Abstract: Techniques are provided for minimizing latency due to garbage collection in a distributed system. Time data is stored at a computing device. The time data indicates when each of multiple computing nodes (e.g., servers) in the distributed system might be performing (or is scheduled to perform) a garbage collection operation. The computing device receives a first request and, in response, determines, based on the time data, one or more computing nodes to process a second (e.g., related) request, which may contain identical content as in the first request. The second request is sent to the one or more computing nodes.

Abstract: A method and system to suggest keywords to a social network member is described. A suggested keywords system, in one example embodiment, examines phrases that appear in profiles maintained by the on-line social networking system that are similar to the target profile and identifies those words and phrases that are most prominent in these profiles, utilizing discriminative strength values. These most prominent words and phrases may be presented to the target member as suggested keywords to be included in the member's professional summary.

Abstract: A network update interface is presented to a user on a network to display network updates from other users of a mutual social-networking site. The network updates shared by the other users are gathered in a stream and supplied to a facet-filtering system including a network update interface. The user controls the display of certain network update items according to facet-filter characteristics enabled in facet-filter selection panels in the network update interface. The facet-filter characteristics are used by a facet filter to select certain network updates for display to the user in the network update interface. Trending links to further articles with content corresponding to the facet-filter characteristics are displayed to the user according to greatest popularity among the other users. Links to the profiles of the users sharing the articles are also provided in the network update interface.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for using distinctive signals associated with an electronic device to authenticate or validate a cookie or other identifier issued to the device from a website or other source. When the device receives content (e.g., a web page) from the source, it also receives code for collecting the signals, which is executed when the content is rendered. The device transmits the signals to the source or other specified destination, where they may be processed (e.g., hashed) and retained. Upon subsequent access to content from the source, signals are again collected, transmitted to the source, and compared with those that were previously retained. If the current signals do not match the retained signals, the current device may be spoofing the valid/original device, and the source may take appropriate action (e.g., prevent some activity, require further authentication). Matching may be performed online and/or offline.

Abstract: A method of storing data items included in an email message for access by a user in conjunction with an accessing by the user of a profile of a member of the social-networking system is disclosed. An email message from an additional user of a social-networking system is received by the user of the social-networking system. A data item included in the email message is identified upon which a correspondence between the data item included in the email message and a profile of a member of the social-networking system may be determined. An additional data item included in the email message is stored such that the additional data item is accessible by the user of the social-networking system in conjunction with an accessing by the user of the profile of the member.

Abstract: In order to perform system-capability testing, an application in an application layer may provide predefined system capabilities and/or requirements of or associated with the application to a communication plugin in a data-link layer, such as availability of communication via a network and/or a latency of the network less than a predefined value. In response, the communication plugin may determine feedback information that specifies whether the predefined system capabilities are available and whether the predefined requirements are satisfied. Then, the communication plugin may provide the feedback information to the application. When the feedback information indicates that a system capability is unavailable, remedial action may be performed. For example, the remedial action may include updating a version of the application, updating a version of the communication plugin, and/or updating a path to a location in a network.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for identifying entities (such as companies) that are associated with members of an online social network. During operation, the system obtains text strings from member records in the online social network, wherein each text string is an identifier for an entity that is associated with a member. The system also obtains connection information specifying connections among members of the online social network, and possibly location information for the members. Finally, the system uses the text strings, the connection information and the location information to identify entities that are associated with members of the online social network.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system launches a set of child processes for processing queries of a graph database storing a graph, wherein the graph comprises a set of nodes, a set of edges between pairs of nodes in the set of nodes, and a set of predicates. When a query of the graph database is received, the system transmits the query to one or more of the child processes. Next, the system receives a result of the query from the one or more child processes. The system then provides the result in a response to the query.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for facilitating interaction within a social network. During operation, the system obtains a graph of a social network, wherein the graph includes a set of nodes representing members of the social network and a set of edges representing relationships between pairs of the members. Next, the system uses the graph to identify a subset of the members with high betweenness centrality within a subgraph that includes a first group in the social network and a second group in the social network. The system then outputs an indication of high betweenness centrality for the subset of the members to facilitate interaction between the first and second groups.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for providing a graph database storing a graph. During operation, the system executes one or more processes for providing the graph database. Next, the system stores a sequence of changes to the graph in a base version of the graph database. The system then branches a version of the graph database from a virtual time in the base version. Finally, the system uses the branched version to process one or more queries of the graph database.

