Abstract: A system, apparatus, and methods are provided for automatically securing an electronic device. The device is paired with a security token (e.g., an access badge) associated with a user authorized to operate the device. During device operation, if the security token (e.g., which may be worn or carried by the user) is out of range or proximity with the device, after a threshold period of time some or all functionality of the device (e.g., other than communication with the security token) is locked. Multiple modes of operation may be possible, during which the device looks for the security token within different ranges (or signal strengths) and/or uses different time thresholds. The security token may need to be in proximity to the device in order to unlock it (e.g., with a user login sequence), and the device may or may not unlock automatically when the token is proximate to the device.

Abstract: In order to perform system-capability testing, an application in an application layer may provide predefined system capabilities and/or requirements of or associated with the application to a communication plugin in a data-link layer, such as availability of communication via a network and/or a latency of the network less than a predefined value. In response, the communication plugin may determine feedback information that specifies whether the predefined system capabilities are available and whether the predefined requirements are satisfied. Then, the communication plugin may provide the feedback information to the application. When the feedback information indicates that a system capability is unavailable, remedial action may be performed. For example, the remedial action may include updating a version of the application, updating a version of the communication plugin, and/or updating a path to a location in a network.

Abstract: Techniques for identification of a trigger-type leader in a social network are described. According to various embodiments, a specific content item posted by a particular actor of a plurality of actors and interactions by other actors of the plurality of actors with the specific content item are identified. A leadership score associated with the particular actor is then calculated, the leadership score indicating a propensity of the particular actor to stimulate discussion among actors of the online social network service. The particular actor is then classified as an information trigger among the plurality of actors of the online social network service, based on the calculated leadership score.

Abstract: A device, system, and method may variously include a network interface device communicatively coupled to a user interface and a processor, coupled to the network interface device, configured to cause the user interface to display a newsfeed including social network content items, the newsfeed being configured to scroll to display ones of the social network content items on the user interface. At least one of the content items includes a title and content. The content item is configurable in an expanded state corresponding to displaying all of the content of the content item upon a user selection and a contracted state corresponding to displaying a sub-portion of the content. The newsfeed is configured to display the content items in the contracted state upon the social network content item scrolling onto the user interface without respect to the content item being in an expanded state when previously displayed.

Abstract: Techniques for generating and using service call graphs are provided. In one technique, trace data items generated by different services are correlated to generate a service call graph. Trace data indicates when certain services are called and their respective latencies as a result of a client request. A service call graph may reflect a single trace or multiple traces over a particular period of time. A service call graph may be analyzed to inform administrators of a web site how a web application and the services it relies on are performing. A service call graph may be used to determine whether there are sufficient resources to support a projected increase in traffic to a web application. A service call graph may be used to estimate a cost of a web application. Multiple service call graphs may be compared to determine one or more root causes of a performance problem.

Abstract: Techniques for identifying and presenting member profiles similar to a source member profile are described. With some embodiments, a general recommendation engine is used to extract features from member profiles, and then store the extracted features, including any computed, derived or retrieved profile features, in an enhanced member profile. In real-time, the general recommendation engine processes client requests to identify member profiles similar to a source member profile by comparing select profile features stored in the enhanced member profile with corresponding profile features of the source member profile, where the comparison results in several similarity sub-scores that are then combined in accordance with directives set forth in a configuration file. Finally, the member profiles with the highest similarity scores corresponding with the user-selected member profile are selected, and in some instances, presented to a user.

Abstract: In various example embodiments, a system and method for generating and ranking service provider recommendations in a social network are presented. A request to identify a set of service providers that meet a specific criteria is received. The request can be associated with a member of a social network service. Member profiles from among a plurality of member profiles of the social network service are identified based on the specific criteria. A plurality of attributes is extracted from the identified member profiles. A trust factor for each identified member profile indicating the likelihood that the member would trust the service provider is determined based on the extracted profile attributes. The set of service providers is ranked based on the determined trust factor. At least a portion of the set of ranked service providers may be caused to be presented to the member.

Abstract: In order to build or aggregate lists of potential customers, contact information may be collected from viewers of a document, such as a presentation. In particular, multiple pages in a document associated with a user of a social network (such as slides in a presentation) may be presented to a second user of the social network. At one or more dynamically selected pages or locations in the document and/or a dynamically selected position or location on a page, the second user may be requested to provide their contact information and/or additional information. Moreover, the contact information needed from the second user may be dynamically determined.

