HK1162215A - Customizable content for distribution in social networks - Google Patents

Description

Customizable content for distribution in social networks

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to customized advertising systems.

Background

As the internet has become more popular, social networking sites and applications have become increasingly popular. In general, social networks refer to applications or services that are used to assist in building an online community (online community) of people who share interests and activities or are interested in exploring interests and activities of others. Many social networking services are web-based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as email and instant messaging services. Some examples of social networking sites are delicious (http:// delicious. com), facebook (http:// www.facebook.com), Yahoo! Movies (http:// Movies. Yahoo. com), Yahoo! Music (http:// Music. yahoo. com), Flickr (http:// www.flickr.com), and so on.

Advertisers often market their products and services to improve awareness via social networks. For example, advertisers often use "virus marketing," which generally refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to promote brand awareness or achieve other marketing goals (e.g., product sales) through word-of-mouth or self-replicating virus processes, similar to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. Viral marketing may take many forms, for example, video clips, interactive Flash games, advertising games, electronic books, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

In addition, advertisers often use content-related advertising (contextal advertising) to deliver advertisements. Content-relevant advertisements are marketing targeted to specific individuals visiting a website or a page within a website. The content-relevant advertising system may look for keywords in the text of the website, look for metadata related to the individual (e.g., geographic data or other demographic data based on cookies or other metadata associated with the user), and return "personalized" advertisements to the web page based on these keywords and/or metadata. For example, if the individual is watching a website related to sports and the website uses content-related advertisements, the individual may see advertisements for sports-related companies such as keepsakes or ticket sellers. In addition, the advertisement may be for a company that is physically located in the same geographic area as the individual. Content-relevant advertisements may also be used by search engines to display advertisements on their search results pages based on keywords in user search queries.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides methods, apparatuses, and systems directed to customizing content based on social context associated with a viewer of the content. The social context may include information about friends or contacts of the viewer in the social network, as well as information about interactions of the friends or contacts with the customizable content.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example network environment in which particular implementations of the invention may operate.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a client-host environment to which implementations of the invention may be applied.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method that may be implemented to deliver social context-based content to a client node.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method that may be implemented to create social context-based content.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of another example method that may be implemented to create and deliver social context-based content.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example computing system architecture that may be used to implement one or more of the physical servers shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example network that may be used to provide context-based content.

Detailed Description

A. Overview

Particular embodiments of the present invention relate to targeting content (e.g., advertisements and/or other content) to an individual based on the individual's social context. The social context may include social network profile information for the individual (e.g., name, school attended, favorite team, favorite music, etc.), preferences of the individual, information about friends or contacts of the individual in one or more social networks, and interactions of such friends or contacts with particular content. For example, targeted content may be delivered to an individual based on trigger events in the individual's social network and/or other behaviors of other users. As another example, the targeted content may be customized, augmented, and/or annotated by one or more particular friends or contacts of the individual in the social network and presented to the individual based on the customization, augmentation, and/or annotation.

As will be discussed in more detail below, the present invention may be implemented in a variety of ways. Other implementations of the invention may be practiced without some or all of the specific details set forth below. In some instances, well-known structures and/or processes have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

A. Example network Environment

Particular implementations of the invention operate in a wide area network environment, such as the internet, that includes a plurality of network addressable systems. Network cloud 60 generally represents one or more interconnected networks over which the systems and hosts described herein may communicate. Network cloud 60 may include a packet-based wide area network (e.g., the internet), a private network, a wireless network, a satellite network, a cellular network, a paging network, and so forth.

As shown in FIG. 1, particular implementations of the invention may operate in a network environment 10, with network environment 10 including a network application hosting site 20, such as an information website, a social networking website, or the like. Although fig. 1 illustrates only one network application hosting site, implementations of the invention may operate in a network environment that includes multiples of one or more of the various systems and sites disclosed herein. The client node 82 is operatively connected to the network environment via a network service provider or any other suitable means.

