Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage medium, for identifying a set of items of digital content displayed to a user; processing the set of items to identify a set of boost items, items within the set of boost items to be prominently displayed, processing comprising: receiving a close-ties score associated with a respective item, the close-ties score representing a relationship between the user and other users associated with the respective item and an importance of a social circle associated with the item to the user, determining that the close-ties score associated with the respective item exceeds a threshold close-ties score, and in response to determining that the close-ties score exceeds the threshold close-ties score, adding the respective item to the set of boost items; providing instructions for boosting a display of items in the set of boost items in a page displayed to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for storing a plurality of items, each item including digital content, for each item of the plurality of items, generating a quality score to provide a plurality of quality scores, each quality score indicating a quality of an associated item and being based on at least one of a status score and a content score, the status score being associated with an author user of a respective item and the content score being associated with digital content provided in the respective item, determining an order of items based on respective quality scores, and transmitting instructions to display items to a user based on the order.

Abstract: A system including a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the system to: receive a stream of content including a plurality of content items; retrieve a plurality of related content items; identify a topic for at least one of the plurality of the related content items; rank the topics by relevance to the user and one of the plurality of items; associate the topic to the content item in the stream of content where the topic is ranked as being relevant to the content item; generate a marker for the topic; generate an interface including the marker associated with the content item in the stream of content; and provide the interface for display.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage medium, for identifying a set of items of digital content displayed to a user; processing the set of items to identify a set of boost items, items within the set of boost items to be prominently displayed, processing comprising: receiving a close-ties score associated with a respective item, the close-ties score representing a relationship between the user and other users associated with the respective item and an importance of a social circle associated with the item to the user, determining that the close-ties score associated with the respective item exceeds a threshold close-ties score, and in response to determining that the close-ties score exceeds the threshold close-ties score, adding the respective item to the set of boost items; providing instructions for boosting a display of items in the set of boost items in a page displayed to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for displaying, within a web page, a representation of a content sharing interface, the content sharing interface including a content input area, receiving user input to the content input area, in response to the user input, expanding the content sharing interface to include an expanded content input area and a distribution interface, the expanded content input area displaying a graphical representation of digital content that is to be distributed, receiving user input to the distribution interface, the user input indicating contact(s) to which the digital content is to be distributed, in response to receiving the user input, displaying an icon within the distribution interface, the icon being a graphical representation of the contact(s), and in response to the user input, transmitting a post data set including digital content data and distribution data to a server computing system.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting a content data set to a computing device for displaying digital content to an author user, the author user having authored the digital content, receiving user input from the author user, the user input corresponding to the digital content, and, in response to receiving the user input, transmitting first data and second data to the computing device for display to the author user, the first data comprising a number of contacts that are able to access the digital content and the second data indicating one or more relationships between the author user and the contacts.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting a content data set to a computing device for displaying content to a non-author user, receiving user input from the non-author user, the user input corresponding to the content, and, in response to receiving the user input, transmitting first data and second data to the computing device for display to the non-author user, the first data comprising a number of contacts associated with an author user, the author user having authored the content, the second data being a sub-set of the first data and comprising a number of contacts associated with the non-author user.

Abstract: A system including a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the system to: receive a stream of content including a plurality of content items; retrieve a plurality of related content items; identify a topic for at least one of the plurality of the related content items; rank the topics by relevance to the user and one of the plurality of items; associate the topic to the content item in the stream of content where the topic is ranked as being relevant to the content item; generate a marker for the topic; generate an interface including the marker associated with the content item in the stream of content; and provide the interface for display.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving first user input, the first user input provided by a user of a computer-implemented social networking service and indicating first digital content that is to be distributed using the social networking service, receiving second user input through a distribution interface that is displayed to the user, the second user input defining a distribution for the first digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of a first sub-distribution that is defined based on a first social circle and a second sub-distribution, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts, and distributing the first digital content to contacts of the user based on the distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying a plurality of items to be displayed to a user, each item including digital content and being associated with a respective timestamp, receiving a plurality of scores, each score being associated with an item of the plurality of items, determining a subset of items to be displayed to the user based on the plurality of scores, the subset of items including items of the plurality of items, grouping items in the subset of items based on respective timestamps to provide a plurality of item groups, for each item group, determining an order of items based on respective scores, and transmitting instructions to display items to the user based on the plurality of item groups and in the order within each item group.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transmitting contact data for displaying graphical representations of contacts for display to a user, the contacts being contacts of the user within a computer-implemented social networking service, generating a first social circle of the user, the first social circle comprising a first subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a first distribution for digital content, generating a second social circle of the user, the second social circle comprising a second subset of contacts of the user within the social networking service and defining a second distribution for digital content, and, in response to user input, providing the first social circle and the second social circle for selection by the user to define a distribution of digital content, the distribution comprising at least one of the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving, from a author user, a post data set associated with a post in a social networking service, the post data set including distribution data, the distribution data indicating one or more recipient users to which the first post is to be distributed, determining that at least one recipient user of the one or more recipient users is a non-direct intended recipient, the non-direct intended recipient not being a contact of the author user within the social networking service, receiving a social affinity score, the social affinity score indicating a strength of a relationship between the author user and the non-direct intended recipient, determining that the post is to be distributed to the non-direct intended recipient at least partially based on the social affinity score, and distributing the post to the non-direct intended recipient.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for storing a plurality of items, each item including digital content, for each item of the plurality of items, generating a quality score to provide a plurality of quality scores, each quality score indicating a quality of an associated item and being based on at least one of a status score and a content score, the status score being associated with an author user of a respective item and the content score being associated with digital content provided in the respective item, determining an order of items based on respective quality scores, and transmitting instructions to display items to a user based on the order.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage medium, for identifying a set of items of digital content displayed to a user; processing the set of items to identify a set of boost items, items within the set of boost items to be prominently displayed, processing comprising: receiving a close-ties score associated with a respective item, the close-ties score representing a relationship between the user and other users associated with the respective item and an importance of a social circle associated with the item to the user, determining that the close-ties score associated with the respective item exceeds a threshold close-ties score, and in response to determining that the close-ties score exceeds the threshold close-ties score, adding the respective item to the set of boost items; providing instructions for boosting a display of items in the set of boost items in a page displayed to the user.

Abstract: In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for receiving, at a server system of a social network and from a telephone service provider, information identifying members of a preferred calling group for a first user that is associated with the telephone provider. The sever system of the social network identifies the first user as a member of the social network. The server system of the social network identifies one or more of the members of the preferred calling group as being one or more members of the social network. The server system of the social network automatically defines a social network group that includes the one or more members of the preferred calling group who are members of the social network.