Methods and systems for generation of flexible sentences in a social networking system

[0001] Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to providing users with social networking experiences and in particular to, rendering social expressions in a social networking system.

[0002] The majority of people around the globe are now connected online through social networking systems. A networking system may generate and maintain a social graph that comprises a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of edges. Each node represents an object (e.g., place, movie, etc.) in the social networking system. The object may include a user object. Each of the plurality of edges represents a specific kind of connection between two nodes.

[0003] This structured data can be useful for rendering a meaningful browser experience for users of the networking system. Developers can publish new content to the social graph to extend structured data and link the objects with edges in the social graph. Users can query and generate graph searches within the structured data.

[0004] However, when developers create applications that publish new content to the social graph, machine generated text used to render this structured data in feed stories, search results, and other types of experiences may lead to awkward sentences and experiences.

[0005] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a variety of methods and systems for generating flexible and natural sounding sentences for representing relationships or actions performed by actors through an application. The sentences are published by applications to the social graph. These sentences can appear in news feed stories, search results, profile stories, or in other experiences that occur on or off a social network system. In one embodiment, actors may be represented as objects in a social network system and actions or relationships may be represented as edges. Typically, a default sentence structure includes an actor, the edge, the target that the actor interacted with, and the application that published the sentence on the social network system on behalf of the actor. For example, the following story may be published to the social network system: “Sam finished reading The Name of the Wind on Goodreads.” In this example, the actor is “Sam,” the edge is “finished reading,” the target is “The Name of the Wind” (a book), and the application is “Goodreads.”

[0006] In certain circumstances, the default sentence structure may be awkward or lack context. For example, a person indicated that she completed a hike through a fitness application, the published sentence may previously have been “Kelly hiked a hiking trail.” In this example, “Kelly” is the actor, “hiked” is the edge; and “hiking trail” is the target. The default sentence structure results in a redundant and clumsy sentence. In another example, previously, a person indicated that he tracked an artist on Songkick, a concert-finding application, however it was not clear why: “Christen tracked Muse on Songkick.com.” As such, the default sentence does not provide sufficient context to the sentence.

[0007] The system, as described herein, includes a platform that includes a developer interface for customizing the syntax for sentences that are published by the social network system. The interface allows a developer of an application to control the structure of the sentence that represents an edge published by that application. Instead of limiting the sentence syntax to [actor] [edge] [target], the developer may use tokens to represent properties of the target to be published. For example, instead of “Kelly hiked a hiking trail,” a more elegant version may be “Kelly hiked 3.5 miles. Give her a pat on the back!” In this example, the syntax is “[actor] [edge] [target.length]. Give her a pat on the back!,” which is more natural, descriptive, and socially actionable. This sentence omits the target itself from the sentence, uses a property of the target, and includes arbitrary text to make the sentence sound more socially actionable. Each of the actor, edge, and the target may be expressed differently under different circumstances.

[0008] Furthermore, the system also includes options to insert tokens representing properties of the actor, the edge, or the target into a sentence; to insert arbitrary strings; and to omit tokens as needed.

[0009] Based on the defined edge and target, the platform may generate a set of flexible sentences for a particular developer to define. The platform enables the developer to insert properties of one or more of actors, edges, targets, arbitrary text strings, or any combination thereof, in a flexible sentence syntax. The platform can further enable a computed derivative of the properties in the flexible sentence syntax. The platform enables the developer to omit and/or re-order any element in the flexible sentence syntax, including defining multiple sentence configurations for different circumstances of publishing/rendering the flexible sentence syntax.

[0010] Based on the defined edge and target, the platform may generate a set of flexible sentences for a particular developer to define. The platform enables the developer to insert properties of one or more of actors, edges, targets, arbitrary text strings, or any combination thereof, in a flexible sentence syntax. The platform can further enable a computed derivative of the properties in the flexible sentence syntax. The platform enables the developer to omit and/or re-order any element in the flexible sentence syntax, including defining multiple sentence configurations for different circumstances of publishing/rendering the flexible sentence syntax.

[0011] In some embodiments, various options are provided by the developer interface for the developer to select edge tokens and/or target tokens. For example, the tokens can be provided in a check-box list, a drop-down menu, a selection list, a list of buttons, multiple layered menu levels, or any combination thereof. For another example, when the developer types an open curly bracket (“{”) in front of an edge or an object (e.g. an actor or a target), a drop-down box with property expressions of the edge or object can be displayed for the developer to select.

