Abstract: An external system (such as a website) that interacts with users communicates with a social networking system to access information about the users, who may also be users of the social networking system. If a privacy setting is changed in the social networking system, and the change applies to information that has been shared with an external system, the change is enforced at the external system. For example, the external system may be notified that the information is invalid and must be deleted, or the external system may periodically request the information so that changes to the privacy settings are eventually experienced at the external systems. When an external system again needs the information, whether expired naturally or actively invalidated by the social network, the external system sends a new request for the information, which is subject to the (possibly revised) privacy settings.

Abstract: A method includes: determining a maintenance update for a data service tier based on a service condition of a data service of a target host server; selecting a spare host server to perform the maintenance update; performing the maintenance update of the data service tier to the spare host server; activating the data service on the spare host server; and redirecting client request traffic to the spare host server.

Abstract: A social networking system user is prompted to take an action or is provided with additional information associated with a location where the user has checked-in or has associated with content using a tag. When an input including the check-in or tagged location is received, the social networking system selects one or more actions based on the location, the user, and/or contextual information included in the input. A prompt identifying the one or more of the selected actions is generated and presented to the user.

Abstract: An ad bidder receives a request from a user device to select an advertisement (“ad”) for presentation along with a web page. The ad bidder includes a user profile database and may be a social networking system. The ad bidder determines if the user of the user device is logged into the ad bidder and selects the advertisement based on information in the user profile database if the user is logged into the ad bidder. If the ad bidder determines the user is not logged into the ad bidder, the ad bidder retrieves a device cookie stored on the user device. The device cookie describes interactions with content from the user device, such as viewed web pages or ads. Data stored by the device cookie is then used to select the ad for presentation.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes establishing a communication session between a first device and a second device. The first device is a mobile computing device. The location of the first device is received at the second device. The location of the first device is displayed on a graphical user interface of the second device during the communication session.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a social networking system automatically create a shared space for posting requests to the social networking system from multiple users based on social, spatial and temporal proximity, and create a news feed corresponding to the shared space.

Abstract: By interacting with an interface element associated with a third-party system and presented by a social networking system, a user of the social networking system performs an action on the third-party system. For example, the interface element is displayed in a story describing content from the third-party system. The interface element is associated with an action performed on the third-party system, so when a user accesses the interface element a request to perform the action is sent from the social networking system to the third-party system. When the third-party system performs the action, a description of the action is sent back to the social networking system, which may present a confirmation of the action to the user. For example, the appearance of the interface element is modified to indicate that the action was performed.

Abstract: A composer interface provided by a social networking system allows a user to provide input, such as text data, to the social networking system. The composer interface allows the user to identify an action and/or an object related to the input. An action is structured data describing a relationship between objects defined by the social networking system. Based on the action identified as related to the input, the social networking system stores an association between the received input and the identified action.

Abstract: A social networking system provides suggestions of gifts to users for presentation to a target user for a life event of the target user. Merchants provide bids for their products. The social networking system selects products as gift suggestions based on the merchants' bids, recipient's interests, and the candidate user to whom the gift is suggested. The selected gift and any messages relating to the life event are held until a specified time and then delivered to the target user. At the time of delivery, the target user may be provided with alternative products that the target user can select instead of the gift. The social networking system can earn revenue based on promotion of products as gift suggestions, promotion of products as gift alternatives, and for any financial transaction related to the gift.

Abstract: A social networking system presents content items to users, who then provide feedback regarding pairs of content items. The feedback includes a selection of a content item of the pair of content items that was preferred by the user over the other content item. The social networking system uses this information to train a predictive model that scores content items based on quality. The content items may be advertisements. The social networking system uses the pair-wise comparisons of the advertisements to determine feedback coefficients in an advertising quality score prediction model using regression analysis of the pair-wise comparisons for each predictive factor in the model. In this way, the pair-wise comparisons are used to train the prediction model to understand which advertisements are more enjoyable than others. A feedback coefficient for each predictive factor may be computed based on the preferences received from the group of users.

