Abstract: A method of operating a content distribution system with a server controlled routing mechanism is disclosed. The method includes: collecting prefix entries from an autonomous system; receiving a content request to send a particular digital content to a prefix; generating, at a host server, an opaque label based on the autonomous system for an Internet protocol (IP) packet of the digital content when the prefix is listed in the prefix entries collected from the autonomous systems; and forwarding the IP packet out of an egress interface of a network equipment, the egress interface associated with the opaque label.

Abstract: A system for obtaining metrics for online advertising uses multiple sources of user data, including panel data, social networking system data, and user data from other online service providers. An advertising impression system notifies each data source when an advertising impression occurs for an advertising campaign. The user data sources identify users corresponding to the impression by referencing a look-up table that matches a user ID at the advertising impression system with the user ID of users at the user data source. Each user data source generates a demographics report based on the user data known to that user data source. The user data sources transmit the demographics reports to a data aggregator, which determines estimated viewing statistics based on the various user data sources without revealing personally identifiable information from the user data sources.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a computing device provides for presentation to a user a user interface, the user interface including a plurality of related interactive elements. The computing device may receive touch gesture input from the user selecting one of the plurality of related interactive elements. The touch gesture input may have a duration of at least a pre-determined amount of time. The computing device, in response to the touch gesture input, may rearrange the plurality of related interactive elements, rearranging including stacking the plurality of related interactive elements for presentation to the user.

Abstract: A system for obtaining metrics for online advertising uses multiple sources of user data, including panel data, social networking system data, and user data from other online service providers. To avoid data leakage that could occur if the different providers were to share their user data, an advertising server accesses user data from the various sources and applies rules for obtaining the advertising metrics from the various user data sources. The rules may determine what data to use when there are conflicts between the different sources. Derived data may also be used to provide an indication of underlying demographics data without revealing personal information from the data source.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a computing device provides for presentation to a user a first user interface, the first user interface including a plurality of interactive elements. The computing device receives first user input selecting one of the interactive elements. In response to the first user input, the computing device provides for presentation to the user an animation associated with the selected one of the interactive elements. The computing device receives second user input associated with the selected one of the interactive element and, in response to the second user input, provides for presentation to the user a second user interface, the second user interface being associated with the selected one of the interactive elements.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving a request for a first user to access a loan from a lender, the request identifying a user identifier (ID) of the first user; determining whether the first user is authorized to access the loan based at least in part on a gray list comprising user IDs of the users who are not authorized to access loans, wherein the gray list is based on a black list; and permitting the loan to be accessed by the first user if the first user is authorized to access the loan based on the gray list.

Abstract: Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for deleting shared resources from a cache in a multi-threaded system. The shared resources can be used by a plurality of requests belonging to multiple threads executing in the system. When requests, such as requests for executing script code, and work items, such as work items for deleting a shared resource, are created, a global sequence number is assigned to each of them. The sequence number indicates the order in which the requests and work items are created. A particular work item can be executed to delete the shared resource if there are no requests having a sequence number lesser than that of the particular work item executing in the system. However, if there is at least one request with a sequence number lesser than that of the particular work item executing, the work item is ignored until the request completes executing.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a request is received from a first user to create a location-triggered benefit that may be redeemed by a second user at a vendor and associated with a condition. The first user is not the vendor, and the condition may require that the second user go to a particular location. A record of the location-triggered benefit may be created in a database. Information may be received that the second user has satisfied the condition, and in response, the second user may be allowed to redeem the location-triggered benefit at the vendor.

Abstract: When a social networking system receives an image and associated text for presentation to one or more users, the social networking system determines how to present the text and the image. For example, the social networking system determines if to overlay the text onto an area of the image. A readability score indicating the readability of the text if overlaid onto an area of the image is determined based on attributes of the image and of the text. Using the readability score, the social networking system overlays the text onto an area of the image when presented to other users or presents the text adjacent to the image when presented to other users.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a computer system determines a wireless transmit cost for each of one or more outgoing messages for a first user, and transmits to the first user's mobile device at least one of the one or more outgoing messages based on the mobile device's power state and respective wireless transmit costs of the one or more outgoing messages.

Abstract: An online system allows creators and owners of content items presented within the system to view real-time metrics related to the content items. The online system stores data describing user interactions with content items in one or more activity logs and processes the activity logs in a distributed manner activity to identify user interactions with content items. For example, activity logs are divided into several portions that are processed in parallel using aggregation operators to generate user interaction aggregations. An aggregation includes one or more user interactions associated with the same content item and sharing certain criteria. From the user interaction aggregations, the online system determines one or more requested metrics, and may combine user interaction aggregations related to different content items when computing metrics.