Abstract: In order to prevent data thrashing and the resulting performance degradation, a computer system may maintain an application-layer cache space to more effectively use physical memory and, thus, significantly improve an application-memory hit ratio and reduce disk input-output operations. In particular, the computer system may maintain a managed memory cache that is separate from a page cache. The managed memory cache may be managed according to predefined caching rules that are separate from the caching rules in the operating system that are used to manage the page cache, and these caching rules may be application-aware. Subsequently, when data for an application is accessed, the computer system may prefetch the data and associated information from disk and store the information in the managed memory cache based on data correlations associated with the application.

Abstract: Systems and methods for the forming of user device groups are presented. In one example, logical relationship information describing logical relationships among a plurality of users is accessed. Potential membership of a first user in a first group of users is determined based on scores generated for each of a plurality of possible groups of users, the scores based on the logical relationship information. Then the first user is added to the first group of users. Content from an electronic device of the first user is received for broadcast to the first group of users. In response to the receiving of content, the scores for each of the plurality of possible groups of users are regenerated based on the content. Then the first user is added to or removed from a second group of users selected from the plurality of possible groups of users based on the regenerated scores.

Abstract: In order to request desired information from a graph database, a system executes a query against the graph database. The graph database may store a graph that includes nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data with index-free adjacency. Moreover, the query may identify a first edge associated with a predicate that specifies one or more of the nodes in the graph. In response to the query, the system receives a result that includes a subset of the graph. In particular, the subset of the graph may include the desired information expressed within an associated structure of the graph.

Abstract: Determining an item to present to a first user is disclosed. Preference information is received that comprises the preferences of a plurality of users associated with one or more items. User correlations are determined from the received preference information. For the first user, a set of other users most correlated with the first user is determined. One or more items are presented to the first user based at least in part on the preferences of the other users.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to a system that uses data from an online social network to optimize subscription offers. During operation of the online social network, the system gathers data associated with subscription offers that were presented to members of the online social network, including information about which subscription offers were converted. Next, the system uses a machine-learning technique to train a model based on the gathered data. Finally, the system uses the trained model to select subscription offers to present to a member of the online social network.

Abstract: Methods and systems for leveraging one's social network in the context of an opportunities marketplace are described. One aspect of the invention involves integrating social networking features into an online marketplace, or exchange. Accordingly, one aspect of the invention involves facilitating an opportunity search in a manner that provides social networking information with the results of the search.

Abstract: A system may include a database configured with individual partitions, one of the partitions corresponding to a sponsored content campaign of a social network. The system may further include multiple servers each communicatively coupled to the database, and each configured to implement a campaign having a campaign termination criterion. Each of the servers may include a processor configured to track sponsored content event data received from a user device based on the campaign and transmit the event data to the database and terminate the campaign based on a comparison of the event data as received from a partition of the database corresponding to the campaign and an estimation of event data not received from the database. The database may be configured to store the event data as received from the servers in the partition corresponding to the campaign upon receipt of the event data.

Abstract: Systems and methods for reducing a churn rate associated with subscribers of social network services are described. In some example embodiments, the systems and methods may access activity information associated with a former subscriber of a social network service, compare the accessed activity information to activity information associated with subscribers of the social network service, identify one or more differences between the activity information associated with the former subscriber of the social network service and the activity information associated with the subscribers of the social network service, and perform an action based on the identified one or more differences.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for analyzing performance in an online professional network. During operation, the system receives time series data for user actions, wherein for each user action, the time series data comprises a series of numbers associated with consecutive time intervals, wherein a given number indicates a number of times the user action occurred during the time interval. The system also receives time series data for performance metrics, wherein for each performance metric, the time series data comprises a series of numbers associated with consecutive time intervals, wherein a given number indicates the number of times the performance metric occurred during the time interval. The system then performs a time series analysis on the received time series data for user actions and performance metrics to determine relationships between the user actions and the performance metrics.

Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium, and computer-implemented method for automatic discovery of how and when people met is provided. A plurality of signals are analyzed to determine a level of significance of each of the plurality of signals in providing a suggested entry into a data field of a contact management system designated to provide a description of how a user met a contact. In response to at least one signal of the plurality of signals exceeding a threshold level of significance, a suggested entry for the data field of the contact management system is determined. The suggested entry of how a user met a contact is automatically displayed to a user.

Abstract: During a storage technique, multiple messages (such as emails) associated with a user of a communication application are received. Then, the multiple messages are stored in a message table associated with the user and the multiple messages are indexed in an index associated with the user. This index may be divided into multiple divisions if a total number of messages stored in the message table exceeds a threshold value, where each division corresponds to messages received during a different time interval.