Abstract: A social networking system provides suggestions of gifts to users for presentation to a target user for a life event of the target user. Merchants provide bids for their products. The social networking system selects products as gift suggestions based on the merchants' bids, recipient's interests, and the candidate user to whom the gift is suggested. The selected gift and any messages relating to the life event are held until a specified time and then delivered to the target user. At the time of delivery, the target user may be provided with alternative products that the target user can select instead of the gift. The social networking system can earn revenue based on promotion of products as gift suggestions, promotion of products as gift alternatives, and for any financial transaction related to the gift.

Abstract: An online system provides advertisers with opportunities to bid on presentation of advertisements to a user. Advertisers may bid in real-time on advertisement presentation if the online system determines the expected revenue to the online system from real-time bids is above a threshold value. The expected revenue may be determined based on a probability distribution bids previously placed by advertisers for presenting advertisements to the user or to users with similar characteristics as the user.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides methods and systems for instrumenting a “semantic stack trace” (SST), where semantic information and dependency relationships between a plurality of code elements (“elements”) are captured during runtime execution of various front-end declarative languages, and are subsequently extracted for display in a SST-enabled interactive user interface with traversing capability. Embodiments of the present invention enable a framework for traversing and debugging complex code, providing an unprecedented lens into understanding code behavior in mixed imperative and declarative construction languages.

Abstract: A social networking system provides suggestions of gifts to users for presentation to a target user for a life event of the target user. Merchants provide bids for their products. The social networking system selects products as gift suggestions based on the merchants' bids, recipient's interests, and the candidate user to whom the gift is suggested. The selected gift and any messages relating to the life event are held until a specified time and then delivered to the target user. At the time of delivery, the target user may be provided with alternative products that the target user can select instead of the gift. The social networking system can earn revenue based on promotion of products as gift suggestions, promotion of products as gift alternatives, and for any financial transaction related to the gift.

Abstract: A social networking system provides an advertisement for display to a viewing user along with a social endorsement. The social endorsement is selected from the social information maintained by the social networking system. To select the social endorsement, the social networking system identifies social networking system objects related to the advertisement or components extracted from the advertisement as well as interactions between these objects and other users who are connected to the viewing user in the social networking system, where each interaction relates to a candidate social endorsement. An affinity score may be computed for each candidate social endorsement, where the affinity scores represent a measure of the viewing user's likely interest in each candidate social endorsement. The social networking system selects a social endorsement and provides it for display to the viewing user with the advertisement. In one embodiment, the selection is based upon the computed affinity scores.

Abstract: Groups of users of a social networking system are categorized based on their association with a type of malicious activity. A set of predetermined malicious groups is identified. Users associated with the malicious groups are selected based on their level of interactions with the malicious groups. Other groups associated with the selected users are identified as being potentially malicious groups. The potentially malicious groups are further analyzed based on occurrences of keywords associated with the type of malicious activity and manual verification by experts. The potentially malicious groups are either classified as being malicious or non-malicious or assigned a score based on their likelihood of being associated with the type of malicious activity. The methods and system disclosed can be used for categorizing other types of social network objects based on their association with a type of malicious activity, for example, users, events, and content.

Abstract: A social networking system requests a customizable product from a retailer. The retailer accesses social information associated with one or more additional users connected to the social networking system users and generates recommendations for options to customize the customizable product based on the social information associated with the additional users. When the social networking system orders a customizable product using one of the recommended options, the social networking system is notified and generates a story describing the purchase that is communicated to the additional users of the social networking system.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method receiving receives information describing a current or future activity from a user of a computing system via a mobile device. The current activity is an activity occurring at a current time when the information is received, while the future activity is an activity occurring at a future time relative to a time when the information is received. The method transmits the information describing the current or future activity to a backend database coupled to the Internet and remote from the mobile device. The information describing the current or future activity is accessible to at least one recipient having access privilege to information associated with the user and describing the current or future activity via the Internet.

Abstract: Processing a plurality of media items that are associated with a respective plurality of locations includes: obtaining the plurality of media items; selecting a first media item that defines a first region on a map; determining a first set of media items that are located within the first region; selecting a second media item that defines a second region on the map, the second media item being selected among media items that are not located within the first region; determining a second set of media items that are located within the second region; and processing the first set of media items and the second set of media items as distinct groups.