Abstract: One variation of a method for linking images in social feeds to branded content includes: loading an image to a social networking system; receiving, from a first user, a tag including identification of an item visible in a particular region of the image; associating the tag with the particular region of the image; based on the tag, correlating the item with a particular brand; posting the image to a social feed of the particular brand within the social networking system; and in response to interaction with the image, in the social feed, by a second user, directing the second user to brand content specified by the particular brand.

Abstract: One variation of a method for calculating advertisement effectiveness includes: posting an advertisement for a product to a social feed within a social networking system; tracking a view of the advertisement by a user; determining a proximity of the user to a store of a merchant; in accordance with a privacy setting of the user, selecting personal data of the user from data stored in the social networking system, the personal data including an identity of the user and an interest of the user; in response to the determined proximity of the user to the store, transmitting the selected personal data to the store; and, in response to a transaction between the user and the store, assessing an effectiveness of the advertisement according to a determined correlation between the transaction and the view of the advertisement by the user.

Abstract: A method and system for instant personalization security are provided. The system includes a platform on a user to open applications and/or access web sites. When an application is integrated with the platform, the identification of the application can be combined with the ID of the user and encrypted into a hashed ID. The application does not have access to the user's fully identifying profile (e.g., UID or other public information). Instead, the application only has access to pseudonymous profile (e.g., the hashed ID, first name, last initial, small profile pictures and/or other non-fully identifying profile information) of the user. One or more options are then provided for the user to authorize or reject the application to access the user's fully identifying profile. Upon the user's authorization, an access token is provided to the application to access a subset of the user's fully identifying profile.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving a request to transmit content related to a first user to a second user, determining whether transmission of the content is authorized based on a list of unauthorized users, and transmitting the content to the second user if the transmission is authorized based on the list.

Abstract: An advertisement is received by an online system, which divides the advertisement into components. The online system determines whether the components satisfy one or more policies of the online system. Tags may be associated with components of the advertisement that describe characteristics of the component. Tags are compared to one or more advertisement rules from a policy to determine if a component corresponding to the tags satisfies the policy. The online system may notify advertisers of advertisement components that do not satisfy the a policy of the online system to allow the advertiser to more easily modify advertisements for subsequent compliance.

Abstract: One variation of a method for selectively advertising items in an image includes: loading an image to a social feed; receiving a first tag and a second tag including identification of a first item and a second item visible in the image, respectively; based on the first tag and the second tag, correlating the first item with a first product and the second item with the second product; based on the first product and the second product, sourcing a first link to a first electronic storefront and a second link to a second electronic storefront that facilitate purchase of the first product and the second product, respectively; and selectively displaying a first visual cue of the first link and a second visual cue of the second link to a first user and to a second user, respectively, according to demographics of the first user and the second user.

Abstract: A social networking system provides stories about objects in the social networking system to a viewing user. To increase the likelihood that a story will also be provided to other users, the social networking system allows the viewing user to promote the story. When a user promotes a story, the social networking system may monitor the effectiveness of the promotion. For example, the social networking system generates a ghost story corresponding to a promoted story and not associated with promotion information. When a promoted story is selected to be provided to a user, the social networking system determines whether the ghost story would have been selected to be provided to the user. If the ghost story would have been selected, the social networking system determines the promotion did not affect selection of the promoted story.

Abstract: Systems and methods for social dating are provided. In particular, some embodiments provide recommendations for connections (i.e., candidate users) based on a user's social graph. These recommendations can identify potential single individuals that may be good matches for dating or can identify individuals with other commonalities or shared experiences to create dialog. For example, the recommendations for a user can include single individuals that are friends of a friend. The user can be presented with information about the recommendation and then ask for an introduction from the user's friend. As another example, the recommendations can be based on subject matter selected by the user (e.g., twins, cancer, phone type, etc.) with or without any friendship connections. The user may also be able to filter or further refine the searches based on other criteria such as interests, location, age, and/or other constraints. Rewards can be provided in some cases to encourage participation.

