SOCIAL NETWORK SYSTEM AND METHOD
A social media system includes one or more participant terminals operable to act as a client on a social network and a computer operable to act as a server on the social network and to communicate with each of the participant terminals over the social network. The computer includes: a memory configured to store a set of instructions; and a processor configured to execute the set of instructions. The set of instructions cause the processor to generate a drop down banner as part of a page of a user. The banner is expandable and retractable by reader commands by invoking a control icon.
This application is a Continuation of and claims priority to the benefit of the filing date under 35 USC 120 of patent application Ser. No. 14/478,521, filed Sep. 5, 2014, which is a Continuation-in-Part of patent application Ser. No. 13/544,955, filed Jul. 9, 2012, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONSAny and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the present application are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONField of the Invention
This application relates generally to social networking sites.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONSocial media and social networks are an increasing means for people to connect, conduct business, entertain one another, and the like. Most social media and network sites are rather basic and do not include much in the terms of rich and deep functionality. Therefore, there exists a significant need for a more robust social network.
In one embodiment, a social network system comprising: one or more participant terminals operable to act as a client on a social network; a computer operable to act as a server on the social network and to communicate with each of the participant terminals over the social network, the computer comprising: a memory configured to store a set of instructions; and a processor configured to execute the set of instructions, wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to: receive a user generated advertisement; display the advertisement on a user profile related to the user advertisement; receive an offer related to the displayed advertisement from a buying user; and transfer revenue to the user from the buying user.
In another embodiment, a method for selling items in a social network comprising: receiving a user generated advertisement; displaying the advertisement on a user profile related to the user advertisement; receiving an offer related to the displayed advertisement from a buying user; and transferring revenue to the user from the buying user.
The drawings, when considered in connection with the following description, are presented for the purpose of facilitating an understanding of the subject matter sought to be protected.
Referring now to
The communications network 106 may include any number of networks capable of providing communications between the server 104 and terminals 102. For example, the communications network may be one or more, or any combination of, wireless networks, data or packet networks, publicly switched telephone networks (PSTN), etc.
The participant terminals 102 may include any suitable device operable to act as a client on a network. Illustrative terminals 102 include, but are not limited to, personal computers, desktop computers, laptop computers, servers, or any suitable telecommunications device, including, but not limited to, VoIP telephones, smart telephones or wireless devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA), communications enabled mp3 players, etc. Each terminal 102 may be configured to transmit and/or receive information to and/or from the server 104 and/or other participant terminals 102.
Search FunctionWith particular reference to
Once the search terms are received [step 202], one or more databases 108 are searched for each search term [step 204]. The database(s) 108 may be stored on the server 104 or in a separate location apart from the server 104. In one non-limiting example, the one or more databases 108 store information related to user profiles in the social network. Each database 108 may be configured to receive and/or store information from each user related to each user's profile. Each database is fully searchable and the search is not limited to any particular or narrow field. For example, and without limitation, a user may search the databases 108 for information with another user's post, tags or themes used by other user's with their posts, advertisements posted by other user's, videos posted by users, images posted by users, biographical information about users (e.g. name, location, gender, e-mail address, etc.) or any other suitable information.
Once the database(s) 108 have been searched, the server 104 may generate a search result [step 206]. In one embodiment, the search result includes the number of instances each search term has been found in each database. Additionally, in one embodiment, the search result includes a date associated with each of the instances that each search term has been found. The date may be any suitable date. The search result may be arranged in any suitable fashion. For example, and without limitation, the results may be arranged according to relevance, number of hits, by user, alphabetically, or in any other suitable fashion. The user performing the search may then browse the search results and select certain items in the results list to view in further detail.
User Sponsored AdsThe system 100 may also include a user sponsored ad function. With the user sponsored ad function, a user may include ads on their profile and generate revenue from such an ad. Referring now to
In one embodiment, an advertiser may receive certain data about a user to determine if the user is a suitable ad sponsor. The advertiser may gather any suitable demographic data about the user. Also, in one embodiment, an advertiser may receive information about the tags or themes a user employs with each post to determine the user's most talked about themes (see e.g. the theme section 404 in
Once the ads are selected [step 302], the advertisement may be displayed in the user's profile [step 304]. In
Next, the user's revenue from displaying the ad may be calculated [step 306]. The user's revenue may be calculated in any suitable manner. For example, a user may collect 50% of the ad revenue from the social network host, the user may collect a predetermined amount of revenue per each click on the ad from visitors to the user's profile, the user may collect revenue based on how long the user keeps the ad on the profile, etc. It will be appreciated that the model to calculating revenue may be any suitable model and is in no way limited to the illustrative examples provided herein.