Abstract: Displaying media items on a map includes: obtaining a plurality of media items; selecting a first representative media item that defines a first region; determining a first set of media items that belong to the first region; selecting a second representative media item, wherein the second representative media item does not belong to the first region, and the second representative media item defines a second region; determining a second set of media items that belong to the second region; and displaying on the map a first set of media items that belong to the first region and a second set of media items that belong to the second region, including displaying the first representative media item on the map at a first location corresponding to the first region, and displaying the second representative media item on the map at a second location corresponding to the second region.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method receiving receives information describing a current or future activity from a user of a computing system via a mobile device. The current activity is an activity occurring at a current time when the information is received, while the future activity is an activity occurring at a future time relative to a time when the information is received. The method transmits the information describing the current or future activity to a backend database coupled to the Internet and remote from the mobile device. The information describing the current or future activity is accessible to at least one recipient having access privilege to information associated with the user and describing the current or future activity via the Internet.

Abstract: An online system predicts values of a target characteristic for users in a set of users based on a reference set of users having known values for the target characteristic. Using descriptive characteristics of users in the reference set of users and target characteristic values for users in the reference set, the online system generates a model predicting values of the target characteristic based on user descriptive characteristics. The online system applies a global constraint on the target characteristic when generating the model, so the model extrapolates from the reference data while achieving aggregate results for values of the target characteristic that are consistent with the global constraint. The global constraint may be obtained from census data or another suitable global aggregate survey. Using the global constraint in the model avoids inaccuracies in reporting of user metrics.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method receiving receives information describing a current or future activity from a user of a computing system via a mobile device. The current activity is an activity occurring at a current time when the information is received, while the future activity is an activity occurring at a future time relative to a time when the information is received. The method transmits the information describing the current or future activity to a backend database coupled to the Internet and remote from the mobile device. The information describing the current or future activity is accessible to at least one recipient having access privilege to information associated with the user and describing the current or future activity via the Internet.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving an unstructured text query, parsing the text query to identify n-grams; determining a score that the n-grams correspond to particular nodes and edges from a social graph, identifying those nodes and edges with a score greater than a threshold score, and then generating structured queries that include references to the identified nodes and edges.

Abstract: An example method for generating a user profile for a user based on a static profile and a dynamic profile of the user includes compressing dynamic rules into aggregated rules for validation. The dynamic rules associated with a particular user are matched to one or more validated aggregated rules to generate the dynamic profile for that user. The static profile for the user is generated for the user based on factual user information and historical transactional data for the user. The static and dynamic profile are then combined to form the user profile.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving an text query, identifying nodes and edges from a social graph that correspond to character strings from the text query, and then generating recommended queries that include references to the identified nodes and edges.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving an unstructured text query, identifying nodes and edges from a social graph that correspond to n-grams in the text query, and then generating structured queries that include references to the identified nodes and edges.

Abstract: A social networking system aggregates two or more stories having at least one common characteristic to create an aggregated story unit. Each story describes an action performed on an object over the social networking system or external to the social networking system. The aggregated story unit includes one or more input elements allowing a viewing user to interact with the aggregate story unit as a whole or with individual stories in the aggregated story unit. The input elements included in the aggregated story unit may be based on the types of the actions or of the objects described by stories in the aggregated story unit and on one or more input policies.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method receiving receives information describing a current or future activity from a user of a computing system via a mobile device. The current activity is an activity occurring at a current time when the information is received, while the future activity is an activity occurring at a future time relative to a time when the information is received. The method transmits the information describing the current or future activity to a backend database coupled to the Internet and remote from the mobile device. The information describing the current or future activity is accessible to at least one recipient having access privilege to information associated with the user and describing the current or future activity via the Internet.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a social networking system models a number of exposures to an advertisement for a concept for a set of users, sample from the set of users attitudinal data toward the concept, and determine effectiveness of the advertisement by evaluating the attitudinal data against the number of exposures to the advertisement.

