Patents by Inventor Thomas Alison

Thomas Alison has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10885553
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes detecting, for each of a plurality of third-party applications corresponding to a respective plurality of pages associated with an online social network, one or more interactions with the page corresponding to the third-party application by one or more first users of the online social network, wherein each of the one or more first users are connected on the online social network to a second user of the online social network. The method also includes calculating, for each of the plurality of third-party applications, a value representing a social relevance of the third-party application based on the number of interactions with the page corresponding to the third-party application by the one or more first users. The method also includes selecting one of the plurality of third-party applications based on its calculated social relevance value. The method also includes sending, to a client device of the second user, an advertisement for the selected third-party application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Publication number: 20200118167
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes detecting, for each of a plurality of third-party applications corresponding to a respective plurality of pages associated with an online social network, one or more interactions with the page corresponding to the third-party application by one or more first users of the online social network, wherein each of the one or more first users are connected on the online social network to a second user of the online social network. The method also includes calculating, for each of the plurality of third-party applications, a value representing a social relevance of the third-party application based on the number of interactions with the page corresponding to the third-party application by the one or more first users. The method also includes selecting one of the plurality of third-party applications based on its calculated social relevance value. The method also includes sending, to a client device of the second user, an advertisement for the selected third-party application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 10587705
    Abstract: Techniques introduced here include a system and method for determining whether to provide a user of a social networking system with candidate users (i.e., potential contacts) with whom the user does not already have any connections with. In some embodiments, the system generates a set of candidate users based on a value (e.g., to the social networking system) associated with each potential connection formed between the user and the set of candidate users. In one or more embodiments, the system ranks the candidate users based on their connection-value to the social networking system and provides the ranked candidate users as suggested new connections to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Brian Piepgrass, Ching-Chih Weng, Daniel Ferrante, Deeptanshu Verma, Peter Martinazzi, Thomas Alison, Ziqing Mao
  • Patent number: 10546322
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system identifies a plurality of third-party applications associated with an online social network, wherein each identified third-party application has one or more connections to users of the online social network, determines a value representing a social relevance of each identified third-party application, wherein the social relevance value is based on one or more connection factors associated with the one or more third-party application connections, selects one of the identified third-party applications based on its determined social relevance value, and generates an advertisement for the selected third-party application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 10530759
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an intermediate server receives a request with a secure ID to authorize a software application, transmits the secure ID to a system, receives an access token from the system indicating that the software application has been authorized, evaluates the access token for validity, and transmits a response to the mobile device indicating the software application is authorized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Publication number: 20190272562
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system identifies a plurality of third-party applications associated with an online social network, wherein each identified third-party application has one or more connections to users of the online social network, determines a value representing a social relevance of each identified third-party application, wherein the social relevance value is based on one or more connection factors associated with the one or more third-party application connections, selects one of the identified third-party applications based on its determined social relevance value, and generates an advertisement for the selected third-party application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Publication date: September 5, 2019
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 10346875
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, receives a request to generate an advertisement of a third-party application, identifies a set of objects associated with the third-party application, wherein each identified object has been interacted with by one or more first users of an online social network, one or more second users of the online social network, wherein each second user is connected on the online social network with at least one of the first users, and sends to one or more client devices of one or more of the second users, respectively, an advertisement of the third-party application, wherein for each second user the advertisement contains a reference to at least one of the identified objects that has been interacted with by at least one of the first users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 10257315
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social networking system transmits a client proxy application to a client device in order to export data from a third-party site that has instituted IP address blocking or rate limiting. In particular embodiments, the proxy application multiplexes a plurality of web responses from the third-party server over a single socket communication with a proxy server. In particular embodiments, the proxy application obtains data from the third-party service and relays it via the proxy server to the social networking system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiranjit Singh Sidhu, Thomas Alison, Kenneth Foo Chuan Khit, Kelvin Foo Chuan Lyi
  • Patent number: 10223758
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system authenticates a user of a mobile device, receives a request from the mobile device to install a software application, transmits data to the mobile device comprising the software application and an installation identifier (ID), receives another request including the installation ID from the mobile device to authorize the software application, evaluates the installation ID for validity, and transmits yet another response to the mobile device in accordance with the evaluation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Publication number: 20170270619
