Abstract: Systems and techniques for transferring a file from a first client associated with a first subscriber to a communications system to a second client associated with a second subscriber to the communications system by connecting from the first client to a communications system host; sending, through the communications system host, a request to the second client to establish a direct connection to the second client; when the second client accepts the request, establishing a direct connection to the second client that bypasses the communications system host; and transferring a file over the direct connection.

Abstract: An entity provides a competitive block list for one or more of its objects in a social networking system. The competitive block list identifies advertisers or other entities prevented from targeting advertisements based on connections between users and objects of the entity. If a later received advertisement is targeted based on a connection between a user and an object of the entity, the social networking system determines whether the advertiser associated with the advertisement is included on the competitive block list. If the competitive block list includes the advertiser, the advertisement is determined not to be valid, and not presented to users. Otherwise, the advertisement is determined to be valid, and may be presented to users thereafter.

Abstract: An intelligent synchronization tool ensures access to desired content in a manner that automatically keeps the content current on the portable media device. A variation threshold or user-specified degree of content variation may be introduced among content downloaded to a user's mobile device to prevent the user from becoming bored. Furthermore, intelligent synchronization may automatically populate the portable media device with popular content to save a user time and/or use passive monitoring techniques to ascertain a user's preferences for subsequent population.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for transferring a file from a first client associated with a first subscriber to a communications system to a second client associated with a second subscriber to the communications system by connecting from the first client to a communications system host; sending, through the communications system host, a request to the second client to establish a direct connection to the second client; when the second client accepts the request, establishing a direct connection to the second client that bypasses the communications system host; and transferring a file over the direct connection.

Abstract: One embodiment selects from a plurality of actions performed by one or more users of a social networking system a first action and one or more second actions, wherein each action has one or more attributes; computes a score for each second action by comparing the one or more attributes of each second action with the one or more attributes of the first action; ranks the one or more second actions according to the score computed for each second action; and selects from the one or more second actions one or more highest-ranking second actions as being related to the first action.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a broadband receiver of a wireless communications device may poll a broadband communications channel for configuration data. Once the configuration data has been received, the channel may be established, and connection information may be transmitted to a base station. The connection information may be an identifier for a user of a social-networking system. Based on the identifier, the device may be able to establish a narrowband communications channel with the base station. Using the identifier, the base station may be able to begin retrieving social-networking information for the user while establishing a communications channel using the narrowband transceiver. Once the narrowband communications channel has been established, the wireless communications device may be able to receive the social-networking information over that channel and provide social-networking functionality.

Abstract: A social networking system includes a question and answer system that displays to a viewing user questions and answers provides by other users of the social networking system. The question and answer system may display answers to a particular question in a way that visually indicates both the global answer set and a subset of the global answer set, such as the viewing user's friends. The social networking system may also display to a viewing user news stories about another user asking or answering a question, where the format of the displayed new stories is based on an affinity that the viewing user has for the user who provided the question or answer mentioned in the news story. The displayed questions and/or answers may be associated with an object in the social networking system, where the user interface provides additional information about those objects.

Abstract: A social networking system displays raw stories about a user's friends' actions in a news ticker as those actions occur. The social networking system is monitored for actions associated with users connected with the target user. The social networking system may be continually monitored such that actions are identified in real-time as they are performed. The news ticker is updated such that stories including the identified actions and the associated connected users are displayed within a news ticker interface. The news ticker interface may be a dedicated portion of the social networking system interface, for example in a column next to a newsfeed. The news ticker interface may be updated in real time as actions associated with connected users are performed. The target user may select a displayed story in the news ticker, and additional information related to the selected story may be displayed, for instance in a separate interface.

Abstract: A user may make a digital item available to other users of a computer network, such as an instant messaging system, a chat environment, or a subscription-based computer network. Examples of digital items that may be shared with other users include digital representations of graphic images, photographs, audio segments, songs, video segments, movies, and text (such as lists of favorites (e.g., a list of favorite books, a list of favorite movies, and a list of favorite places to visit)). On-line presence information is provided to indicate the on-line presence of users with whom a digital item has been shared, may be shared or is being shared. For instance, an indication of the on-line or offline status of a user with whom an item has been shared or is being shared may be presented.

