Abstract: Systems and methods for near-field communications with a mobile device are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for near-field communication may comprise: detecting, by a source device located at a point-of-sale, the proximity of a receiving device; encoding purchase data on an audio signal with one or more ultrasonic frequencies; and transmitting the encoded purchase data to the receiving device, wherein the encoded purchase data is transmitted using a speaker of the source device.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, a method includes accessing a graph structure comprising a plurality of nodes and edges where each node represents a user, receiving a request to transmit content related to a first user to a second user, and prohibiting transmission of the content to the second user if the first user and the second user are connected in the graph structure through a series of edges and nodes that comprises an unauthorized node.

Abstract: Particular embodiments display an object at a first position on a screen of an electronic device; and in response to a user selecting the object with one or more fingers and moving the fingers around the screen, display an animated sequence depicting the object moving around the screen tracking movements of the user's fingers, movements of the object in the first animated sequence simulating a visual effect of the object being tethered to the user's fingers by one or more springs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a geo-social networking system maintains a data store of shared space, wherein each shared space comprises one or more content objects, a location, and one or more privacy settings. The geo-social networking system allows a user read-access to a shared space based on privacy settings associated with the shared space. The geo-social networking system allows a user write-access to a shared space if the user is at the location associated with the shared space.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving data uniquely identifying a particular user to the verification authority and a request to access a shared device. The shared device being configured for use by at least a number of users. The method also includes accessing a social graph of the particular user to determine whether one or more users in the social graph have previously accessed the shared device; and displaying on a display of the mobile device information indicating which of the users in the social graph have previously accessed the shared device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a computing device displays a graphical parameter-control element in a graphical user interface indicating a range and a position value of a controllable parameter of an application of the computing device. The computing device may detect a touch event on a touchpad of the computing device. The computing device may determine that the touch event is a scrolling event, and scroll the position value along the range based on a direction of the scrolling event, and adjust the position value by a relative amount within the range mapping to a relative distance of the scrolling event along the touchpad.

Abstract: To authenticate nodes, a connection between a first node and a second node may be identified. A first set of nodes having connections with the first node and assigned to a first plurality of clusters may be identified. A second set of nodes having connections with the second node and assigned to a second plurality of clusters may be identified. A first distribution of clusters may be generated based on the first set of nodes. A second distribution of clusters may be generated based on the second set of nodes. The first distribution and the second distribution may be analyzed. An authenticity metric for at least one of the first node and the second node may be generated based on the analyzing the first distribution and the second distribution.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for displaying a uniform resource locator (URL) to assist a user in determining whether a URL destination is what the user expects. A link is presented for selection to a user, and a URL corresponding to the link is accessed. A portion of the URL that corresponds to a hostname component of the URL may be identified, and the URL may be displayed. The hostname component of the URL is visually distinguished from other components of the URL. In addition to or as an alternative to displaying the URL and visually distinguishing the hostname component, a warning message relating to the hostname portion of the URL may be displayed. The techniques may be implemented as a software plug-in or in any type of software application that is capable of recognizing URLs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, generating a plurality of structured queries, where each structured query comprises references to nodes and edges of the social graph, and where at least one of the structured queries is a dynamic query comprising a reference to one or more to the social graph, and sending one or more of the structured queries to a user for display, where at least one of the sent structured queries is a dynamic query.