Abstract: In order to address annotation bias in batch annotations, obtained via crowdsourcing, on a set of comments on user posts in a social network, a system determines an annotation probability distribution based on a factor-graph model of the batch annotations. In particular, during operation the system computes the factor-graph model that represents relationships between feature vectors that represent the comments and the annotations for the comments. Note that, for a given batch of k comments, the factor-graph model may include a statistically dependent combination of statistically independent models of the interrelationships between the feature vectors and the annotations for the k comments. Then, the system calculates the annotation probability distribution based on model parameters associated with the factor-graph model, a mapping function that maps from the feature vectors to the annotations, and an indicator function that represents the annotations for the comments in the batches.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for analyzing data from a monitored system. During operation, the system identifies a difference between a performance of an application and a service-level agreement (SLA) of the application. Next, the system determines a correlation between the performance of the application and a disk input/output (I/O) performance of a data storage device used by the application. When the correlation exceeds a threshold, the system outputs a recommendation to migrate the application between the data storage device and a different type of data storage device.

Abstract: Disclosed in one example is a method for searching. In some examples, the method includes receiving an unstructured search query, parsing the unstructured search query into a plurality of structured search attributes using a search term attribute dictionary, performing a search of a structured database based upon the plurality of structured search attributes to identify a plurality of search results, populating a plurality of form fields of a search form with the plurality of structured search attributes, and displaying the search form in association with the search results.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and system for selecting personalized content for a user, the method being performed by an evaluation tool instantiated on a computing device and comprising the evaluation tool. The evaluation tool creates a content selection rule for the user for finding and filtering content items, such as advertising content. The tool generates a content selection algorithm from the content selection rule for determining which content items to present to the user and presents the content item to the user based on the content selection algorithm and allows the user to interact with the presented content item.

Abstract: Example communication systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a message from a message server. The method identifies constituent data contained in the message and accesses supplemental information associated with the message based on the constituent data. The message is modified to include at least one of a portion of the supplemental information and a reference to the supplemental information. The modified message is then communicated to a client device.

Abstract: Systems and methods for the measuring of affinity levels via passive and active interactions are provided. A first group of users are selected from a plurality of possible groups of users. Affinity levels are measured among the users of the first group, the affinity levels based at least partially on both passive and active interactions between an electronic device of a first user and electronic devices of users in the first group. The first user is added to the first group based on the affinity levels.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for facilitating reverse reading of sequentially stored variable-length data records. Each record is stored with accompanying size metadata that identifies the size or length of the record. Further, if the length of a given record is greater than a threshold (e.g., 127 bytes when the length is stored with variable-length quantity encoding), such that more than one byte (or other storage unit) is needed to store the record length, an additional byte (or other unit) is configured to store the size/length of the record length (e.g., the number of bytes required to store the record length). The most significant bit of the additional byte is set to 1, so that during reverse reading, the location and size of the record length value can be quickly determined.

Abstract: Disclosed in some examples are systems, methods, and machine readable mediums which allow for the automatic creation of a skills hierarchy. The skills hierarchy comprises an organization of a standardized list of skills into a hierarchy that describes category relationships between the skills in the hierarchy. The category relationships may include no relationships, parent relationships, and child relationships. A skill may be considered a parent of another skill if the parent skill describes a broader category of skill that includes the child. Other relationships such as grandparent (e.g., a parent's parent), great-grandparent, grandchild, great grandchild and so on may be defined inferentially as well. In some examples, the constructed hierarchy may be organized with broader skills at higher levels and narrower skills at lower levels.

Abstract: Users belonging to a particular category at a networking site are monitored by a system and according to a method for their selection of articles from a networking update stream. The characteristics of the users, including the categories they belong to, are received as metadata corresponding to the each respective article. Periodically an article database is queried according to the category and a selected time period to determine the number of users that have chosen to follow the industry and that have initiated selection actions towards articles in the database. Articles from the query are ranked according to their popularity among users having interest in the same industry category and are presented to a viewing user at the networking site.

Abstract: Systems, methods and a machine-readable media are described herein for a salary range engine to identify at least one attribute of a first member profile from a plurality of member profiles of a social networking service. The salary range engine correlates the at least one attribute with respect to at least a portion of trained salary data in a trained salary data repository. The salary range engine infers a target salary range based on a correlation between the at least one attribute of the first member profile and at least the portion of the trained salary data.

Abstract: An Internet-based system capable of automatically maintaining contact-related information in any computer software application or digital device which stores or manages contact-related information. More particularly, the system allows users to automatically enter and maintain contact-related information in a digital address book or similar application or device with minimal or no manual entry of the contact-related information by the user. The system also allows contacts of the user to make corrections to their contact-related information contained in the user's address book, request reciprocal contact information from the user, deny the user access to additional or corrected contact-related information and take other actions relative to managing the contact-related information which others (users) have about them.