Abstract: A system and method for determining a trust level for a non-approved user in a social network is described. The method includes monitoring requests for social network interactions between an approved user and the non-approved user and determining if each interaction requested is of a first type or a second type. The method further includes increasing a first trust value when the interaction requested is of the first type and increasing a second trust value when the interaction requested is of the second type. The method further includes determining the trust level based on the first trust value and the second trust value. The method further includes changing the status of the non-approved user to an approved user based on the trust level, the first trust value and/or the second trust value.

Abstract: A social networking system provides a social plug-in that enables advertisers to utilize relevant social context information available for advertising purposes. An advertiser adds the social plug-in next to an ad, where the plug-in is provided with a list of items that are relevant to the ad. The social plug-in communicates with the social networking system to retrieve social context information to provide to a particular viewing user based on the list of items relevant to the ad. The social plug-in also communicates with the social networking system to determine placement of an overlay of the social context information over the ad. A social plug-in may also enable web publishers to allow the social plug-in to serve advertisements alongside other social networking system features, such as recommendations, comments and content sharing.

Abstract: A social networking system provides relevant third-party content objects to users by matching user location, interests, and other social information with the content, location, and timing associated with the content objects. Content objects are provided based on relevance scores specific to a user. Relevance scores may be calculated based on the user's previous interactions with content object notifications, or based on interests that are common between the user and his or her connections in the social network. Context search is also provided for a user, wherein a list of search of results is ranked according to the relevance score of content object associated with the search results. Notifications may also be priced and distributed to users based on their relevance. In this way, the system can provide notifications that are relevant to user's interests and current circumstances, increasing the likelihood that they will find content objects of interest.

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.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention combine information from different data sets, such as social networks, advertising networks, and/or panels, each data set comprising statistics about past viewership of content (e.g., advertisements). The result of the combination is a model that, when applied to statistics about viewing of particular content, produces viewing statistics about the particular content that are more accurate than the data of any given one of the different data sets when taken in isolation.

Abstract: Various cache replacement policies are described whose goals are to identify items for eviction from the cache that are not accessed often and to identify items stored in the cache that are regularly accessed that should be maintained longer in the cache. In particular, the cache replacement policies are useful for workloads that have a strong temporal locality, that is, items that are accessed very frequently for a period of time and then quickly decay in terms of further accesses. In one embodiment, a variation on the traditional least recently used caching algorithm uses a reuse period or reuse distance for an accessed item to determine whether the item should be promoted in the cache queue. In one embodiment, a variation on the traditional two queue caching algorithm evicts items from the cache from both an active queue and an inactive queue.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes detecting a touch event on a side-mounted touchpad of a computing device during display of a current user interface of an application executing on the computing device. The application includes a navigation hierarchy with a home user-interface layer, multiple sub user-interface layers, and multiple user-interface branches. The method includes determining a particular sub user-interface layer and user-interface branch that the current user interface corresponds to and determining a type of the touch event. When the type of the touch event is a forward touch event and there is a next sub user-interface layer in the particular user-interface branch of the current user interface, the method navigates to the next user-interface layer in the particular user-interface branch of the current user interface.

Abstract: A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a mobile computing device receives an incoming communication from a source. The mobile computing device queries a social-networking system operable to aggregate communications between the source and a user associated with the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device receives from the social-networking system one or more aggregated communications between the source and the user and at least a portion of a profile associated with the source in the social-networking system. The mobile computing device displays the aggregated communications and the portion of the profile in a screen of the mobile computing device.

Abstract: A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user.

Abstract: Techniques to allow a social networking system to import contact information from an external system. In one embodiment, a QR code is provided to a non-mobile computing device to allow a log in to an external system by a user using a mobile computing device. Information from the external system is received after authentication of the user with the external system. The information includes address book information of the user. The address book information includes contact information maintained by the external system. Invitations are provided to a selection of the new contacts to join the social network of the user.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing a meeting notification and automatic modification service. A system may be configured to identify an appointment in a calendar application, identify a geographic location of the appointment, and identify, before the appointment time, a geographic location of a first participant of the appointment. Based on the geographic information, the system may identify a route extending from the geographic location of the first participant to the geographic location of the appointment, and may identify a travel time associated with the route. Based on the travel time and the appointment time, the system may determine whether the first participant is estimated to arrive at the appointment on time and, based on the determination, the system may send a message to participants of the appointment or dynamically reschedule the appointment.