Network application hosting site 20 is a network addressable system that hosts network applications accessible to one or more users over a computer network. The web application may be an information web site where users request and receive identified web pages and other content over a computer network. The web application may also be a search platform, online forum, or blog application, where users may submit or otherwise configure content for display to other users. The web application may also be a social networking application that allows a user to configure and maintain a personal web page. The network application may also be a content distribution application that displays available content and sends the content to the user, such as Yahoo! Music EngineAppleiTunesAnd a podcast server.

In one implementation, the network application hosting site 20 includes one or more physical servers 22 and a content data store 24. One or more physical servers 22 are operatively connected to the computer network 60 via the router 26. One or more physical servers 22 host functionality that provides users with web applications (e.g., news content sites, etc.). As discussed in conjunction with FIG. 2, in one implementation, the functionality hosted by the one or more physical servers 22 may include web or HTTP servers, advertisement serving systems, geographic targeting systems, and the like. Further, some or all of the functionality described herein may be accessed using an HTTP interface or may be rendered as a web service using SOAP or other suitable protocol.

The content data storage 24 stores content as digital content data objects. In particular implementations, a content data object or content object is a separate item of digital information that is typically stored or embodied in a data file or record. The content object may take many forms, including: text (e.g., ASCII, SGML, HTML), images (e.g., jpeg, tig, and gif), graphics (vector-based or bitmap), audio, video (e.g., mpeg), or other multimedia, and combinations thereof. The content object data may also include executable code objects (e.g., executable games within a browser window or frame), podcasts, and so forth. Structurally, content data storage device 24 represents a broad class of data storage and management systems. In particular implementations, content data storage 24 may be implemented by any suitable physical system containing components such as database servers, mass storage media, media library systems, and the like.

In one implementation, the web application hosting site 20 provides a web page, such as a home page, that includes information packages or modules that describe one or more attributes of physically addressable resources, e.g., a web page that contains article or product descriptions, downloadable or streaming media files, and so forth. The web page may also include one or more advertisements, such as banner advertisements, text-based advertisements, sponsored videos, games, and the like. Generally, web pages and other resources include hypertext links or other controls that a user can activate to retrieve additional web pages and resources. A user "clicks" on the hyperlink with a computer input device to initiate a retrieval request to retrieve information associated with the hyperlink or control.

As will be described in more detail below, the network application hosting site 20 may be configured to deliver social context-based content, and one or more of the client nodes 82 may be configured to receive the content. Social context based content may refer to any content (e.g., audio, images, text, video, ring tones, coupons, interactive games, rich media content files, etc.) as follows: the presence of the content to the user is based at least on the social context of the user (e.g., information about the user's social network profile information, the user's preferences, the contacts of the user in the social network, and/or information about the interactions of the contacts with content previously delivered to the contacts). Further, as will be described in greater detail below, one or more of the client nodes 82 may be configured to allow a user to enhance content delivered to the client nodes, and the network application hosting site 20 may be configured to receive and/or store such enhancements for the content.

FIG. 2 illustrates functional modules of a client-hosting server environment 100 within a network application hosting site 20, according to one particular implementation. As shown in fig. 2, network application hosting site 20 may include one or more client hosts 110 and one or more network clients 105 operating in conjunction with one or more server hosts 120. The foregoing functional modules may be implemented by hardware, executable modules stored on a computer readable medium, or a combination of both. The functional modules may be hosted on one or more physical servers 22 and/or one or more client nodes 82, for example.

The network client 105 may be a web client hosted on the client node 82, a client host 110 hosted on a physical server 22, or a server host hosted on a physical server 22. The client host 110 may be an executable web or HTTP server module that accepts hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests from the network client 105 as a web client (e.g., a web browser client application hosted on the client node 82) and provides HTTP responses that include content such as hypertext markup language (HTML) documents and linked objects (images, advertisements, etc.). The client host 110 may also be an executable module that accepts Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) requests from one or more client hosts 110 or one or more server hosts 120. In one implementation, the client host 110 has the ability to delegate all or a portion of a single or multiple requests from the network client 105 to one or more server hosts 120. As discussed above, the client host 110 may be operable to deliver a web application, such as an informational web page or an Internet search service.