[0012] In some embodiments, color-codes can be used to distinguish edge and/or target tokens with different levels of popularity among users. In some embodiments, based on the developer-selected edge and object, a plurality of relevant sentences can be generated and displayed together with their corresponding percentage of coverage for the developer to review. The plurality of sentences can be prioritized based on how often they occurred. In some embodiments, the sentences with the percentage of coverage above a predetermined threshold value can be pre-fetched to the developer device to minimize network I/O delay.

[0013] In some embodiments, the developer can publish a summary of activities at once in aggregation. The developer can select from different types of aggregations, which may include a gallery type, a table, a list, a map, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, when the developer chooses the edge and target of a specific flexible sentence, a plurality of aggregations can be automatically generated for the developer to select.

[0014] In some embodiments, the developer can configure the specific sentence by selecting from a set of “edge configurations.” The set of edge configurations may include, but are not limited to, one to one, one to one without target title, one to two, one to many, one to two/many without target titles, two to one, many to one etc.

[0015] In some embodiments, a preview box can be provided for the developer to preview the specific flexible sentence with different edge configurations. In some embodiments, the preview box can simulate a display of the specific flexible sentence on different platforms for the developer to visualize how the sentence can be perceived by friends of the actors using these platforms.

[0016] In some embodiments, the developer can customize the tenses of the specific flexible sentence. The tenses of the verb in the specific sentence may include, such as, past tense, plural past tense, present tense, plural present tense, continuous tense, perfect tense, perfect continuous tense and imperative tense. In some implementations, the developer can choose one or more tenses for the edge of the specific flexible sentence. In some embodiments, an attribution token can be provided for the developer to customize how the developer's application can be attributed in a story.

[0017] In some embodiments, the developer can publish the specific flexible sentence from a mobile web, iOS, Android, desktop web, and/or applications that exist on Windows OS, Linux or Unix.

[0018] While multiple embodiments are disclosed, still other embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which shows and describes illustrative embodiments of the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of modifications in various aspects, all without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

[0028] The drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Moreover, while the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

[0029] Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to providing users with social networking experience. More specifically, various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for providing flexible sentences in a social networking system. In the past, developer-selected actors, edges and targets could be published into a sentence or story. However, the machine-generated text resulted in sentences with awkward phrasing or sentences that lack adequate context for a reader after publication. For example, consider an exercise application such as the Nike+ application available on certain social networking systems. Within the exercise application, when a user initiated or completed some exercise related task, the exercise application would generate text for posting based on default sentence syntax. This could result in generating sentences where the edge and target are duplicated, such as “hike a hike” or “run a run.” In contrast, various embodiments of the present disclosure generate flexible sentences that readers can easily understand.

[0030] In one embodiment, an application developer can define the syntax for a specific flexible sentence, including actor, target, edge and aggregation components. Tokens are provided for the developer to define the property expressions of the edge and/or objects (e.g., actor or target) of the specific flexible sentence. Based on the defined objects and edge and their corresponding synonyms, the platform may automatically generate a set of flexible sentence syntaxes for the developer to select. The developer may add more property expressions to further customize the edge and/or objects of the specific flexible sentence. The specific flexible sentence allows the developer to control how stories and sentences published by the application may appear in timelines, newsfeed, and/or other places in the social networking system.

[0031] While examples described herein refer to a networking system, the descriptions should not be taken as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Various alternatives, modifications, and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without varying from the spirit of the invention. For example, methods of generating flexible sentences may be implemented on any user device—in publishing an application and/or posting a story—or computing system for providing a service to users. For another example, methods of generating flexible sentences may be implemented in any computing system having a web server system. The web server system may include a database management system (DBMS), such as HBase, MySQL, FoxPro, IBM DB2, Linter, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite etc.

[0032] FIG. 1 illustrates a social networking system 100 with a mechanism to develop and render flexible sentences. The social networking system 100 provides mechanisms allowing users to interact with objects and other users both within and external to the context of the social networking system. The social networking system 100 includes a social graph 102. The social graph 102 includes multiple objects, such as an object 104, connected via edges, such as an edge 106. The object 104 of the social graph 102 may represent entities within the social networking system 100, such as users, pages, groups, businesses, other entities that a user may interact with, or any combination thereof. The edge 106 represents a relationship between the objects. The relationship may be directional. For example, the object responsible for creating the relationship may be considered as an actor 108. The object which is passive in receiving the relationship may be considered as a target 110. A single object, however, may be both considered as the actor 108 and the target 110 if there is an edge leading into the single object and an edge leading out of the single object. The social graph 102 is further described below.