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system authenticates a user of a mobile device, receives a request from the mobile device to install a software application, transmits data to the mobile device comprising the software application and an installation identifier (ID), receives another request including the installation ID from the mobile device to authorize the software application, evaluates the installation ID for validity, and transmits yet another response to the mobile device in accordance with the evaluation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Publication date: September 21, 2017
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Publication number: 20170161487
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an intermediate server receives a request with a secure ID to authorize a software application, transmits the secure ID to a system, receives an access token from the system indicating that the software application has been authorized, evaluates the access token for validity, and transmits a response to the mobile device indicating the software application is authorized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2017
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Patent number: 9672574
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system authenticates a user of a mobile device, receives a request from the mobile device to install a software application, transmits data to the mobile device comprising the software application and an installation identifier (ID), receives another request including the installation ID from the mobile device to authorize the software application, evaluates the installation ID for validity, and transmits yet another response to the mobile device in accordance with the evaluation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Patent number: 9578011
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an intermediate server receives a request with a secure ID to authorize a software application, transmits the secure ID to a system, receives an access token from the system indicating that the software application has been authorized, evaluates the access token for validity, and transmits a response to the mobile device indicating the software application is authorized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Publication number: 20160358212
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, receives a request to generate an advertisement of a third-party application, identifies a set of objects associated with the third-party application, wherein each identified object has been interacted with by one or more first users of an online social network, one or more second users of the online social network, wherein each second user is connected on the online social network with at least one of the first users, and sends to one or more client devices of one or more of the second users, respectively, an advertisement of the third-party application, wherein for each second user the advertisement contains a reference to at least one of the identified objects that has been interacted with by at least one of the first users.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 9460476
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, receives a request to access a resource of the social graph, generates an advertisement of a third-party application based on the relevance of the third-party application to the user, wherein the relevance of the third-party application is based on social-graph information associated with the user and the third-party application, and sends the advertisement of the third-party application to the client device of the user for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Publication number: 20150373009
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an intermediate server receives a request with a secure ID to authorize a software application, transmits the secure ID to a system, receives an access token from the system indicating that the software application has been authorized, evaluates the access token for validity, and transmits a response to the mobile device indicating the software application is authorized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Mazal Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Publication number: 20150287079
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, receives a request to access a resource of the social graph, generates an advertisement of a third-party application based on the relevance of the third-party application to the user, wherein the relevance of the third-party application is based on social-graph information associated with the user and the third-party application, and sends the advertisement of the third-party application to the client device of the user for display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2015
    Publication date: October 8, 2015
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Patent number: 9154568
    Abstract: An intermediate server can receive a request from a mobile device to authorize a software application, transmit a secure ID included in the request to a social-networking system, receive an access token from the social-networking system indicating that the software application has been authorized, evaluate the access token for validity, and transmit a response to the mobile device indicating the software application is authorized. The secure ID can indicate that a user of the mobile device has been authenticated by the social-networking system. The access token can be valid when the access token and the secure ID both correspond to the user of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Alison, Micha Berdichevsky, Bosmat Eldar, Shashank Pandit
  • Patent number: 9105052
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, identifies a first set of concept nodes associated with an application, connected to friends of a user, selects a second set of concept nodes from the first set of concept nodes based on edges connected to the concept nodes, and generates an advertisement for the application, where the advertisement includes information representing the concept nodes in the second set of concept nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison
  • Publication number: 20140289052
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a social-networking system accesses a social graph, identifies a first set of concept nodes associated with an application, connected to friends of a user, selects a second set of concept nodes from the first set of concept nodes based on edges connected to the concept nodes, and generates an advertisement for the application, where the advertisement includes information representing the concept nodes in the second set of concept nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2014
    Publication date: September 25, 2014
    Inventors: Alexander Paul Schultz, Thomas Alison