In particular implementations, a client host 110 may act as a server host 120 for another client host 110, and may act to further delegate requests to one or more server hosts 120 and/or one or more client hosts 110. The server host 120 hosts one or more server applications, such as an advertisement selection server, a sponsored search server, a content customization server, and so forth.

B. Client node & example protocol Environment

A client node is a computer or computing device that includes functionality to communicate over a computer network. The client nodes may be desktop computers 82a, 82b, laptop computers 82c, 82d, and mobile devices 82e, 82f such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants. The client nodes may execute one or more client applications, such as a web browser, to access and view content over a computer network. In particular implementations, the client application allows the user to enter an address of a particular network resource to be retrieved. These addresses may be uniform resource locators or URLs. In addition, once a page or other resource is retrieved, the client application may provide access to other pages or records when the user "clicks" on hyperlinks to other resources. In some implementations, such hyperlinks are located within web pages and provide an automated way for a user to enter the URL of another page and retrieve that page. The page or resource may be a data record that includes simple textual information as content, or more complex digitally encoded multimedia content, such as software programs or other code objects, graphics, images, audio signals, video, and the like.

The networked systems described herein may communicate over the network 60 using any suitable communication protocol. For example, the client nodes 82a-d, as well as the various servers of the system described herein, may include a Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) network protocol stack that provides datagram and transport functionality. Of course, any other suitable network and transport layer protocols may be used.

In addition, the host or end systems described herein may use a variety of higher-layer communication protocols, including client-server (or request-response) protocols such as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and other protocols such as HTTP-S, FTP, SNMP, TELNET, and a variety of other protocols may also be used. In addition, a server in one interactive environment may be a client in another interactive environment. Further, in particular implementations, information sent between hosts may be formatted as hypertext markup language (HTML) documents. Other structured document languages or formats, such as XML, etc., may also be used.

In some client-server protocols, such as when using HTML based on HTTP, the server typically sends a response to the request from the client. The response may include one or more data objects. For example, the response may include a first data object followed by a subsequently transmitted data object. In one implementation, for example, the client request may cause the server to respond with a first data object, such as an HTML page, which itself also refers to other data objects. A client application, such as a browser, will request these additional data objects when parsing or otherwise processing the first data object.

Other communication protocols and data formats may be used by the mobile client nodes 82 e-f. For example, in some implementations, mobile client nodes 82e-f may include mobile web browsers. Other wireless or mobile device protocol clusters may also be used, such as the i-mode wireless network service protocol cluster of NTT DoCoMo. In addition, the network environment may also include protocol translation gateways, proxies or other systems that allow the mobile client node 84 to access other network protocol environments, for example. For example, a user may capture an image using the mobile client node 82e-f and upload the image to a content site connected to the internet through the carrier network.

C. Example operations

In a social networking service (e.g., facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.), each user of the social network may create a network profile (e.g., a username, password, and/or biographical information) via the client node 82. For example, a user may access the social network via an application (e.g., a web browser) available at client node 82 and/or via a website of the social network. With the client node 82, each user may also specify other users in the social network with whom the user has a social tie. In the present disclosure, the terms "social tie" and "tie" may be used to indicate a social relationship between two users in a social network (e.g., "friend," "buddy," "connection," "link," etc.), while the term "contact" may be used to indicate any user with whom a particular user has a social tie. In addition to social ties that exist based on declared relationships between users, social ties may also be derived through social networking services based on shared interests, biographical information, and/or other common aspects of the users. Social networking applications, user biographical information, social ties, and contact information may be hosted on the network application hosting site 20. A user using client node 82 may access the social networking application via network 60. Once the user's contacts are identified, the user can access the social networking application website and/or application to view some or all of the profile information for his or her contacts, including, for example, actions performed by the contacts.