[0033] One or more methods operating the social networking system 100 to develop and render flexible sentences may be implemented by modules and stores described below. The modules may be implemented as hardware components, software modules, or any combination thereof. For example, the modules described can be software modules implemented as instructions on a non-transitory memory capable of being executed by a processor or a controller on a machine.

[0034] Each of the modules may operate individually and independently of other modules. Some or all of the modules may be executed on the same host device or on separate devices. The separate devices can be coupled via a communication module to coordinate its operations. Some or all of the modules may be combined as one module. A single module may also be divided into sub-modules, each sub-module performing separate method step or method steps of the single module. The modules can share access to a memory space. One module may access data accessed by or transformed by another module. The modules may be considered “coupled” to one another if they share a physical connection or a virtual connection, directly or indirectly, allowing data accessed or modified from one module to be accessed in another module. The social networking system 100 may include additional, fewer, or different modules for various applications.

[0035] The storages or “stores”, described below are hardware components or portions of hardware components for storing digital data, such as by running a network accessible database. Each of the storage can be a single physical entity or distributed through multiple physical devices. Each of the storage can be on separate physical device or share the same physical device or devices. Each of the stores can allocate specific storage spaces for run-time applications.

[0036] The social networking system 100 may include a flexible sentence management system 150. The flexible sentence management system 150 assists a developer of a social networking application 152 that may run on the social networking system 100. The social networking application 152 may also run as an external module on a separate server system as the social networking system 100. The social networking application 152 may then communicate with the social networking system 100 via a graph application programming interface (API) server of the social networking system 100 as described below. The social networking application 152 is a module that provides additional features for the users of the social networking system 100. Part of the social networking application 152 may be to interact with users by publishing sentences describing the evolution of the social graph 102 within the social networking system 100.

[0037] The flexible sentence management system 150 includes a developer interface module 154 that generates and provides a developer interface for configuring flexible sentences on a developer device 155, such as a computer system or an electronic device with computer functionalities. For example, the developer interface enables a developer to generate a flexible sentence syntax 156 that may published by the social networking application 152. For example, the developer interface enables the developer to insert actors, such as the actor 108, edges, such as the edge 106, targets, such as the target 110, additional constant or variable text templates, or any combination thereof into the flexible sentence syntax 156. The configuration of the flexible sentence syntax 156 may be stored as part of the social networking application 152, on the flexible sentence management system 150, or both. The configuration of the flexible sentence syntax 156 may be based on a sentence template store 158 containing pre-configured flexible sentences.

[0038] The flexible sentence management system 150 further includes a sentence rendition module 160 that renders run-time instances of the flexible sentence syntax 156. When the social networking application 152 is executed, the flexible sentence syntax 156 is used to render expressions of the social graph on behalf of the social networking application 152, such as posting a news feed story or generating a mobile notification.

[0039] The flexible sentence syntax 156 may be organized by edge configurations. Each flexible sentence syntax 156 may be specific to an edge configuration. For example, the social networking application 152 can detect an actor based on a particular user logged on the social networking system 100 that subscribes to or run the social networking application 152. The actor may be the particular user, friends of the particular user, or any other actors relevant to the particular user as decided by the social networking system 100. Edges that fit the edge configuration of flexible sentence syntax 156 may be rendered into a rendered instance of a flexible sentence. In one embodiment, the sentence rendition module 160 is part of the social networking application 152.

[0040] The developer interface enables the developer to insert properties of the actors, the edges, the targets, or any combination thereof, into the flexible sentence syntax 156. The developer interface further enables insertion of computed properties of actors, edges, or targets. For example, the developer may configure the flexible sentence syntax 156 with an element “[sum(target.length)]” for stories that aggregate several hikes an actor hiked in a week. The keyword “sum” is a computing function that may be placed within the flexible sentence syntax 156. When an instance of the flexible sentence is rendered by the sentence rendition module 160, the computation is carried out and a resulting number becomes part of the text of the rendered instance.

[0041] The developer interface enables construction of the flexible sentence syntax 156 including insertion of multiple actors, edges, and targets in the same sentence. For example, an instance of a rendered flexible sentence may include: “Joe and Jill hiked 2 trails, biked across 3 cities, and jogged 12 miles this week.” For example, the flexible sentence syntax 156 may include [actor#1] and [actor#2], [edge#1] and [edge#2], a computing function of a count of edge#1.targets, and a computing function of a sum of edge#2.targets.distance.