Abstract: Systems and methods for the forming of user device groups are presented. In one example, logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of user devices is accessed. Scores for each of a plurality of possible groups are generated based at least partially on the logical relationship information and information about a first user device, but the scores not being based on any personally identifiable information about the first user of the first user device. A first group is selected from the plurality of possible groups based on the scores. Then the first user device is added to the first group.

Abstract: Tools (systems, apparatuses, methodologies, computer program products, etc.) for pairing electronic devices including touchscreen-enabled electronic devices, and for facilitating communication between paired electronic devices.

Abstract: An online address book is configured to include a multi-user input bar to receive search terms intended to match contacts existing in a user's contact list. If a search term does not match any entry in the current contact list the search is extended by the multi-user input bar to include further candidate contacts. Candidate contacts are acquired through social profiles available from a set of networking sites linked-to over the Internet. A candidate contact that does match the search term is added to the contact list with a public profile whose contents are populated with contact data acquired from social profiles available through the networking sites. This practice of profile bookmarking may be applied iteratively across candidate contacts from various networking sites to build an extensive public profile.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for detecting and managing memory inefficiency in a software program. During operation, the system obtains a first snapshot of a heap for a software program, wherein the first snapshot includes a first set of objects stored in the heap at a first time. Next, the system applies a compression technique to the first snapshot to obtain a first set of inefficiency metrics for the first set of objects, wherein each inefficiency metric in the first set of inefficiency metrics represents a memory inefficiency of an object in the heap at the first time. The system then outputs the first set of inefficiency metrics with additional attributes of the first set of objects to improve identification of the memory inefficiency in the software program.

Abstract: In order to dynamically generate customized content, a set of format options for a document (including layout and/or ordering) may be defined and user behaviors in a social network associated with different versions of the document may be tracked. For example, the user behaviors may include a number of views of the document, a percentage of the document viewed and/or a viewing time of the document. This customization technique allows feedback based on user behaviors to guide revisions to the format of the document, such as selecting different format options for particular subgroups of the users (which may even be individually specific). The resulting customized content can be presented concurrently, so that different users can view different versions of the same document at the same time.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains an attribute of a stack trace of a software program. Next, the system uses the attribute to select an address-translation instance from a set of address-translation instances for processing the stack trace. The system then provides the stack trace to the selected address-translation instance for use in translating a set of memory addresses in the stack trace into a set of symbols of instructions stored at the memory addresses.

Abstract: A method of providing one or more snapshots extracted from video footage includes displaying a first image in a first display area. The first image is associated with a first capture time. The method also includes displaying a first plurality of preview images in a second display area. The first plurality of preview images are associated with times prior to the first capture time. The method further includes displaying a second plurality of preview images in a third display area. The second plurality of preview images are associated with times subsequent to the first capture time. Moreover, the method includes selecting at least one of the first image, one of the first plurality of preview images, or one of the second plurality of preview images and saving the selected image to a memory.

Abstract: An Internet-based system capable of automatically maintaining contact-related information in any computer software application or digital device which stores or manages contact-related information. More particularly, the system allows users to automatically enter and maintain contact-related information in a digital address book or similar application or device (such as a wireless phone or PDA) with minimal or no manual entry of the contact-related information by the user. The system also allows contacts of the user (i.e. people who's contact information or partial contact information is present in the user's address book application) to make corrections to their contact-related information contained in the user's address book, request reciprocal contact information from the user, deny the user access to additional or corrected contact-related information and take other actions relative to managing the contact-related information which others (users) have about them.

Abstract: A system, method and computer program product are provided for managing a distributed computing system that features multiple hosts executing a distributed application. On each host a collector process collects application-level and/or system-level metrics and reports them to a data repository. A controller executes actor processes that compare the metrics, and/or trends in the metrics, to predetermined thresholds. If a threshold is met or passed, the corresponding actor or the controller initiates one or more remedy processes that take action intended to alleviate the condition detected by the actor. When a remedy is triggered, the controller takes a snapshot of the system to identify the current state, and saves information indicating how well the executed remedies corrected the situation. When a new snapshot matches an existing snapshot, the controller uses the saved information to determine which remedies to apply to the present occurrence of the mutual state.

Abstract: In order to facilitate the requesting of desired information from a graph database that stores a graph, a system may translate an initial query into a query that can be executed against the graph database. In particular, using primitives, the system may translate a query associated with a type of database (such as a relational database) into the query. The graph may include nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the primitives may include: a rule based on edges in the graph that expresses a relational schema in the type of database, and information associated with a compound key that specifies a relationship between nodes, edges and predicates in the graph corresponding to a table in the type of database. Then, the system may execute the query against the graph database, and may receive a result that includes a subset of the graph.