Abstract: A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user.

Abstract: In one embodiment, in response to data to be transmitted to or from an electronic device, the electronic device determines whether the electronic device currently has a first network connection with a sufficiently high bandwidth. If the electronic device currently does not have a first network connection with a sufficiently high bandwidth, then the electronic device estimates a future time when the electronic device is likely to have a second network connection with a sufficiently high bandwidth, and schedules transmission of the data at the future time.

Abstract: Actions and/or behaviors of social networking system users are observed and used for measuring advertising effectiveness. More specifically, advertisements from an advertising campaign are selectively targeted and presented to specific subsets of social network users and withheld from other subsets of social network users. After the advertisements are presented, actions performed by users in the different subsets are be identified and analyzed to determine metrics describing the effectiveness of the particular advertising campaign.

Abstract: Techniques introduced here include a system and method for determining whether to provide a user of a social networking system with candidate users (i.e., potential contacts) with whom the user does not already have any connections with. In some embodiments, the system generates a set of candidate users based on a value (e.g., to the social networking system) associated with each potential connection formed between the user and the set of candidate users. In one or more embodiments, the system ranks the candidate users based on their connection-value to the social networking system and provides the ranked candidate users as suggested new connections to the user.

Abstract: A sender's degrees of separation from a recipient may be used to aid in spam filtering or to otherwise handle a communication. The “degrees of separation” represent a metric used to quantify whether/how the recipient is linked to the sender through intermediary people or other entities. For example, a recipient may know a first user (first degree of separation) and the first user may know a second user (second degree of separation) who knows the sender of an e-mail. In this case, the sender is separated from the recipient by two degrees of separation (by two other contacts). A level of “trust” or “legitimacy” about a sender's communication can be inferred by looking at whether the sender is linked to an intended recipient. Typically, user contact lists (e.g., address book, buddy list, and/or white list) are evaluated to determine the number of degrees (or hops) are required to link or relate two users.

Abstract: A social networking website maintains a profile for each user of the website. The profile includes data associated with a user, such as a connection to one or more plurality of other users of the social networking website or user preferences. The social networking website communicates with one or more third-party application servers to provide one or more applications to social networking website users. When a social networking website user requests an application provided by a third-party application server, the social networking website communicates a subset of the user's profile to the third-party application server, allowing the third-party application server to use this profile data to personalize the application performed for the user. A privacy setting associated with a user profile allows the social networking website to limit the profile data communicated to the third-party application server.

Abstract: A method includes monitoring an activity stream to identify actions that match stored sponsored story specifications, for providing one or more sponsored stories to a viewing user. The sponsored story specifications include a visual specification for the sponsored story, and matched sponsored stories are ranked for a viewing user. Users can set privacy preferences related to sponsored stories. The ranking and privacy settings contribute to which sponsored stories are provided for display to the viewing user.

Abstract: A social networking system includes pages created by users for providing content related to topics of interest. An interaction engine captures data and maintains analytical information about how users interact with pages and posts. When a user takes an action such as liking a page or a post, the interaction engine updates the page's activity history to reflect the activity and information about the user who took the action. The interaction engine also measures the reach of pages and posts, by determining how and from where each user viewed the page and its contents. The interaction engine further tracks the community's interest in pages and posts by determining how many unique users create stories that include a page or its content. An insights module uses the data obtained by the interaction engine to synthesize graphical reports about page interactions and present the reports to page administrators.

Abstract: As a user of a social networking system views a page that includes information provided by the system, certain types of social interactions are monitored. If an interaction monitored for is detected, at least one recommendation unit is identified to present to user on the page. The recommendation unit is identified based on a description of the interaction. The recommendation unit suggests that the user perform a social interaction in the social networking system. The recommendation unit is transmitted to a device of the user and is presented to the user on the page without having to reload the entire page.

Abstract: A social graph, which records the actions of users in a social networking system platform, may be modeled at least in part as a collection of claims that may be used for advertising purposes, such as targeting advertisements, based on permissions granted by users and entities. The social networking system may also act as a publisher, enabling web applications and mobile applications to publish claims to a variety of audiences based on the permissions granted by users and entities, or agents of the social networking system. Permissions may be granted based on agreed-upon terms of service between agents, agents and publishers, agents and the social networking system platform, and publishers and the social networking system.