Abstract: A social networking system provides a short, unbiased biographical summary for a user of the social networking system. The short biography includes a few relevant biographical information items selected from the user's profile and is displayed on the profile page. The short biography may be displayed with a set of photographs also selected from the profile for their relevance. Relevance may be based on various information including temporal relevance and relevance to the viewing user. Display of the short biography allows a viewer to easily find current biographical information about the user in an abbreviated format.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining a geo-location centroid of each of one or more geo-location clusters. The geo-location centroid corresponds to one or more geo-location data points within its geo-location cluster. The geo-location data points represent one or more location readings from a mobile computing device associated with a user. The geo-location centroids are based at least in part on location readings obtained during a particular time of day of a particular day of a week. The method also includes grouping one or more geo-location centroids into one or more groups; and determining a time-based routine based at least in part on a number of geo-location centroids within each group.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, one or more images associated with a primary user are received. The image(s) may comprise single images, a series of related images, or video frames. In each image, one or more faces may be detected and/or tracked. For each face, one or more candidates are selected who may be identified with the face. Each candidate may be connected to the primary user within a social network. A candidate score for each candidate associated with a detected face. Finally, the winning candidate is determined, and a suggestion to identify the detected face as being the winning candidate is presented. Some embodiments may operate upon video clips as the video is captured by a mobile device. Some embodiments may operate upon series of images as they are uploaded to or viewed on a website.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes transmitting at a pre-determined polling frequency an activation signal waking from a sleep mode an application on a mobile computing device and causing the application to activate a location service of the mobile computing device for a pre-determined sampling duration. The pre-determined polling frequency and the pre-determined sampling duration are determined at least in part by detecting a movement of the mobile computing device. The method also includes receiving location data from the mobile computing device after the pre-determined sampling duration. The location data is responsive to a transmission signal.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a geo-social networking system determines a user's current location, generate a list of places near the user's current location, rank the list of places based on distance, relevancy and a configurable rule set, and automatically checks in the user at the top ranked place.

Abstract: A message screening system includes routing to a supervisory recipient an electronic message directed to an intended recipient. The supervisory recipient then is allowed to screen the electronic message by approving or rejecting the electronic message. The electronic message then is forwarded to the intended recipient if the electronic message is approved by the supervisory recipient.

Abstract: Techniques for a system capable of performing low-latency database query processing are disclosed herein. The system includes a gateway server and a plurality of worker nodes. The gateway server is configured to divide a database query, for a database containing data stored in a distributed storage cluster having a plurality of data nodes, into a plurality of partial queries and construct a query result based on a plurality of intermediate results. Each worker node of the plurality of worker nodes is configured to process a respective partial query of the plurality of partial queries by scanning data related to the respective partial query that stored on at least one data node of the distributed storage cluster and generate an intermediate result of the plurality of intermediate results that is stored in a memory of that worker node.

Abstract: In one embodiment, dividing a set of texts into one or more text blocks, each text block including a portion of the set of texts; rendering each text block to obtain one or more rendered text blocks; determining a placement instruction for each rendered text block, the placement instruction indicating a position of the rendered text block when it is displayed; and sending the one or more rendered text blocks and their respectively associated placement instructions to a electronic device for displaying on the electronic device.

Abstract: A social networking system provides tips to users about non-user entities within the social networking system. Tips include short questions, comments, reviews and non-user entities include businesses, products, bands, songs etc. Tips are provided by users of the social networking system, wherein the tips are displayed to other users of if the other users meet privacy criteria associated with the tips. Additionally, tips are ranked based on the likelihood that a user will view or read the tip. Tips with the greatest likelihood are ranked higher than those with a lower likelihood. Selected tips with a high likelihood to be viewed are displayed to a viewing user on the topic page or within the user's news feed story.

Abstract: Personalizing communications for a first communication platform includes accessing status information for communication sessions by a communication identity that leverage a first communication platform other than an instant messaging platform. A participant list associated with the communication identity and the first communication platform is passively configured to persistently reflect a list of participant identities from communication sessions in which the communication identity recently participated using the communication platform.

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: 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: In one embodiment, as a user is scrolling through a first series of content items and reaches the nth content items from the first series of content items, display a visual indication that there are additional content items from the first series of content items existing after the nth content item. Upon receiving a first user input, enable the user to scroll through the additional content items existing after the nth content item. Upon receiving a second user input, enable the user to scroll through a second series of content items.

Abstract: Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for determining fraudulent content in a social network. The methods include identifying a plurality of users of the social network who perform a plurality of tasks within the social network in a lockstep manner. In the method, the plurality of users are determined to be performing a given task in the lockstep manner when the plurality of users each perform the given task within a predefined duration of time, where the predefined duration of time is associated with the given task. The method further includes identifying content data generated by the performance of the plurality of tasks by each of the plurality of users. The method further includes determining at least a portion of the content data generated by the performance of the plurality of tasks as fraudulent content.