In addition, network environment 10 or similar network environments may be utilized to deliver content to users. For example, any suitable form of content (e.g., audio, images, text, video, ring tones, coupons, interactive games, rich media content files, etc.) may be hosted on the network application hosting site 20 or a similar hosting site. The network application hosting site may transmit such content to client nodes 82 via network cloud 60 and display to its users.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 300 that may be implemented to deliver social context-based content to a client node 82. The method 300 may be implemented by a social networking application and/or other application (e.g., a social networking application and/or other application running on the network application hosting site 20). At step 302, the network application hosting site 20 may deliver content (e.g., advertisements for goods or services) to one or more client nodes 82. In some embodiments, the content may include rich media content (e.g., Adobe) that allows a user at the client node 82 to receive the content to interact with the contentFlash files).

At step 304, users of one or more client nodes 82 may interact with the delivered content. For example, when delivered to the client node 82, the content may present options to the user, such as a preferred method of viewing the content (e.g., as a movie, as audio, as an interactive game, etc.), and the user may interact by selecting the preferred viewing method. At step 306, the interactions of the user of one or more client nodes 82 may be transmitted to network application hosting site 20 and/or stored on a data storage device (e.g., content data storage device 24).

At step 308, network application hosting site 20 may determine the social context of the particular user. The particular user may or may not be one of the one or more users that received the content at step 302. The social context may include a collection of data that may include: information about the user's social network profile information (e.g., name, school attended, favorite team, favorite music, etc.), the user's preferences, the user's contacts in the social network, and/or information about the interactions of these contacts with the content of contacts previously delivered to the client node 82.

At step 310, the network application hosting site 20 may deliver content to the user (e.g., content that is the same as or related to the content delivered at step 302), where the delivered content is based at least on the determined social context (e.g., based on the particular user's social network profile information, the particular user's preferences, the particular user's social contacts, and/or the interactions of these contacts with the content).

In addition to delivering content based on the user's social context, content may also be delivered based on other content-related parameters associated with the user. For example, content may be delivered based on time or based on a time context (e.g., some portions of content may be displayed to a certain user before a certain time and other portions may be displayed after the certain time). As another example, the content may be delivered based on spatial or geographic context (e.g., the displayed portion of the content may depend on the geographic location of the user, as determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS), location in a cellular network, Internet Protocol (IP) address, bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and/or information explicitly set forth by the user). As yet another example, portions of content may be delivered based on behavioral context (e.g., websites recently or frequently visited by the user, websites currently visited by the user, etc.).

As a specific example of method 300, the content delivered to the user of one or more client nodes 82 may include rich media (e.g., Adobe)Flash file) advertisements and options for playing an interactive game or viewing a video associated with the advertisement. Some users may interact by selecting to play an interactive game. Thus, when the same advertisement is later delivered to another user whose contact has selected to play the interactive game, the advertisement may no longer query the delivery method (e.g., the interactive game or video options), and instead,but may automatically display the interactive game. Thus, the content displays the interactive game based on the contacts of the subsequent user and the contacts with which the content was interacted with earlier.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method 400 that may be implemented to create social context-based content. The method 400 may be implemented by a social networking application and/or other application (e.g., a social networking application and/or other application running on the network application hosting site 20).

At step 402, network application hosting site 20 may deliver content (e.g., advertisements for goods or services) to client node 82. In some embodiments, the content may include rich media content (e.g., Adobe) that allows a user at the client node 82 to receive the content to interact with the contentFlash files).