Abstract: Techniques for identifying mutual interests between users of a social networking system are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method includes identifying, by a social networking system, a content object with which a first user of the social networking system has interacted. The social networking associates a keyword phrase with the first user. The keyword phrase has been previously associated with the content object. The social networking system further determines a mutual interest for the first user and a second user of the social networking system by identifying a match between the keyword phrase associated with the first user with a keyword phrase associated with the second user.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a geo-social networking system automatically tags one or more social contacts of a first user to a photo of the first user by ranking the social contacts based on spatial and temporal proximity to the first user, and in response to the first user's selection of one or more top ranked social contacts, associating the selected social contacts to the photo.

Abstract: A social graph, which records the actions of users in a social networking system platform, may be modeled at least in part as a collection of claims that may be exported to other systems, such as third party publishers, based on permissions granted by users and entities. The social networking system may also act as a publisher, enabling web applications and mobile applications to publish claims to a variety of audiences based on the permissions granted by users and entities, or agents of the social networking system. Permissions may be granted based on agreed-upon terms of service between agents, agents and publishers, agents and the social networking system platform, and publishers and the social networking system.

Abstract: Systems and methods for obtaining a digital file similar to one used by a device associated with a member of a social network are provided. Digital file information about the digital file is stored on a web-based social network database. The digital file may be located on the same server as the web-based social network database or a third party server such as a mobile phone carrier. A user of the web-based social network database requesting the digital file may require a different format of the digital file than that used by the device of the member. If a different format is requested by the user, a server finds or converts the digital file to be compatible for use by a device specified by the user.

Abstract: To allow for tracking events and classifying assets within a social networking system. A time series of occurrences of an event type associated with at least one asset is generated. A first signal value and a second signal value is determined based on the time series. The at least one asset is classified based on comparison of the first signal value and the second signal value. In an embodiment, the time series is based on at least one time window including time intervals. In an embodiment, counters to determine a number of occurrences of an event type are associated with the time intervals. In an embodiment, each of the counters are incremented upon occurrence of the event type associated with the at least one asset during an associated time interval.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a mobile device performs an over-the-air firmware update by writing the updated firmware to a inactive system image partition, and rebooting the device. The security of the OTA update is maintained through checking a plurality of security signatures in an OTA manifest, and the integrity of the data is maintained by checking a hash value of the downloaded system image.

Abstract: Systems and methods for obtaining a digital file similar to one used by a device associated with a member of a social network are provided. Digital file information about the digital file is stored on a web-based social network database. The digital file may be located on the same server as the web-based social network database or a third party server such as a mobile phone carrier. A user of the web-based social network database requesting the digital file may require a different format of the digital file than that used by the device of the member. If a different format is requested by the user, a server finds or converts the digital file to be compatible for use by a device specified by the user.

Abstract: Systems and methods for obtaining a digital file similar to one used by a device associated with a member of a social network are provided. Digital file information about the digital file is stored on a web-based social network database. The digital file may be located on the same server as the web-based social network database or a third party server such as a mobile phone carrier. A user of the web-based social network database requesting the digital file may require a different format of the digital file than that used by the device of the member. If a different format is requested by the user, a server finds or converts the digital file to be compatible for use by a device specified by the user.

Abstract: A seed cluster comprising a group of users who share a particular attribute and/or affiliation is determined by a social networking system. For each user of the seed cluster, other users and/or entities connected to the user in the social networking system are retrieved. For each retrieved other user or entity, the social networking system may determine whether the other user or entity exhibits the attribute or affiliation based on a random walk algorithm. A resulting targeting cluster of users and/or entities may be used for targeting advertisements targeting to members. A social networking system may also infer an affiliation for a user based on the user's interaction with a page, application, or entity where other users who interacted with the same page, application, or entity have the same affiliation.