Abstract: A social networking system obtains financial transaction activity for its users and allows its users to obtain reports of their spending compared to various benchmarks. The benchmarks may be for various demographic groups, networks to which the user belongs, groups of users connected to a user, or any other suitable grouping of users. The social networking system may also forecast a user's spending on a category based on the spending of other users who have similar spending profiles in other categories.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for providing a social context to software applications. According to one embodiment of the invention, a user of a social network authorizes access by an external software application to information available in the social network. At some time later, the user of the social network uses an application designed by a third-party software developer. The application contacts the social network provider for permission to access the information available in the social network. If access has been authorized, the application incorporates the information from the social network into its interaction with the user, providing a social context to the user's interaction with the application.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method receiving receives information describing a current or future activity from a user of a computing system via a mobile device. The current activity is an activity occurring at a current time when the information is received, while the future activity is an activity occurring at a future time relative to a time when the information is received. The method transmits the information describing the current or future activity to a backend database coupled to the Internet and remote from the mobile device. The information describing the current or future activity is accessible to at least one recipient having access privilege to information associated with the user and describing the current or future activity via the Internet.

Abstract: A viewing user is provided with sponsored stories describes actions of a user connected to the viewing user associated with an object promoted by an advertiser or actions otherwise promoted by the advertiser. Based on a performance metric, the social networking system selects the user or action to be described by the sponsored story. For example, the social networking system ranks candidate sponsored stories describing different actions or users and selects a candidate sponsored story to increase the likelihood of a viewing user interacting with the selected candidate sponsored story.

Abstract: Third-party systems outside of a social networking system allow a user of the third-party systems that is also a user of the social networking system to perform an action on the third-party system that are communicated to the social-networking system. Additional actions on the third-party system may be associated with the action. These additional actions are communicated to the social networking system, which identifies the action from the third-party system and associates the additional actions with the identified action. The social networking system may notify the user that performed the action of the additional actions. Also, the social networking system may notify additional social networking system users of the action and of additional actions on the third-party system associated with the action.

Abstract: A social networking system user may request physical prints of digital photographs stored in connection with the user's user profile on the social networking system. The physical prints are generated by a photograph developer, such as a retail store, and retrieved by the user. The user may request the physical prints from an application executing on a user device that allows the user to identify social context information associated with a digital photograph for inclusion on the physical print. The social networking system may notify users connected to the user and/or to the digital image of the physical print generation.

Abstract: As components of an advertisement are received by an online system, the online system determines whether the received components satisfy one or more policies of the online system. If a component does not satisfy a policy of the online system, the user providing the components is notified when the component is provided, allowing the user to modify the component. Additionally, stored data describing previously analyzed components are compared to received components, and the stored data is used if the received component matches a previously analyzed component. This process expedites approval of advertisements by the online system.

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 their relatedness and their relevance to users. These timeline units are ranked by relevance to the user, and are used to generate a timeline or map view for the user containing visual representations of the timeline units organized by location or time. The timeline or map view is then provided to other users of the social networking system that wish to view information about the user.

Abstract: A following user follows a followed user on a third-party application. The followed user may additionally approve the inclusion of content posted by the followed user on the third-party application within an account of any following users on the social networking system. Subsequent postings by the followed user on the third-party application cause the third-party application to notify the social networking system of the posting. The social networking system in turn incorporates the posting of the followed user on the third-party application into a user interface that it displays to the following user.

Abstract: A social data aggregator generates entries of action data describing actions taken by users of a social networking system. The entries are archived in a number of remote data hosts, with a portion of the entries stored in an action cache to expedite retrieval. The action cache is modified to include relevant entries of action data by selecting the most relevant entries from proxy data aggregators, which identify sets of entries from remote data hosts coupled to the proxy data aggregators based on the relevance of the entries in the remote data hosts. The relevance of an entry is based on an associated engagement score indicating a likelihood of a user requesting content interacting with a notification based on an entry.