At step 404, the user of the client node 82 to which the content was delivered may enhance the delivered content. "enhancing" the delivered content may refer to any modification, change, addition, deletion, addition, annotation, interaction, or any other suitable alteration to the content. For example, the user may add annotations to the content (e.g., "i like the product," "i think that people who like the cappuccino band may also like the product," "we vote for the candidate for reasons in the advertisement,"). As another example, the user may mark the content to indicate which of the user's contacts the user feels may be interested in the content or the subject matter of the content. As yet another example, the user may alter the content such that certain video and/or audio portions of the content are replaced with content added by the user. As a further example, user interaction with content (e.g., answering questions asked of the content) may also be considered an enhancement, as such interaction may modify metadata associated with the content.

At step 406, information related to the enhancements to the content (e.g., the actual enhancements made and/or the identity of the user making such enhancements) may be transmitted to the network application hosting site 20 and/or stored on a data storage device (e.g., content data storage device 24).

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of another example method 500 that may be implemented to deliver social context-based content to a user. Method 500 may be implemented by a social networking application and/or other application (e.g., a social networking application and/or other application running on network application hosting site 20).

At step 502, network application hosting site 20 may detect the presence of a user. The presence of the user may be detected in any suitable manner. For example, the presence of a user may be detected by determining that the user is logged into the client node 82 and/or a networking application running thereon. As another example, the presence of the user may be detected by determining that a second client node 82 associated with the user is approaching another client node 82 (e.g., a kiosk) to which content may be displayed. The proximity of the user may be determined in any suitable manner including, for example, GPS, the user's location in the cellular network, the user's IP address, and/or the presence of a client node 82 associated with the user, for example, within communication range of bluetooth, RFID, and/or another short-range communication standard of the second client node 82.

At step 504, network application hosting site 20 may determine a social context associated with the user. The determined social context may include information about the user's social network profile information (e.g., name, school attended, favorite team, favorite music, etc.), the user's preferences, an identification of the user's social contacts, an identification of content that may have been enhanced by the user's social contacts (e.g., in a manner similar to method 400 above), and/or the nature of the enhancement made with the user's social contacts (e.g., whether the enhancement made to the content in a manner similar to method 400 includes a flag or other reference related to the user).

At step 506, the network application hosting site 20 may display at least a portion of the content (e.g., original content, enhanced content, metadata associated with the content) via the client node 82 associated with the user and/or the second client node 82 proximate to the user's associated client node 82 based at least on the determined social context. In addition to delivering portions of content based on the social context of the user, portions of content may also be delivered based on other content-related parameters associated with the user. For example, content may be delivered based on time or based on a time context (e.g., some portions of content may be displayed to a certain user before a certain time and other portions may be displayed after the certain time). As another example, the content may be delivered based on spatial or geographic context (e.g., the displayed portion of the content may depend on the geographic location of the user, as determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS), location in a cellular network, Internet Protocol (IP) address, bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and/or information explicitly set forth by the user). As yet another example, portions of content may be delivered based on behavioral context (e.g., websites recently or frequently visited by the user, websites currently visited by the user, etc.).

To illustrate the application of the methods 400 and 500, a number of non-limiting examples will be set forth below. These examples are for clarity and illustration purposes only and should not limit the applicability of the systems and methods disclosed herein to other examples and/or implementations.

Scenario 1: user a enhances the content (e.g., adds video to the rich media advertisement) and indicates that the enhancement is desired to be viewed by user B. The enhanced content is stored on the network application hosting site 20. User B comes near a particular client node 82 (e.g., a kiosk that includes a monitor configured to display content) on which the enhanced content may be displayed. Upon detecting the presence of user B (e.g., by detecting that the client node 82 associated with user B is within communication range of the client node 82 associated with the kiosk), the enhanced content may be displayed at that particular client node 82 (e.g., the rich media advertisement displayed to user B may comprise a video of user A).