[0042] The developer interface enables the developer to insert arbitrary strings such as “Give him a pat on the back!” in the flexible sentence syntax 156. Instead of a dynamic filled in expression when rendered, the arbitrary string is expressed verbatim on run-time. The developer interface allows the developer to omit and reorder any of the elements in the flexible sentence syntax 156.

[0043] The developer interface further enables definition of multiple sentence configurations in the flexible sentence syntax 156 for different circumstances. The multiple sentence configurations allow for different rendition of the flexible sentence syntax 156 under different circumstances when rendered by the sentence rendition module 160. For example, the different circumstances include when the flexible sentence syntax 156 is being rendered for a news feed, is being rendered for a personal timeline, or is being rendered as a search result. Aside from different forums for rendering the flexible sentence syntax 156, different circumstances also include difference in different number of aggregation of user actions that qualify under the edge configuration of the flexible sentence syntax 156. For example, when a user has hiked greater than one hike in a week vs. when the user has hiked only once. The different circumstances can further include difference in timing of the edge configuration. For example, the circumstances include when the edge denotes a relationship that has happened in the past (e.g. Joe hiked Mt. Diablo trail), when the edge denotes a relationship that is happening (e.g. Joe started hiking Mt. Tam.), or when the edge denotes a relationship is happening in the future (e.g. Joe plans to travel to Italy in May).

Social Networking System Overview

[0044] A flexible sentence management system 150 can be utilized in any data sharing system. Particularly, the flexible sentence management system 150 can be utilized in the social networking system, such as a social networking system 100. Social networking systems commonly provide mechanisms allowing users to interact with objects and other users both within and external to the context of the social networking system. A social networking system user may be an individual or any other entity, such as a business or other non-person entity. The social networking system may utilize a web-based interface comprising a series of inter-connected pages displaying and allowing users to interact with social networking system objects and information. For example, a social networking system may display a page for each social networking system user comprising objects and information entered by or related to the social networking system user (e.g., the user's “profile”). Social networking systems may also contain pages containing pictures or videos, dedicated to concepts, dedicated to users with similar interests (“groups”), or containing communications or social networking system activity to, from or by other users. Social networking system pages may contain links to other social networking system pages, and may include additional capabilities such as search, real-time communication, content-item uploading, purchasing, advertising, and any other web-based technology or ability. It should be noted that a social networking system interface may be accessible from a web browser or a non-web browser application, such as a dedicated social networking system mobile device or computer application. “Page” as used herein may be a web page, an application interface or display, a widget displayed over a web page or application, a box or other graphical interface, an overlay window on another page (whether within or outside the context of a social networking system), or a web page external to the social networking system with a social networking system plug in or integration capabilities.

[0045] As discussed above, a social graph includes a set of nodes (representing social networking system objects, also known as social objects) interconnected by edges (representing interactions, activity, or relatedness). Each node in the social graph may represent something that can act on and/or be acted upon by another node. A social networking system object may be a social networking system user, nonperson entity, content item, group, social networking system page, location, application, subject, concept or other social networking system object, such as a movie, a band, or a book. Content items include anything that a social networking system user or other object may create, upload, edit, or interact with, such as messages, queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS (short message service) messages, comment messages, messages sent using any other suitable messaging technique, an HTTP link, HTML files, images, videos, audio clips, documents, document edits, calendar entries or events, and other computer-related files. Subjects and concepts, in the context of a social graph, comprise nodes that represent any person, place, thing, or abstract idea. An edge between two nodes in the social graph represents a particular kind of connection between the two nodes, which may result from an action that was performed by one of the nodes on the other node or which otherwise describes a relationship between the nodes/objects.

[0046] A social networking system may allow a user to enter and display information related to the user's interests, education and work experience, contact information, and other biographical information in the user's profile page. Each school, employer, interest (for example, music, books, movies, television shows, games, political views, philosophy, religion, groups, or fan pages), geographical location, network, or any other information contained in a profile page may be represented by a node in the social graph. A social networking system may allow a user to upload or create pictures, videos, documents, songs, or other content items, and may allow a user to create and schedule events. Content items and events may be represented by nodes in the social graph.

