Personalizing a web page outside of a social networking system with content from the social networking system selected based on global information

A method comprising:

• receiving at a server of a social networking system a request for information based on an instruction in a markup language document, wherein the request for information is responsive to a request for a web page of a third-party website that is within a domain of a third-party website that is different from a domain of the social networking system, and the request indicates to select the requested information based on one or more actions stored by the social networking system;
• identifying a user associated with the request by accessing a cookie stored on a user device from which the request was received;
• determining whether the user has an existing session with the social networking system;
• responsive to determining the user does not have an existing session with the social networking system, determining the requested information based on social information associated with the user based on actions stored by the social networking system and describing interactions taken by all users of the social networking;
• sending the requested information as content displayed within the web page;
• responsive to receiving a request from the user to establish a session with the social networking system, determining modified information based on social information associated with the user based on social information associated with the user, the modified information comprising a set of content items that relate to (a) one or more actions performed by one or more other users with whom the user has established a connection in the social networking system and (2) at least one specified URL or domain;
• and
• sending the modified information for display as content within the web page in place of the requested information.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having encoded thereon:

• content from a third-party website, the third party web site different from a domain of a social networking system;
• instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
• request information from the social networking system by sending an instruction to the social networking system to select the requested information based on one or more actions stored by the social networking system;
• provide to the social networking system an indication of whether a user associated with a user device including the processor has an existing session with the social networking system by allowing the social networking system to access a cookie stored on the user device including the processor;
• receive the requested information from the social networking system, wherein the received requested information was determined by the social networking system based on actions stored by the social networking system and describing interactions taken by all users of the social networking system responsive to the indication provided to the social networking system specifying the user does not have an existing session with the social networking system;
• render a web page including the content from the domain of a third-party website that is different from a domain of the social networking system and also including content rendered from the requested information received from the social networking system, and
• display the rendered web page on the user device.