Abstract: Information may be presented to a user by using a first application to receive a character stream of one or more noncompletion characters. The noncompletion characters indicate that additional characters may be received. The character stream is exchanged with a host that analyzes the character stream to generate results that are responsive to the user's predicted interest. Results are received and displayed so that the user may select one of the results to launch a code segment related to the selected result.

Abstract: A method and search engine for classifying a source publishing a document on a portion of a network, includes steps of electronically receiving a document, based on the document, determining a source which published the document, and assigning a code to the document based on whether data associated with the document published by the source matches with data contained in a database. An intelligent geographic- and business topic-specific resource discovery system facilitates local commerce on the World-Wide Web and also reduces search time by accurately isolating information for end-users. Distinguishing and classifying business pages on the Web by business categories using Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes is achieved through an automatic iterative process.

Abstract: Information may be presented to a user by using a first application to receive a character stream of one or more noncompletion characters. The noncompletion characters indicate that additional characters may be received. The character stream is exchanged with a host that analyzes the character stream to generate results that are responsive to the user's predicted interest. Results are received and displayed so that the user may select one of the results to launch a code segment related to the selected result.

Abstract: Systems and methods for digital video stabilization via constraint-based rotation smoothing are provided. Digital video data including a set of image frames having associated time stamps and a set of camera orientation data having associated time stamps may be provided. A smoothed set of camera orientation data may be generated by minimizing a rate of rotation between successive image frames while minimizing an amount of empty regions in a resulting set of smoothed image frames reoriented based on the smoothed set of camera orientation data.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method and system for implementing an array data type of a programming language using various data structures. The disclosed method includes a plurality of implementations in which the array data type may be implemented. The implementations provide an efficient way to retrieve elements from the array, especially in the order they are inserted into the array. The data structures also minimize the computing resources required to manage and access the array. The disclosed technique also selects one of the many implementations based on criteria such as access pattern or size of the array.

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: A search for content may be performed. A query may be received from a user who is interacting with a first device. A first collection of content that is stored on the first device may be searched to identify local content that is related to the query. A second collection of content that is stored on a second device may be searched to identify remote content that is related to the query. The second device may be different from the first device and may be accessible through a network. Results that refer to both the identified local content and the identified remote content may be displayed to the user.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for transferring electronic data between users of a communications system by receiving, at an instant messaging host, a video file from a sender and intended for a recipient; authenticating the video file; and sending the video file to the intended recipient.

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: Managing instant messages may include receiving instant messages created by or on behalf of one or more message sources for delivery to an intended recipient. From among the received instant messages, qualifying instant messages may be identified that satisfy a capture rule, and two or more of the qualifying instant messages may be captured. The intended recipient may be informed of the captured instant messages unobtrusively, and also may be enabled to manage the captured instant messages.

Abstract: A field maintainable class-based translation system and apparatus with components that ease use by linguistically untrained users is disclosed. The apparatus includes modules for recovering errors, extending and customizing language coverage and increasing the speed of effective communication.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus which includes an extension width determination unit for determining an extension width based on a depression time of the cursor at a reference position on an image display unit where a releasing operation of the cursor was performed, which is a time during which the cursor had been kept depressed until the releasing operation was performed, and an ornament piece arrangement unit for arranging the plurality of ornament pieces at positions radially extended away from the reference position with the extension width determined by the extension width determination unit.

Abstract: A user device requests a web page from a web server of a third-party website, which is separate from a social networking system. The web server from the third-party website sends a markup language document for the requested web page to the user device which includes an instruction for a browser application running on the user device to incorporate information obtained from the social networking system within the web page. Based on the instruction in the received markup language document, the user device requests personalized content from the social networking system, which generates the requested personalized content based on social information about the user. The user device then renders the web page with the personalized content contained in a frame and displays the rendered web page and the frame to the user.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining one or more motions of a camera, where the motions correspond to movements of the camera during recording of a multimedia clip. The method also includes determining one or more amounts of light present during the recording, and from the determined motions and amounts of light, determining a motion-blur metric for the multimedia clip. The method further includes determining whether to apply a video-stabilization routine to the multimedia clip based on the motion-blur metric.