[0047] A social networking system may provide a variety of means to interact with nonperson objects within the social networking system. For example, a user may form or join groups, or become a fan of a fan page within the social networking system. In addition, a user may create, download, view, upload, link to, tag, edit, or play a social networking system object. A user may interact with social networking system objects outside of the context of the social networking system. For example, an article on a news web site might have a “like” button that users can click. In each of these instances, the interaction between the user and the object may be represented by an edge in the social graph connecting the node of the user to the node of the object. A user may use location detection functionality (such as a GPS receiver on a mobile device) to “check in” to a particular location, and an edge may connect the user's node with the location's node in the social graph.

[0048] Social networking systems allow users to associate themselves and establish connections with other users of the social networking system. When two users explicitly establish a connection in the social networking system, they become “friends” (or, “connections”) within the context of the social networking system. Being friends in a social networking system may allow users access to more information about each other than would otherwise be available to unconnected users. For instance, being friends may allow a user to view another user's profile, to see another user's friends, or to view pictures of another user. Likewise, becoming friends within a social networking system may allow a user greater access to communicate with another user, such as by email (internal and external to the social networking system), instant message, text message, phone, or any other communicative interface. Being friends may allow a user access to view, comment on, download, endorse or otherwise interact with another user's uploaded content items. Establishing connections, accessing user information, communicating, and interacting within the context of the social networking system may be represented by an edge between the nodes representing two social networking system users.

[0049] In addition to explicitly establishing a connection in the social networking system, users with common characteristics may be considered connected (such as a soft or implicit connection) for the purposes of determining social context for use in determining the topic of communications. In one embodiment, users who belong to a common network are considered connected. For example, users who attend a common school, work for a common company, or belong to a common social networking system group may be considered connected. In one embodiment, users with common biographical characteristics are considered connected. For example, the geographic region users were born in or live in, the age of users, the gender of users and the relationship status of users may be used to determine whether users are connected. In one embodiment, users with common interests are considered connected. For example, users' movie preferences, music preferences, political views, religious views, or any other interest may be used to determine whether users are connected. In one embodiment, users who have taken a common action within the social networking system are considered connected. For example, users who endorse or recommend a common object, who comment on a common content item, or who RSVP to a common event may be considered connected. A social networking system may utilize a social graph to determine users who are connected with a particular user in order to determine or evaluate the social context of the communications of the particular user, as will be described below in greater detail.

[0050] A social networking system may provide a variety of communication channels to users. For example, a social networking system may allow a user to email, instant message, or text/SMS message, one or more other users; may allow a user to post a message to the user's wall or profile or another user's wall or profile; may allow a user to post a message to a group or a fan page; or may allow a user to comment on an image, wall post or other content item created or uploaded by the user or another user. In one embodiment, a user posts a status message to the user's profile indicating a current event, state of mind, thought, feeling, activity, or any other present-time relevant communication. A social networking system may allow users to communicate both within and external to the social networking system. For example, a first user may send a second user a message within the social networking system, an email through the social networking system, an email external to but originating from the social networking system, an instant message within the social networking system, and an instant message external to but originating from the social networking system. Further, a first user may comment on the profile page of a second user, or may comment on objects associated with a second user, such as content items uploaded by the second user.

Social Networking System Environment and Architecture

[0051] Referring now to FIG. 2, therein is shown a high level block diagram of a system environment 200 suitable for a social networking system 202, according to one embodiment. The system environment 200 shown in FIG. 2 includes the social networking system 202, a client device 204A, and a network channel 206. The system environment 200 can include other client devices as well, such as a client device 204B and a client device 204C. For example, the client devices 204 may include the developer device 155 of FIG. 1. In other embodiments, the system environment 200 may include different and/or additional components than those shown by FIG. 2. The social networking system 202 can be the social networking system 100 of FIG. 1.

[0052] The social networking system 202, further described below, comprises one or more computing devices storing user profiles associated with users and/or other objects as well as connections between users and other users and/or objects. In use, users join the social networking system 202 and then add connections to other users or objects of the social networking system to which they desire to be connected. As further described below in conjunction with FIG. 2, users of the social networking system 202 may be individuals or entities such as businesses, organizations, universities, manufacturers. The social networking system 202 allows its users to interact with each other as well as with other objects maintained by the social networking system 202. In some embodiments, the social networking system 202 allows users to interact with third-party websites and a financial account provider.