Abstract: A social graph may be modeled as a collection of claims. Each claim is associated with an author, an audience, and an assertion about a fact. Probabilistic information may be collected from various sources for a claim, enabling a social networking system to evaluate a truthfulness of the assertion made in the claim. User-declared profile information may be evaluated as claims. A user, entity, or application may make claims about any assertions made in the social networking system. Reputation scores may be determined for users based on evaluations of their historical assertions. Claims may be evaluated for truthfulness using a probabilistic prediction model using heuristics analysis, regression analysis, and machine learning methods. A claims-based profile of users may be provided to viewers based on the contexts in which the claims were made. Viewers may view claims made about users, such as the users' biographical information, contact information, expertise, and interests.

Abstract: An advertisement interface receives an input identifying an object maintained by or otherwise accessible to a social networking system. A type associated with the object identified by the input is determined and one or more goals associated with the type are presented. Based on selection of a goal, one or more options are presented, where at least one of the presented options is associated with the selected goal. Hence, goals specific to a type of object may be presented and options specific to a selected goal are presented to increase advertisement effectiveness. Based on the selected options, an advertisement is created and displayed to other users of the social networking system.

Abstract: A user posting content to a social networking system provides a conversion definition along with the content. The conversion definition identifies a type of interaction associated with the content, such as type of interaction with the content that the user would like to track. After the content is presented to additional users, the social networking system identifies additional users performing the type of interaction with the content identified by the conversion definition. One or more metrics describing the interactions of the type of interaction associated with the content are provide to the user that posted the content.

Abstract: As components of an advertisement are received by an online system, the online system determines whether the received components satisfy one or more policies of the online system. If a component does not satisfy a policy of the online system, the user providing the components is notified when the component is provided, allowing the user to modify the component. Additionally, stored data describing previously analyzed components are compared to received components, and the stored data is used if the received component matches a previously analyzed component This process expedites approval of advertisements by the online system.

Abstract: An online system determines the order in which advertisements or advertisements components are reviewed for compliance with policies of the online system based on a calculated score indicating the expected revenue for presenting the advertisement or advertisement(s) including the component to online system users. The score may also reflect additional metrics, such as the time to review, the quality, and the resources for review, calculated for the advertisement or for the component. Based on the score, the advertisements or components are ranked in an order to be reviewed for compliance with policies of the online system.

Abstract: One variation of the first method includes: receiving a first gift order from a first sender through a social networking system, the first gift order specifying a recipient, a first merchant, and a first monetary value redeemable through the first merchant; issuing a tangible gift card to the recipient, the gift card linked to a gift account, of the recipient, within the social networking system; receiving a second gift order from a second sender through the social networking system, the second gift order specifying the recipient, a second merchant, and a second monetary value redeemable through the second merchant; linking the first and second monetary values to the gift account; and, in response to a first purchase from the first merchant with the gift card, publishing a detail of the first purchase to a feed within the social networking system in accordance with a privacy setting of the recipient.

Abstract: A social networking system selects a configuration for presenting a story unit describing one or more actions performed by one or more social networking system users. In particular, story units having a particular type are presented to social networking system users using different configurations. Interactions between the social networking system users and the story units presented using the different configurations are captured and analyzed. Based on the analysis, a configuration is selected and used for subsequently presented story units having the same particular type.

Abstract: An application executing on a mobile device, such as an application associated with a social networking system provides a link to install a third-party application. The link may be presented in an advertisement, and the link is used to retrieve data comprising a client application for execution by the mobile device. To track installations, the client application stores an indication that the client application was installed in a shared memory location on the mobile device, as native applications do not have access to cookies. A social networking application executing on the mobile device retrieves the indication the client application was installed from the shared memory location and communicates it to a social networking system for storing in a user profile.

Abstract: New functionality to be added to a web-based application and a desktop application is expressed as declarative and/or procedural code that a conventional rendering engine of the web-based application and the desktop application can use to directly update the state of the applications. Users need not update client-side components—such as the desktop application and/or any plug-ins used by the browser hosting the web-based application—to take advantage of new types of functionality.

Abstract: An advertisement interface presents a single input field for creating advertisements using a social networking system. When input is received via the single input field, the social networking system determines whether the destination identified by the input is internal to or external to the social networking system. Based on the determination of identified destination, a set of options unique to the type of destination is presented. Based on the user's selection of options, an advertisement is created and presented to other users of the social networking system.