Abstract: A system executes a query associated with an application against a graph database by providing, to a first shard of the graph database, the query and a first query header that specifies the first shard. The query includes a subject, a predicate and an object, and the graph database stores a graph that includes nodes, edges between the nodes, and predicates to represent and store data. In response to the query, the system receives results and associated result headers from the first shard and a second shard, where the result headers specify that the results are partial results that are particular fractions of a total result. Furthermore, a combination of the partial results provides the total result to the query that includes a subset of the graph. Note that the subset of the graph may include desired information expressed within an associated structure of the graph.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains one or more metrics associated with user interaction with a set of content items in a member segment of a social network. Next, the system ranks the set of content items by the one or more metrics. The system then generates a content pool for the member segment based on the ranking of the content items. Finally, the system creates a content feed from the content pool for presentation to a user in the member segment.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for selecting electronic content to surface to a member of a user community, among content associated with a second member with whom an inferred (i.e., non-explicit) connection has been formed. Based on the members' types (e.g., Professional, Student, Recruiter) and/or other factors, a type is assigned to the new connection. A default vector comprising weights corresponding to multiple categories of content that may be served to a community member (e.g., content creation items, content curation items) is generated based on how other members within the same type of relationship interacted with content surfaced to them. A personal vector copied from the default vector is used to select, from content associated with the second member, items to surface to the first member, but may be altered over time based on the first member's interaction with the items.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of content pools for a user, wherein each content pool in the set of content pools includes a set of content items associated with user activity in a member segment of a social network. Next, the system calculates a set of probabilities of clicking the content items in the content pool. The system then uses the probabilities to order the content items with other content items from other content pools into a content feed for the user. Finally, the system presents the content feed to the user.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for automatically establishing an inferred (‘follow’) relationship between a first member and a second member of a user community. Based on passive and/or active signals indicating affinity of the first member for the second member, the system determines whether an inferred connection from the first member to the second member would improve the first member's network within the user community. A potential improvement may be observed if the potential connection would improve some aspect or characteristic of a target or ideal network identified for the first member, and/or if there is more than a threshold level of affinity between the members. The first member's network may be pruned, if necessary, to accommodate a connection to the second member if, for example, the connection would violate a constraint associated with the target or ideal network.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for identifying an ideal or target network of a member of a professional network or social network, or one or more characteristics of such a network. Based on a type of the member, one or more attributes of a profile of the member, and/or one or more goals of the member, characteristics may be identified that support achievement of those goals or that promote more effective use of the professional network or social network by the member. By way of illustration, an ideal or target user network of a member seeking to improve her future job opportunities may include a minimum number of connections to members employed by different organizations, while an ideal or target user network of a member seeking a mentor may include a maximum number of connections to members holding senior positions within the member's industry or functional area.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for issuing content event notifications to members of a user community that makes content available to its members. Events involving content items of interest to a given member (e.g., creation, upload, sharing) are recognized, particularly events that involve another member connected to the given member in the community, and the relevance of the items to the member or to content topics of interest to the member is determined. Time slots during which notifications can be issued to the member are identified (e.g., using the member's calendar data), possibly in association with events on the member's calendar, and may be associated with one or more topics that interest the member. During a time slot, only notifications regarding content items related to the associated topic(s) may be issued. A do-not-disturb time slot may be defined as a period during which no notifications should be issued.

Abstract: A method of making it easier for users to interact with each other via a social networking system is disclosed. It is detected that a first user of a social networking system performed an action with respect to a second user of the social networking system. It is interpreted that the action of the first user corresponds to a command that the first user intends to issue to a social networking system, the command pertaining to the second user. The command is processed by the social networking system on behalf of the first user.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for identifying and/or ordering events (or notifications of events) within a computing environment featuring a high rate of events (e.g., hundreds of millions per minute). New events are labeled based on multiple alternating epochs comprising sequences of event identifiers, wherein each epoch's identifiers are mutually exclusive of other epochs. Illustratively, each epoch may commence with a different initial identifier (e.g., 0, 1, 2) and each epoch's sequence of identifiers thereafter increment in the same manner (e.g., by twos, by threes) until a maximum identifier is encountered. All of one epoch's identifiers are applied before the next epoch's are applied. After a last epoch is exhausted, labeling begins again with the first epoch. Verifying or enforcing event ordering may involve determining a given event's identifier, epoch, timestamp, and/or other characteristics, and/or characteristics of a previous event.