Abstract: Techniques for ascribing social attributes to content items and for selecting content to display in a content feed are described. According to various embodiments, accessing one or more content items accessible via a network are accessed, each of the content items having received one or more social activity signals. Thereafter, members of an online social network service that submitted the social activity signals may be identified. Member profile data identifying member profile attributes of the members cemented the social activity signals may then be accessed. Thereafter, social attribute information may be generated and associated with each of the content items, the social attribute information identifying the member profile attributes of the members that submitted the social activity signals associated with each of the content items.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a current window of one or more intervals of time-series data collected from a monitored system. Next, the system continuously performs a statistical hypothesis test that compares the one or more intervals of the time-series data with baseline values from historic time-series data associated with the monitored system. When the statistical hypothesis test indicates a deviation of the time-series data from the baseline values, the system outputs an alert of an anomaly represented by the deviation.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of components of a time-series performance metric associated with an anomaly in a performance of one or more monitored systems. For each component in the set of components, the system performs a statistical hypothesis test on the component to assess a deviation of the component from a baseline value of the component. When the statistical hypothesis test identifies a statistically significant deviation of the component from the baseline value, the system outputs an alert comprising a root cause of the anomaly that is represented by the statistically significant deviation of the component from the baseline value.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a component of a time-series performance metric associated with a server-side root cause of an anomaly in the time-series performance metric. Next, the system obtains a call graph representation of the component, wherein the call graph representation includes a parent node having a parent value of the component and a set of child nodes of the parent node, each child node having a corresponding child value of the component. The system then analyzes the call graph representation to identify one or more of the child nodes as sources of the anomaly. Finally, the system outputs an alert that identifies the sources of the anomaly.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of records from a set of inputs, with each record containing an entity key, a partition key, and one or more attribute-value pairs. For each attribute-value pair in the records, the system maps an attribute name in the attribute-value pair to a unique identifier for the attribute name and replaces the attribute name with the unique identifier. The system then identifies a subset of the records with a matching entity key and a matching partition key and merges the subset of the records into a single record that includes the matching entity key, the matching partition key, and a single field containing a list of attribute-value pairs from the subset of the records. Finally, the system provides the single record and the mapping for use in querying from a centralized source.

Abstract: A daily connection facility is available to the user either through a webpage or by e-mail in the form of a synopsis of connection identifiers between the user and their contacts. The web-based version presents connection information in the form of an agenda view, an engage view, and a reminder view. Each view type is selectable by corresponding tab on the webpage. The daily connected e-mail presents an agenda of meetings and events by location, title, and time. The daily connected e-mail also presents interesting profile and connection information about the attendees such as their communications in blogs and postings, recent communications with user, including messages and meetings, as well as contact information and a list of other contacts in common.

Abstract: In order to leverage annotation bias in batch annotations, obtained via crowdsourcing, on a set of comments on user posts in a social network, a system may select a subset of the comments for annotation based on how informative expected annotations for the comments in the subset are for the one or more classifiers and probabilities of occurrence of the expected annotations based on a predetermined annotation probability distribution. Note that the classifier may predict how likely the expected annotations are accurate for the comments in a given subset. Moreover, the predetermined annotation probability distribution may specify the annotation bias. In this way, the system may use the annotation bias to select the subset that is likely to receive expected annotations and, thus, are that are easier to use in training the classifier.

Abstract: A device, system, and method may include an electronic data storage configured to store social network data related to use of the social network by users. A processor, coupled to the electronic data storage, may be configured to determine a recommended action that a member of the social network may take to increase a likelihood of at least one of the uses of the social network to access a social network content item related to the member and determine an estimated statistical change in a rate at which the users may access the social network content item if the recommended action were implemented by the member based, at least in part, on the social network data stored in the electronic data storage.

Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting recommendations for resources to be used by members in learning about and/or acquiring a skill are described. In some example embodiments, the systems and methods receive information associated with a skill from a member of a social network, identify members of the social network that are associated with the skill, receive information from the identified members of the social network that identifies one or more resources associated with the skill, and generate a list of recommended resources that is based on the information received from the identified members of the social network.

Abstract: Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, and machine-readable mediums which provide a relevance engine for determining a relevance of an individual (either a non-member or another member) to another individual (either a non-member or another member). This relevance engine may use signals in the form of data that the social networking service may learn about the individuals to determine how relevant the individuals are to each other. Example applications may include ordering of connection invitations in a social networking service.

Abstract: A method of using mobile devices of participants of a meeting to facilitate a meeting is disclosed. It is identified that a group of two or more people are conducting the meeting. Information about the group of the two or more people is collected based on a relevance of the information to a context of the meeting. At least a portion of the information is transmitted for presentation in a user interface of a mobile device of each member of the group to facilitate the meeting.