsNicholas Galbreath, Christopher Lunt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An online social network is provided in which members of the online social network control who may view their personal information and who may communicate with them. The members control who may view their personal information by setting a visibility preference. A member may not view another member's full personal profile if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the visibility preference of the other member. The members also control who may communicate with them by setting a contactability preference. A member may not communicate with another member if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the contactability preference of the other member.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving member profile information through an interface, wherein the member profile information includes personal information of a member;
- receiving contact information through the interface, wherein the contact information determines a flow of member information to other members in the social network and a flow of information to the member;
- identifying relationship information with other members in the social network based on member profile information and contact information;
- and
- updating a member database with the member profile information, contact information, and the identified relationship information.
A computer system in an online social network, comprising:
- a database for storing member profile information received through an interface, wherein the member profile information includes personal information of a member, and for storing contact information received through the interface, wherein the contact information determine flow of member information to other members in the social network and flow of information to the member;
- and
- a processing unit configured to identify relationship information with other members in the social network based on the member profile information and contact information stored in the database, and for updating the database with the member profile information, contact information, and the identified relationship information.
A method comprising:
- receiving a search query from a first user associated with a social network, the search query requesting profile information for other users associated with the social network;
- identifying one or more users associated with the social network based on the search query;
- and
- transmitting profile information for the identified one or more users.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.