Abstract: Example systems and methods of distributing content in computer networks are provided. Content received at a first distribution server is transmitted to a plurality of destination devices via the communication network. When a traffic condition regarding the transmitting of the received content stream is detecting, an indication of the traffic condition to a traffic management device. Then, an instruction is received from the traffic management device to assign at least one other distribution server to additional destination devices in response to the indication of the traffic condition, and the received content stream is transmitted from the distribution server to the at least one other distribution server for distribution to the additional destination devices in response to the instruction.

Abstract: Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems and machine readable medium for recommending an out-of-network communication by determining a set of potential recommended members of a social networking service based upon one or more recommendation criteria. In some examples the recommendation criteria may include: a profile similarity to a previous target of an out-of-network communication, a degree of correspondence between an interest and intent of the sending member, and a likelihood of response.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for promoting achievement of a goal within a professional community, such as an online professional network. A member is selected as a candidate for assistance based on her level of usage of the community and/or other factors, and a goal of the member may be learned explicitly or implicitly. Based on her goal and her level of proficiency within the community, which may be determined based on the number of discrete tasks or metrics she has accomplished, a set of milestones is suggest to her. The milestones are both related to the member's goal and customized to her level of proficiency. Upon completion of the milestones, she may be given a reward that is related to the goal.

Abstract: In order to facilitate access to relevant information, a system may determine topics that are of interest based on skills of users in a social network of users and annotations associated with content in the social network. Then, the system may identify experts knowledgeable about the topics among the users in the social network. These experts may be invited to aggregate and edit the topic content. For a given topic, the system may provide, to a subset of the experts, documents with suggested topic content and presentation formats for the topics. Based on feedback from the subset of the experts (such as modifications to one or more of the documents and/or the presentation formats), the system may modify or revise the documents.

Abstract: In order to facilitate access to and exchange of a given content item in a sequential set of content items (such as a slide in a presentation or a frame in a video), a system may create a clipped-content identifier in response to a clip selection of the content item by a user. This clipped-content identifier may include a pointer to a location in the system that stores the content item in the sequential set of content items, and metadata associated with the content item. Subsequently, the system may present a clipped-content summary document to the user, which allows the user to download, edit, share, and aggregate one or more clip selections in sequential sets of content items.

Abstract: During an analysis technique, a cohort of individuals is identified based on a set of attributes. Significance metrics for the individuals in the cohort are calculated based on profiles of the individuals and behaviors of the group of individuals, which includes the cohort, when interacting with the profiles. For example, a significance metric for a given individual may include a number of views of a profile of the given individual, by a group of individuals, during a time interval and/or a number of connection requests to the profile of the given individual, by the group of individuals, during the time interval. Based on the significance metrics, the subset of the individuals may be identified. This subset may include individuals that have achieved career milestones exceeding those of the other individuals in the cohort (e.g., notable individuals).

Abstract: A fact checking system is able to verify the correctness of information and/or characterize information by comparing the information with one or more sources. The fact checking system automatically monitors, processes, fact checks information and indicates a status of the information. The fact checking system is able to incorporate a graphical user interface with fact checking icons to indicate fact checking results.