Abstract: An audio identification system accounts for an audio signal's complexity when generating a test audio fingerprint for identification of the audio signal. In particular, the audio identification system determines a complexity of an audio signal to be fingerprinted. For example, the audio signal's complexity may be determined by performance of an autocorrelation on the audio signal. Based on the determined complexity, the audio identification system determines a length of a sample of the audio signal used to generate a test audio fingerprint. A sample having the length is then obtained and used to generate a test audio fingerprint for the audio signal. The test audio fingerprint may be compared to a set of reference audio fingerprints to identify the audio signal.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a computing device provides for presentation a first user interface including a first interactive element. The computing device receives first user input selecting the first interactive element and, in response to the first user input, provides for presentation multiple second interactive elements, each of the second interactive elements being presented with an associated label. The computing device receives a second user input selecting one of the second interactive elements and, in response to the second user input, provides for presentation a second user interface.

Abstract: An audio identification system determines whether a portion of a sample of an audio signal includes silence and generates a test audio fingerprint for the audio signal based on the presence of silence. In one embodiment, the audio identification system uses a value indicating silence for a portion of the test audio fingerprint corresponding to the portion of the audio signal that includes silence. When comparing the test audio fingerprint to reference audio fingerprints, the portion of the test audio fingerprint including the value indicating the presence of silence is not used. In another embodiment, the audio identification system replaces the portion including silence with additive audio and generates a test audio fingerprint for comparison based on the resulting modified sample.

Abstract: Systems and methods for protecting the privacy of users by controlling access to the users' data. In particular, some embodiments provide for a higher-level declarative language for expressing privacy policies which can be verified using a computer-aided verification tool. The verification tool uses the expressed privacy policies along with language-level assumptions and assertions in the verification process. For example, high-level models of the privacy policies can be reduced to a simpler verification representation (e.g., a Boolean representation) based on a set of assertions. This verification representation can then be submitted to a constraint solver (e.g., Satisfiability Modulo Theories solver) for verification.

Abstract: One variation of a method includes: receiving a transaction request, the transaction request comprising an identity of a user, a location of a vendor, and a price of a transaction; identifying a set of payment methods available to the user, a particular payment method in the set of payment methods characterized by a discrete payment structure defining a discrete payment increment; ranking the available payment methods according to a preferred payment method associated with the location of the vendor, according to the discrete payment structure of the particular payment method, and according to the price of the transaction; receiving a selection from the user for the particular payment method for the transaction; and authorizing a payment to the vendor with the particular payment method.

Abstract: A social networking system user may associate an emoji representing the user's emotional reaction with a content item presented by the social networking system. The user is presented with one or more emoji maintained by the social networking system and selects an emoji for associating with the content item. If certain emoji are selected, the social networking system prompts the user for compensation or requests compensation from an entity associated with the selected emoji. The selected emoji is associated with the content item and a connection, or other information, between the user and the object identifying the selected emoji is stored by the social networking system. The selected emoji may be displayed with the content item to the user and to other users connected to the user.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for caching data associated with a sliding window in computer systems. A sliding window can include a time window that progresses with time, and the data can include time series data. As time progresses, the sliding window changes bringing in new data. The cache is updated with new data as and when the sliding window moves. The sliding window data is cached at various granularity levels. The method includes storing a first portion of the data at a first granularity level and a second portion at a second granularity level. The data is cached at various granularity levels in order to effectively use the cache considering at least cache updating criteria such as (i) number of times a storage unit is queried to retrieve the data for updating the cache, (ii) the day/date/time at which the storage unit is queried.

Abstract: One variation of a method for displaying a product-related image to a user while shopping includes: loading an image to a social networking system; receiving a tag including identification of an item visible in a region of the image; based on the tag, correlating the item with a product; posting the image to a social feed within the social networking system, the social feed including a set of photos related to the product; receiving a scan from a user, the scan generated through a mobile computing device carried by the user; correlating the scan with the product; and displaying the image within a social networking interface accessible through a display of the mobile computing device.

Abstract: A social networking system manages the accessibility of content items provided by users and directed to various audiences in the social networking system. An author provides the social networking system with a content item, a content item tag indicating an association between the content item and a tagged user, and a definition of a first audience who may view the content item. The social networking system then allows the tagged user to provide a definition of a second audience who may view the content item, where the second audience may contains users who are not in the first audience defined by the original author. The social networking system then determines whether a viewing user may view the posted content item (and tag) based on whether the viewing user is in at least one of the first audience and the second audience.

Abstract: The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and a diversity policy is applied to prevent overrepresentation of timeline unit type(s). The timeline units are used to generate a timeline view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user.

Abstract: Machine learning models are used for ranking news feed stories presented to users of a social networking system. The social networking system divides its users into different sets, for example, based on demographic characteristics of the users and generates one model for each set of users. The models are periodically retrained. The news feed ranking model may rank news feeds for a user based on information describing other users connected to the user in the social networking system. Information describing other users connected to the user includes interactions of the other users with objects associated with news feed stories. These interactions include commenting on a news feed story, liking a news feed story, or retrieving information, for example, images, videos associated with a news feed story.