Abstract: Systems are provided for sequencing, delivery acknowledgement, and throttling of data packets over a network layer, such as UDP and SMS. To support devices with limited battery resources, the invention incorporates asymmetric retry logic and/or acknowledgements with overlapping ranges, to minimize the transmissions required for the device. The sender of a data-bearing frame does not need to wait for a frame to be acknowledged before sending the next, such that many frames can be “in flight” at once.

Abstract: To generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for members of a social networking system, at least one action of one or more members of the social networking system is associated with relationship data for the one or more members to produce consolidated data. One or more elements associated with the consolidated data is identified and used to aggregate the consolidated data. Further exemplary methods comprise weighting by affinity the aggregated consolidated data to generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for the members of the web-based social network.

Abstract: An enhanced metadata structure and associated process is provided which captures and stores metadata gathered about the source and usage of a media asset or file. The source and usage metadata is integrated, such as by encoding within the enhanced media file, as the media asset is transferred and used. The integrated metadata accumulates, as a trail of source information and usage information in the enhanced media asset, and can be extracted upon arrival at a target computer system.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a computing device incorporating a camera receives an instruction associated with the camera to display an image generated by the camera in an area within a graphical user interface of an application running on the computing device. The computing device determines a width and a height of the area. The computing device instructs the camera to configure the image, in connection with its generation, for display in the area. And the computing device displays in the area the image as generated and configured by the camera.

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 networked device running a social networking application logs local area network traffic in order to maintain a table of connected users on the same LAN. In such embodiments, the networked device uploads its log of LAN traffic to a social networking system, which associates each MAC address with a user of the social networking system, and detects and identifies recurring patterns when the user of the networked device and other users are on the same LAN. Based upon such patterns, the social networking system may suggest that the two users become friends or otherwise interact on the social networking system. In particular embodiments, a networked device running a social networking application may broadcast mDNS messages containing its social networking ID, allowing other similarly configured devices on the same LAN to interact with the user of the device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes displaying a keyboard on a touch-screen of a computing device; in response to a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determining a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the touch gesture; and entering the particular one of the characters as user input to the computing device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at least one transformation identifier associated with a first image maintained by a social networking system. The transformation identifier includes at least one transformation version. The method further includes determining at least one transformation for application to the first image based on the at least one transformation identifier and the at least one transformation version.

Abstract: A method includes receiving sponsor specifications designating story characteristics, monitoring an organic activity stream for entries matching the story characteristics, and, in response to identifying an entry as matching the story characteristics, providing for display the entry in a predetermined area of a web page.

Abstract: A collection of content objects and a representative content object may be stored in a k-dimensional tree. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a content object; constructing a first k-dimensional tree in response to determining a second k-dimensional tree is storing information corresponding to a number of content objects that is equal to a number of nodes of the second k-dimensional tree; storing information corresponding to the received content object as a node in the first k-dimensional tree; and moving information corresponding to a stored content object from of each node of the second k-dimensional tree to a corresponding node of the first k-dimensional tree, wherein the corresponding node of the first k-dimensional tree is identified based at least in part on content of the content object.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes displaying a first one of a plurality of touch-screen keyboards on a touch-screen display of a computing device; and, in response to a touch gesture comprising a path comprising two or more points on the touch-screen display, displaying a second one of the keyboards on the touch-screen display in place of the first one of the keyboards.

Abstract: A wireless communications device includes multiple switchable antenna elements that may be used to improve interfacing of the wireless communications device with other devices, such as for interfacing of an RFID-equipped mobile communications device with other RFID devices (e.g., to better ensure power delivery to and/or communication with such other RFID devices) and/or may be used to characterize various aspects of the environment around the wireless communications device, such as for proximity-based functionality.

Abstract: A system of computing assets arranges a plurality of backplanes to form a perimeter of a central region of a backplane structure. A plurality of computing assets are coupled to the backplanes and extend away from the central region of the backplane structure. A plurality of air intake openings are located along the perimeter of the backplane structure. An exhaust duct is coupled to an exhaust opening of the backplane structure and configured to direct air away from the backplane structure and is coupled to an air moving device. When the air moving device is operational, air flows across the computing assets through the air intake openings towards the central region of the backplane structure and into the exhaust duct, which directs the air away from the backplane structure.