E-Mail SystemThe system 100 may also include an e-mail system that permits a user to e-mail a non-member directly from the user's profile. Referring now to
The system 100 may also permit users to sell any suitable item from their profile.
Referring now to
The system 100 may also be configured to allow a user to have a calendar on their profile.
The system 100 may be configured to allow a user to sell user-created applications from the user's profile.
The system may also be configured to host a money-making game. This game may be a stock market game wherein users play with pretend money and purchase pretend stocks that perform similarly to real-world counterparts. User's may be given a certain amount of “money” to play with upon signing up with an option to purchase additional “money” for this game. The system may track users and display the top performers (e.g. via their profiles) over a given period of time (e.g. monthly, etc.). In one embodiment, the pretend money is redeemable for prizes and the like.
Investment OpportunitiesThe system 100 may also allow users to post investment opportunities to their profiles.
The system 100 may also be configured to permit user's to donate money to charities or other users. The user may search the social network for charities having profiles in the network. The user may then select to transfer funds to the charity of choice in the social network.
Alternatively, the user may choose to donate funds or other goods to another user in need. The user may search or otherwise notify users within user's network that the user is looking to “pay-it-forward” to another user. The user may then selectively donate the funds and/or goods to the user in need.
Drop Down BannerReferring to
As employed herein, the user is a participant operating a participant terminal. Terms of participation may be set by a party organizing or operating the social networking system 100.
The social network system 100 will be understood to provide content viewable by participants as user pages or screens (referring of course to content displayed at any one time on the screen of a monitor of a computer of one of the participants in the social networking system 100), “user page(s)” and “screen(s)” being used interchangeably herein, depending on context.
Initially, the drop down banner in concealed. An icon such as button 1002 on a screen page 1004 (
The banner may be expandable. That is, it may for example be extended laterally by a user command, such as by invoking a control icon (not shown).
The first row 1004 (
A second row of boxes or images 1012 is displayed. These images 1012 may pertain to diverse types of subject matter. Illustratively, and referring to
As seen in
The drop down banner is retractable by a reader command by invoking a control icon. Although a specific control icon is not shown, it may be that once the drop down banner has dropped down, the button 1002 may change for example to display an upwardly pointing arrow. This intuitively suggests to a user that displayed content will be drawn upwardly and thereby disappear by invoking a control icon such as the button 1002.
The social networking system 100 may include computer instructions maintained at one or more servers administered or operated by the party establishing or operating the social networking system 100, which computer instructions are those operating the drop down banner(s). Alternatively, the computer instructions for operating the drop down banner(s) may be stored in the computer of the user having the user page, or in a third party server or computer.
In the illustrative embodiments, the server 104 includes a memory and a processor to accommodate the forgoing. However, it will be appreciated that the forgoing may be implemented in hardware, software, or a suitable combination of hardware and software, and which can be one or more software systems operating on a general purpose server platform. As used herein, a hardware system can include discrete semiconductor devices, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other suitable devices. A software system can include one or more objects, agents, threads, lines of code, subroutines, separate software applications, user-readable (source) code, machine-readable (object) code, two or more lines of code in two or more corresponding software applications, databases, or other suitable software architectures. In one exemplary embodiment, a software system can include one or more lines of code in a general purpose software application, such as an operating system, and one or more lines of code in a specific purpose software application.
While the present disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Claims
1. A social network system comprising:
- one or more participant terminal operable to act as a client on a social network;
- a computer operable to act as a server on the social network and to communicate with each of the participant terminals over the social network, the computer comprising: a memory configured to store a set of instructions; and a processor configured to execute the set of instructions, wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to generate a drop down banner as part of a page a user.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the drop down banner is expandable by a reader command by invoking a control icon.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the drop down banner is retractable by a reader command by invoking a control icon.
4. The social network system of claim 1, wherein the drop down banner displays a plurality of images.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of images includes subject matter pertaining to any of recent posts posted to others in the network by the user's friends, system users offering articles and merchandise for sale through the social network system, and images posted on pages of the social network system by one or more friends of a user.
6. The social network system of claim 4, wherein the page bearing the drop down banner includes icons enabling navigation to other pages and/or subject matter.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 21, 2017
Publication Date: Jul 27, 2017
Inventor: Jenny Q. Ta (Fountain Valley, CA)
Application Number: 15/464,673