Abstract: The compatibility score of members of a social network is based on the compatibility of their expressed interests. The compatibility score between any two interests is calculated as the log of the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express both interests divided by the product of: (i) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the first of the two interests and (ii) the estimated probability that a member of the social network will express the second of the two interests. The compatibility score between two individuals is calculated as the sum of the compatibility scores between each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the first of the two individuals and each interest appearing in a set of interests expressed by the second of the two individuals.

Abstract: A load balancer allocates requests to a pool of web servers configured to have low queue capacities. If the queue capacity of a web server is reached, the web server responds to an additional request with a rejection notification to the load balancer, which enables the load balancer to quickly send the rejected request to another web server. Each web server self-monitors its rejection rate. If the rejection rate exceeds a threshold, the number of processes concurrently running on the web server is increased. If the rejection rate falls below a threshold, the number of processes concurrently running on the web server is decreased.

Abstract: Indexing and retrieving real time content in a social networking system is disclosed. A user-term index includes user-term partitions, each user-term partition comprising temporal databases. As a post is received from a user, a user identifier, a post identifier, and a post is extracted. An object store communicatively coupled to a temporal database for recently received content is queried to determine whether terms in the post has already been stored. A term identifier is stored in the user-term index with the user and post identifiers. A forward index stores the post by post identifier. Responsive to a search query, the user-term index is searched by the user's connections and the terms. A real time search engine compiles the results of the user-term index query and retrieves the stored posts from the forward index. The search results may then be ranked and cached before presentation to the searching user.

Abstract: The invention provides a display interface in a social networking system that enables the presentation of information related to a user in a timeline or map view. The system accesses information about a user of a social networking system, including both data about the user and social network activities related to the user. The system then selects one or more of these pieces of data and/or activities from a certain time period and gathers them into timeline units based on whether the viewing user has permission to view them. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by time. The timeline view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user.

Abstract: Online systems, for example, social networking systems store features describing relations between entities represented in the online system. The information describing the features is represented as a graph. The online system maintains a cumulative feature graph and an incremental feature graph. Feature values based on recent user actions are stored in the incremental graph and feature values based on previous actions are stored in the cumulative graph. Periodically, the information stored in the incremental feature graph is merged with the information stored in the cumulative feature graph. The incremental graph is marked as inactive during the merge and information based on new user actions is stored in an active incremental feature graph. If a request for feature information is received, the feature information obtained from the cumulative feature graph, inactive incremental feature graph and the active incremental feature graph are combined to determine the feature information.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a list of media subscriptions offered by a content source, providing one or more questions for display on a display device of a user, receiving one or more answers to the one or more questions, and determining a media subscription based on the one or more answers.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes providing a plurality of thumbnails for display on a display device, receiving an indication that a user selected a particular thumbnail, and providing one or more instructions to change from media content that the user is currently watching to media content associated with the particular thumbnail. Each of the plurality of thumbnails includes a visual indication representing media content previously viewed by the user. The plurality of thumbnails are operable to change from media content that the user is currently watching to media content corresponding to the particular thumbnail selected by the user.

Abstract: Techniques for assessing application quality and recommending applications to users are disclosed herein. A method according to the techniques monitors the users' activities of using the applications and records the usage information. The method further generates and randomly presents rating requests to users who are using the applications to solicit ratings of the applications. An application quality score for an application is calculated and updated based on the usage information and ratings for a group of users having common demographic or geographic attributes. The method automatically recommends an application to a user depending on the corresponding application quality score and a taste similarity score for the user calculated by a taste similarity algorithm based on the user's specific social network information.

Abstract: When multiple regional data clusters are used to store data in a system, maintaining cache consistency across different regions is important for providing a desirable user experience. In one embodiment, there is a master data cluster where all data writes are performed, and the writes are replicated to each of the slave data clusters in the other regions. Appended to the replication statements are invalidations for cache values for the keys whose values have been changed in the master data cluster. An apparatus in the master data cluster logs replication statements sent to the slave databases. When a slave database fails, the apparatus extracts the invalidations intended for the failed database and publishes the invalidations to a subscriber in the region of the failed database. The subscriber sends the invalidations to the local caches to cause stale data for those keys to be deleted from the caches.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining available media content from one or more content sources and providing at least a portion of the available media content for display in a programming guide on a display device of a user. The programming guide includes a plurality of entries each associated with one of the available media content. The method further includes determining that an update action button should be displayed on the display device, providing the update action button for display on the display device when it is determined that the update action button should be displayed, and updating the programming guide in response to a user selection of the update action button. The update action button is operable to cause the social-networking system to update the programming guide.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining that media content being viewed by a user comprises a plurality of entities, accessing information indicative of the plurality of entities, and querying a social graph of the social-networking system for social content associated with each of the plurality of entities and one or more other users of the social-networking system. The social graph includes user nodes that are each associated with a particular user of the social-networking system. The method further includes providing at least a portion of the queried social content from the social graph for display along with the information on a display device of the user.