Abstract: A system and method for mapping interpersonal relationships, the method including processing a multiplicity of images and contextual information relating thereto including creating and prioritizing a list of a plurality of candidate persons having at least a predetermined relationship with at least one person connected to at least one image, using multi-dimensional information including visually sensible information in the multiplicity of images and contextual information relating thereto and searching the list of a plurality of candidate persons based at least in part on the prioritizing to select at least one of the candidate persons as having at least a predetermined relationship with the at least one person.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system includes a database; and a cache layer comprising one or more cache nodes, the one or more cache nodes operative to: maintain in a memory one or more data structures storing association information describing associations between nodes in a graph a plurality of distributed cache clusters for storing information in the form of a graph, the graph comprising a plurality of nodes, each uniquely identified by a node identifier, and edge information indicating associations between nodes; respond to queries for associations between nodes in the graph by accessing the memory; and forward other queries to the database for processing.

Abstract: An exemplary method includes a content hub subsystem receiving a content posting from an access device connected to a wireless network and associated with a first user. The content posting includes data representative of a content instance and a geographic location associated with the content instance. The exemplary method further includes the content hub subsystem storing the content posting and selectively distributing the content instance to at least one other access device connected to the wireless network based on the geographic location, the at least one other access device associated with a second user. A past or present physical location of the at least one other access device within a predefined proximity of the geographic location is requisite to the distribution of the content instance to the at least one other access device. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for publishing subscriptions in a publish-subscribe system in accordance with subscription groups. Embodiments may include (i) determining a consumption characteristic by which each of a plurality of subscribers in a publish-subscribe system consumes a subscription published by a publisher; (ii) identifying the subscribers whose consumption characteristics satisfy a specified similarity criterion; (iii) defining a plurality of subscription groups, each of which includes subscriptions of those of the subscribers whose consumption characteristics satisfy the specified similarity criterion; and (iv) transmitting the subscriptions to the subscribers in accordance with the subscription groups.

Abstract: A method of operation of a social filter system includes: identifying a user with a user account; identifying a socially connected account from the user account, the socially connected account having a social association; selecting a content of interest from a content store of contents of interest based on the social association; and sending the content of interest for displaying on a user device.

Abstract: A method of operation of a storage control system includes: configuring a state change policy on a data server, the state change policy including an online duration for a storage device; activating the storage device based on the state change policy; mounting the storage device based on the state change policy; and scheduling a filesystem maintenance task to be performed on the storage device based on the state change policy.

Abstract: In particular embodiments a social networking system captures data associated with video content provided to a first user of a social-networking system, identifies, using the captured data, the video content provided to the first user, and updates a graph of the social-networking system to associate the first user with the identified video content. The graph of the social-networking system has a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes. The nodes of the graph include user nodes that are each associated with a particular user of the social-networking system.

Abstract: An online system determines whether a request for creating a session with the online system is suspicious. The online system associates a user account with a mobile key of a mobile device and geographical locations of the mobile device. The mobile key comprises unique identifier of the mobile device that is permanently stored on the mobile device. Upon receiving a request to create a session for the user account, the online system compares information associated with the user request with information describing the mobile device. For example, information associated with the user request can be a location determined by mapping internet protocol addresses obtained from the request. The online system determines whether the request is suspicious based on the comparison. If the online system determines that the request is suspicious, the online system may require enhanced authentication before granting the request.

Abstract: The functionality of a browser application is enhanced using a browser plug-in, which enables the browser application to access portions of a file system not otherwise accessible to the browser application. The enhanced functionality provided by the browser plug-in is used in one example by an image uploading web application. The browser application may also start a task in the background, such as a task for uploading several images, and then monitor the progress of the task even when the browser application navigates away from the page that initiated the task. The browser application may use a local web server running on the client device to perform tasks, including the rendering of images and monitoring progress of long running tasks.

Abstract: Fault-tolerant storage is provided using a distributed data storage system that receives input data from clients and divides that data into data blocks for storage. The data blocks are processed using a coding scheme that generates redundant level one error correction blocks (L1EC Blocks). The L1EC blocks enable the reconstruction of one or more damaged or inaccessible data blocks, and the L1EC blocks and the data blocks are divided into distribution sets and stored at a plurality of data storage locations. At each data storage location additional level two error correction blocks (L2EC blocks) are generated that provide local data redundancy. Upon detecting a data disruption event, an inaccessible data storage location is identified and the elements that were stored at the inaccessible data storage location are reconstructed.