Scenario 2: user A has user B, user C, and user D as contacts in the social network. Each of users B, C and D may download a content item (e.g., a rich media advertisement) and each perform its own enhancements to the content (e.g., remix the advertisement, answer questions associated with the advertisement). User a may then be prompted at the client node 82 for an alert and/or other message indicating that other users in user a's social network have enhanced the content, and may display at least a portion of the content and/or the enhancements made thereto by users B, C and D. Alternatively, user a may receive alerts and/or other messages via the client node 82 that other users that best match the social context, temporal context, spatial context, or behavioral context of user a have enhanced and/or otherwise interacted with the content (e.g., early user interaction may modify metadata associated with the content, and such metadata related to the interaction, or other elements related to such metadata, may be displayed to the user).

Scenario 3: user a is near the client node 82 and the client node displays content based on the social context of user a (e.g., the user's social network profile information, the user's preferences, preferences related to the user's contacts, and profiling information). For example, the content displayed to user A may be customized based on the social networking profiling settings of user A (e.g., a sports clothing advertisement may be customized to include clothing of a team that user A likes) or customized based on the social networking profiling settings of another user in user A's social network. In some embodiments, certain content (e.g., ringtones, rich media, etc.) may be automatically delivered to user A based on interactions, preferences, or enhancements of other users in user A's social network.

D. Example computing System architecture

While the foregoing systems and methods may be implemented by a wide variety of physical systems and a wide variety of network environments, the client and server hosting systems described below provide example computing architectures for purposes of teaching and not limitation.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computing system architecture that may be used to implement a physical server. In one implementation, hardware system 200 includes a processor 202, a cache memory 204, and one or more software applications and drivers that address the functions described herein. In addition, hardware system 200 includes a high performance input/output (I/O) bus 206 and a standard I/O bus 208. Host bridge 210 couples processor 202 to high performance I/O bus 206, while I/O bus bridge 212 couples the two buses 206 and 208 to each other. A system memory 214 and a network/communication interface 216 are coupled to bus 206. Hardware system 200 may also include a video memory (not shown) and a display device coupled to the video memory. Mass storage 218 and I/O ports 220 couple to bus 208. Hardware system 200 may optionally include a keyboard and pointing device and a display device (not shown) coupled to bus 208. In general, these elements are intended to represent a broad class of computer hardware systems, including but not limited to general purpose computer systems based on processors such as: x86 compatible processors manufactured by intel corporation of Santa Clara, California, and x86 compatible processors manufactured by ultramicro semiconductor (AMD), inc.

The elements of hardware system 200 are described in more detail below. In particular, network interface 216 provides communication between hardware system 200 and any of a wide range of networks, such as an Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.3) network or the like. The mass storage 218 provides permanent storage for data and programming instructions for performing the functions described above as being implemented in the location server 22, while the system memory 214 (e.g., DRAM) provides temporary storage for data and programming instructions executed by the processor 202. I/O port 220 is one or more serial and/or parallel communication ports that provide for communication between other peripheral devices that may be coupled to hardware system 200.

Hardware system 200 may include a variety of system architectures; and various components of hardware system 200 may be rearranged. For example, cache 204 may be on-chip with processor 202. Alternatively, the cache 204 and the processor 202 may be packaged together as a "processor module," where the processor 202 is referred to as a "processor core. Moreover, certain embodiments of the present invention may not require or include all of the above components. For example, a peripheral device shown coupled to standard I/O bus 208 may be coupled to high performance I/O bus 206. Additionally, in some embodiments, there may only be a single bus to which the components of hardware system 200 are coupled. In addition, hardware system 200 may include other components, such as other processors, storage devices, or memories.

As discussed below, in one implementation, the operations of one or more physical servers described herein may be implemented as a series of software routines run by hardware system 200. These software routines comprise a plurality or series of instructions to be executed by a processor in a hardware system, such as processor 202. Initially, the series of instructions may be stored on a storage device, such as mass storage 218. However, the series of instructions may be stored on any suitable storage medium, such as a diskette, CD-ROM, EEPROM, or the like. Further, the series of instructions need not be stored locally, but may be received from a remote storage device, such as a server on a network, via network/communication interface 216. The instructions are copied from the storage device, such as mass storage 218, to memory 214 and then accessed and executed by processor 202.