Abstract: An advertisement (ad) proxy server acts as a proxy for serving content of third-party ads to users of an online system, reducing data leakage from users to advertisers. The ad proxy server acts as an intermediate storage and access point for content included in advertisement, such as images and videos. When an advertisement from an advertiser is selected for presentation by the online system, an ad tag identifying the location of the content for the selected ad is retrieved and used to retrieve a copy of the advertisement content. The ad proxy server stores the copy of the advertisement content and generates a modified ad tag identifying the ad proxy server. The modified ad tag is sent to a client device, which retrieves the copy of the advertisement content from the ad proxy server rather than directly from the advertiser.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph of a social-networking system, and determining, from the social graph, that a user “likes” a first page associated with a particular version of a media content. The social graph includes a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes. The nodes include user nodes that are each associated with a particular user of the social-networking system. The method further includes determining that one or more other versions of the media content exist, determining that a main page is associated with the particular version and the one or more other versions of the media content, and aggregating the user's “like” of the first page to the main page. Each of the one or more other versions of the media content has one or more associated pages.

Abstract: Techniques for providing low latency incremental search results are disclosed herein. According to one embodiment, a method for incremental search includes receiving a first search query from a user, obtaining a plurality of first search results in response to the first search query from an index server, determining whether the plurality of first search results are a substantially exhausted list of results for the first search query, and caching the plurality of first search results in a cache storage if the plurality of first search results are the substantially exhausted list of results for the first search query.

Abstract: Displaying a plurality of encoded media items on a device includes: detecting that a first scrolling action has been completed; determining a predicted next encoded media item to be displayed; obtaining the predicted next encoded media item from a first memory; pre-decoding the predicted next encoded media item to generate a pre-decoded media item; storing the pre-decoded media item in a second memory, the second memory having lower latency than the first memory; receiving an indication that a second scrolling action has begun; and in response to the second scrolling action, displaying the pre-decoded media item via a display interface.

Abstract: A composer interface allows a user to provide input, such as text data, to the social networking system. Based on context information associated with the user and received input, the social networking system presents candidate data items to the user. Selecting a candidate data item allows the user to include the candidate data item in the input. Examples of context information include: users connected to the user, profile information associated with the user, and geographic information associated with the user. The candidate data items may be presented based on the probability of the user selecting a candidate data item.

Abstract: A social networking system contains information describing users of the social network and various connections among the users. A user can access multiple external systems that communicate with the social networking system to access information about the users of the social networking system. Login status of the user account on the social networking system is maintained. If the login status of the user account on the social networking system indicates that the user is not logged in, the user is required to provide authentication information. If the login status of the user account indicates that the user is logged in, social network information is provided to the user via an external system, subject to the privacy settings of users of the social networking system. If the user logs out from an external system, the user is also logged out from the social networking system.

Abstract: An online system stores a plurality of browsing histories for its users, each browsing history associated with a user's user identifying information. Based on a request for an advertisement from a client device that identifies a user and indicates the user does not have an existing session with the online system, the online system compares the identified user's browsing history to other stored browsing histories. Users associated with stored browsing histories similar to the identified user's browsing history are identified and user profiles of the identified users having an established session with the online system are identified. One or more common characteristics of the identified user profiles are used to select an advertisement for presentation to the user.

Abstract: A composer interface allows a user to provide input, such as text data, to the social networking system. To reduce the number of inputs for a user to provide to the social networking system, one or more phrase objects are presented to the user when providing input. A phrase object includes a group of objects that users have previously provided to the social networking system. The social networking system presents phrase objects to the user that match at least a portion of the received input. Context information associated with the input and associated with various phrase objects may be used to select the presented phrase objects. By selecting a presented phrase object, the user includes the selected phrase object in the input.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an indication that a user of the social-networking system watched at least a portion of a program, determining that the user intended to watch the program, and generating a story in response to the determination. The story is published to the social-networking system a predetermined amount of time after receiving the indication.