Abstract: In order to prevent unauthorized access to information, a system may analyze and may selectively store the information provided based on requests from users that are not unauthorized to access the information. In particular, the system may receive a request for information associated with a document (such as a web page) from an authorized user, either in real-time (i.e., during live or online operation of the system) or offline (in which case the system may operate as a proxy for a live feed of requests). In response, the system may provide or replay the request, but may include the credentials of an unauthorized user. Then, the system may analyze the response to the request to determine if the response is substantive (i.e., includes information). If yes, the system may store the response for use in subsequent analysis and to guide remedial action.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus are provided for identifying entities trending within a professional community, such as member of a professional social network. The system collects “share” activity and/or other types of activities conducted by members of the community in which they generate or disseminate (textual) content. From the collected share activity, trending terms are identified and ranked according to scores that reflect the change in frequency of usage of the terms over time. The most relevant shares for each trending term are identified and used to identify names of entities that correspond to (e.g., include) the terms. Reasons indicating why each trending entity is trending are also derived from the share activity. A display or presentation is provided of top trending entities, within one or more segments of the professional community, which includes the reasons and allows a viewer to quickly identify the reason a given entity is trending.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a graph of a social network, wherein the graph includes a set of nodes representing users in the social network and a set of edges representing relationships between pairs of the users. Next, the system stores, on a single computer system, a static representation of the graph, wherein the static representation includes a first set of fixed-size blocks representing the nodes and the edges and a first index that maps a set of identifiers for the nodes and the edges to offsets of the first set of fixed-size blocks. The system then uses the static representation of the graph to process, by the single computer system, one or more queries of the graph.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of clauses in a first set of content items comprising unstructured data. Next, the system obtains a set of stop words comprising high-frequency words that occur in a second set of content items. The system then automatically extracts a set of topics from the set of clauses by generating a set of n-grams from the set of clauses and excluding a first n-gram in the set of n-grams from the set of topics when the first n-gram contains a word in the set of stop words in a pre-specified position of the first n-gram. Finally, the system displays the set of topics to a user to improve understanding of the first set of content items by the user without requiring the user to manually analyze the first set of content items.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of content items and a set of topics in the set of content items. For each topic in the set of topics, the system automatically extracts a set of attributes that provides a context for the topic from a subset of the content items containing the topic. The system then displays the set of attributes in the context of the topic to improve understanding of the set of content items by the user without requiring the user to manually analyze the set of content items.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a set of topics associated with a set of content items. Next, the system obtains a first set of attributes associated with a first topic in the set of topics and a second set of attributes associated with a second topic in the set of topics. Next, the system calculates a similarity between the first and second sets of attributes and applies a threshold to the similarity to identify the first and second topics as synonymous when the similarity exceeds a threshold. The system then merges the first and second topics under a representative topic. Finally, the system displays the representative topic to a user to improve understanding of the set of content items by the user without requiring the user to manually analyze the set of content items.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method, including detecting an event associated with an image displayed on a display device within a software application, loading a media player into the software application behind the image, where the media player is configured to play a media file associated with the image, and causing a representation of a frame of the media file to be displayed within the media player instead of the image.

Abstract: Computerized techniques are described for detecting performance degradation during features ramp up. A first version of web content is sent to first client devices. The first version of the web content lacks a particular feature. First performance data that indicates performance of each first client device with respect to processing the web content is received. A second version of the web content is sent to second client devices. The second version of the web content has the particular feature. Second performance data that indicates performance of each second client device with respect to processing the web content is received. The first performance data is compared with the second performance data to determine a difference between a processing metric associated with the first version of the web content and a processing metric associated with the second version of the web content.

Abstract: Methods and systems of managing settings are described. According to various embodiments, a settings page corresponding to a user's settings on an online service may be caused to be displayed on a device. The settings page may comprise selectable category setting options for a setting category. The setting category may have a plurality of subcategories, and each subcategory may have its own selectable subcategory setting options. Each one of the category setting options may correspond to its own distinct configuration of subcategory setting options for its subcategories. A user input indicating a selection of one of the category setting options for the setting category may be received. The configuration of subcategory setting options corresponding to the selected one of the category setting options for the setting category may be applied to the user's settings on the online service.

Abstract: Systems and methods providing users with a rich web experience are disclosed. In one embodiment, a client and at least one server are in communication using a dual communication link. In another embodiment, a markup language based instant messaging application is disclosed. The instant messaging application may include group instant messaging. The instant messaging application may also provide group member persistence and message persistence at the server. In another embodiment, a card based web application is disclosed, where the card information and character may be shared with other users or within a group. The cards may also be configurable by users.

Abstract: Techniques for optimizing a delivery time for the delivery of messages are described. According to various embodiments, a system determines, for each of a plurality of time intervals, a likelihood of a particular member of an online social network service performing a particular member user action on a particular message content item during the corresponding time interval. The plurality of time intervals are then ranked, based on the determined likelihoods corresponding to the plurality of time intervals. Thereafter, a particular time interval is identified from among the plurality of time intervals that is associated with a highest ranking. The particular time interval is then classified as an optimum personalized message delivery time for the particular member.

Abstract: Methods and systems of managing settings are described. According to various embodiments, a settings page corresponding to a user's settings on an online service may be caused to be displayed on a device. The settings page may comprise selectable category setting options for a setting category. The setting category may have a plurality of subcategories, and each subcategory may have its own selectable subcategory setting options. Each one of the category setting options may correspond to its own distinct configuration of subcategory setting options for its subcategories. A user input indicating a selection of one of the category setting options for the setting category may be received. The configuration of subcategory setting options corresponding to the selected one of the category setting options for the setting category may be applied to the user's settings on the online service.