The operating system manages and controls the operation of hardware system 200, including the input and output of data to and from software applications (not shown). The operating system provides an interface between software applications executed on the system and the hardware components of the system. According to one embodiment of the invention, the operating system may comprise Windows-based, available from Microsoft corporation of Redmond, WashingtonThe operating system of (1). However, the present invention may be used with other suitable operating systems, such as Apple Macintosh based operating systems, available from Apple computer, Cupertino, Calif., UNIX based operating systems, LINUX based operating systems, and the like. Of course, other implementations are possible. For example, the server functions described herein may be implemented by multiple server blades (server blades) communicating over a backplane.

Further, the above elements and operations may be constituted by instructions stored on a storage medium. The instructions may be retrieved and executed by a processing system. Some examples of instructions are software, program code, and firmware. Some examples of storage media are memory devices, tapes, disks, integrated circuits, servers, mass storage devices, disk arrays, and Storage Area Networks (SANs). The instructions, when executed by the processing system, are operable to direct the processing system to operate in accordance with the invention. The term "processing system" refers to a single processing device or a group of processing devices operating in relation to each other. Some examples of processing devices are integrated circuits and logic circuits. Instructions, computers, and storage media are well known to those skilled in the art.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example system 600 that may be used to provide context-based content in accordance with the present disclosure. In some embodiments of the system 600, the system 600 may be used to provide context-based content based on temporal, spatial, social, topical, and/or behavioral data of multiple users, devices and locations within the system 600. As shown in FIG. 7, a user 610 may access context-based content from the network 602 via a client 614 associated with the user. In some embodiments, the network 602 may be the "W4 communications network" of the W4 COMN, which may provide information about "who, what, when, and where" the interactions within the system 600.

FIG. 7 illustrates how the illustrated entities may be defined as a network, such as W4 COMN. The "W4 communication network" or W4 COMN provides information about "who, what, when, and where" the interactions within the network. The network 602 may interface with a collection of users, devices, and processes, and communicate both synchronously and asynchronously between users and their associated clients, and provide an instrumented network of sensors that provide identification and collection of data related to users of any subject, location, or network, or a combination thereof, in a real-world environment. For example, content may be delivered to user 610 based on a geographic region 620 in which user 610 is located or otherwise associated with user 610. Such content may also be based on entities present in the geographic area 620, such as tourist attractions and other points of interest 624, auditoriums and other public places 628, various types of businesses 632, parks and entertainment areas 636, and people 640. Additionally, the content delivered to the user 610 may be based on other entities known to the network 602, including but not limited to people within the user's social network 650, other people known to the network 602, and third party data sources 670, which third party data sources 670 may include free and paid information services that may provide data related to other entities and topics (including comments, ratings, rankings, or other feedback of the user), and/or content associated with locations, events, objects, and/or people. Using the methods and systems disclosed herein, the network 602 may collect spatial, temporal, social, and/or topical data (including behavioral and interaction data) related to these entities, which may be used to enhance or otherwise affect the content delivered to the user 610.

The invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments. For example, although embodiments of the present invention are described as operating in conjunction with HTML and HTTP, the present invention may also be used in conjunction with any suitable protocol environment. Furthermore, implementations of the invention may be used in systems that are directed to providing geographically targeted content to users other than advertisements. Other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be limited, except as indicated by the appended claims.

Claims (20)

1. A method, comprising:

delivering content to a first user in an online social network, the content allowed to be enhanced by the first user;

receiving one or more enhancements to the content by the first user;

detecting a presence of a second user on the social network;

determining a social context of the second user, the social context comprising data associated with the second user relative to the social network; and

modifying the content based at least on the determined social context of the second user and one or more enhancements to the content by the first user; and

delivering the modified content to the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises an interactive rich media file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises an interactive advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the social context comprises at least one of:

information related to contacts of the second user with respect to the social network; and

information related to an enhancement of the content by a contact of the second user with respect to the social network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined social context indicates that the first user and the second user are contacts with respect to the social network, and the modified content delivered to the second user includes one or more enhancements of the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

detecting the presence of the second user comprises: detecting that a first client node to which content may be displayed is proximate to a second client node associated with the second user; and

delivering the modified content to the second user comprises: in response to a determination that the first client node is proximate to the second client node, displaying the modified content to the first node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein detecting the proximity of the first node to the second client node is based on at least one of:

a geographic location of the second client node determined by a global positioning system;

a geographic location of the second client node in the cellular network;

an internet protocol address of the second client node; and

the presence of the second client node within communication range of the short-range communication standard associated with the first client node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified content delivered is based on at least one of a temporal context, a geographic context, and a behavioral context of at least one of the first user and the second user.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more network interfaces;

a memory; and

computer-executable instructions carried on a computer-readable medium, the instructions being readable by the one or more processors, the instructions, when read and executed, causing the one or more processors to:

delivering content to a first user in an online social network via the one or more network interfaces, the content allowed to be enhanced by the first user;

receiving, via the one or more network interfaces, one or more enhancements to the content by the first user;

detecting a presence of a second user on the social network via the one or more network interfaces;

determining a social context of the second user, the social context comprising data associated with the second user relative to the social network; and

modifying the content based at least on the determined social context of the second user and one or more enhancements to the content by the first user; and

delivering the modified content to the second user via the one or more network interfaces.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the content comprises an interactive rich media file.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the content comprises an interactive advertisement.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the social context comprises at least one of:

information related to contacts of the second user with respect to the social network; and

information related to an enhancement of the content by a contact of the second user with respect to the social network.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the determined social context indicates that the first user and the second user are contacts with respect to the social network, and the modified content delivered to the second user includes one or more enhancements of the first user.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, the computer-readable instructions further comprising one or more instructions for causing the one or more processors to:

detecting that a first client node to which content may be displayed is proximate to a second client node associated with the second user; and

in response to a determination that the first client node is proximate to the second client node, displaying the modified content to the first node.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein detecting the proximity of the first node to the second client node is based on at least one of:

a geographic location of the second client node determined by a global positioning system;

a geographic location of the second client node in the cellular network;

an internet protocol address of the second client node; and

the presence of the second client node within communication range of the short-range communication standard associated with the first client node.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the modified content delivered is based on at least one of a temporal context, a geographic context, and a behavioral context of at least one of the first user and the second user.

17. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

computer-executable instructions carried on the computer-readable medium, the instructions being readable by a processor, the instructions, when read and executed, causing the processor to:

delivering content to a first user in an online social network via one or more network interfaces, the content allowed to be enhanced by the first user;

receiving, via one or more network interfaces, one or more enhancements to the content by the first user;

detecting a presence of a second user on the social network via one or more network interfaces;

determining a social context of the second user, the social context comprising data associated with the second user relative to the social network; and

modifying the content based at least on the determined social context of the second user and one or more enhancements to the content by the first user; and

delivering the modified content to the second user via one or more network interfaces.

18. The article of claim 17, wherein the social context comprises at least one of:

information related to contacts of the second user with respect to the social network; and

information related to an enhancement of the content by a contact of the second user with respect to the social network.

19. The article of claim 17, wherein the determined social context indicates that the first user and the second user are contacts with respect to the social network, and the modified content delivered to the second user includes one or more enhancements of the first user.

20. The article of claim 17, said computer-readable instructions further comprising one or more instructions for causing one or more processors to:

detecting that a first client node to which content may be displayed is proximate to a second client node associated with the second user; and

in response to a determination that the first client node is proximate to the second client node, displaying the modified content to the first node.