[0053] Based on stored data about users, objects and connections between users and/or objects, the social networking system 202 generates and maintains a “social graph” comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality of edges. Each node in the social graph represents an object or user that can act on another node and/or that can be acted on by another node. An edge between two nodes in the social graph represents a particular kind of connection between the two nodes, which may result from an action that was performed by one of the nodes on the other node. For example, when a user identifies an additional user as a friend, an edge in the social graph is generated connecting a node representing the first user and an additional node representing the additional user. The generated edge has a connection type indicating that the users are friends. As various nodes interact with each other, the social networking system 202 adds and/or modifies edges connecting the various nodes to reflect the interactions.

[0054] The client device 204A is a computing device capable of receiving user input as well as transmitting and/or receiving data via the network channel 206. In one embodiment, the client device 204A is a conventional computer system, such as a desktop or laptop computer. In another embodiment, the client device 204A may be a device having computer functionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, a tablet, a smart-phone or similar device. In yet another embodiment, the client device 204A can be a virtualized desktop running on a cloud computing service. The client device 204A is configured to communicate with the social networking system 202, and/or the financial account provider via the network channel 206. In one embodiment, the client device 204A executes an application allowing a user of the client device 204A to interact with the social networking system 202. For example, the client device 204A executes a browser application to enable interaction between the client device 204A and the social networking system 202 via the network channel 206. In another embodiment, a the client device 204A interacts with the social networking system 202 through an application programming interface (API) that runs on the native operating system of the client device 204A, such as IOS® or ANDROID™.

[0055] The client device 204A is configured to communicate via the network channel 206, which may comprise any combination of local area and/or wide area networks, using both wired and wireless communication systems. In one embodiment, the network channel 206 uses standard communications technologies and/or protocols. Thus, the network channel 206 may include links using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, CDMA, digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Similarly, the networking protocols used on the network channel 206 may include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and file transfer protocol (FTP). Data exchanged over the network channel 206 may be represented using technologies and/or formats including hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML). In addition, all or some of links can be encrypted using conventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer (SSL), transport layer security (TLS), and Internet Protocol security (IPsec).

[0056] The social networking system 202 shown by FIG. 2 includes a profile store 210, a content store 212, an action logger 214, an action log 216, an edge store 218, a financial account store 220, a flexible sentence management system 222, a web server 224, a message server 226, and an API request server 228. In other embodiments, the social networking system 202 may include additional, fewer, or different modules for various applications. Conventional components such as network interfaces, security mechanisms, load balancers, failover servers, management and network operations consoles, and the like are not shown so as to not obscure the details of the system architecture.

[0057] Each user of the social networking system 202 is associated with a user profile, which is stored in the profile store 210. A user profile includes declarative information about the user that was explicitly shared by the user, and may also include profile information inferred by the social networking system 202. In one embodiment, a user profile includes multiple data fields, each data field describing one or more attributes of the corresponding user of the social networking system 202. The user profile information stored in the profile store 210 describes the users of the social networking system 100, including biographic, demographic, and other types of descriptive information, such as work experience, educational history, gender, hobbies or preferences, location and the like. A user profile may also store other information provided by the user, for example, images or videos. In certain embodiments, images of users may be tagged with identification information of users of the social networking system 202 displayed in an image. A user profile in the profile store 210 may also maintain references to actions by the corresponding user performed on content items in the content store 212 and stored in the edge store 218.

[0058] As further described below, a user profile may be associated with one or more financial accounts, allowing the user profile to include data retrieved from or derived from a financial account. A user may specify one or more privacy settings, which are stored in the user profile, that limit information from a financial account that the social networking system 202 is permitted to access. For example, a privacy setting limits the social networking system 202 to accessing the transaction history of the financial account and not the current account balance. As another example, a privacy setting limits the social networking system 202 to a subset of the transaction history of the financial account, allowing the social networking system 202 to access transactions within a specified time range, transactions involving less than a threshold transaction amounts, transactions associated with specified vendor identifiers, transactions associated with vendor identifiers other than specified vendor identifiers or any suitable criteria limiting information from a financial account identified by a user that is accessible by the social networking system 202. In one embodiment, information from the financial account is stored in the profile store 210. In other embodiments, it may be stored in the financial account store 220.

[0059] The content store 212 stores content items associated with a user profile, such as images, videos or audio files. Content items from the content store 212 may be displayed when a user profile is viewed or when other content associated with the user profile is viewed. For example, displayed content items may show images or video associated with a user profile or show text describing a user's status. Additionally, other content items may facilitate user engagement by encouraging a user to expand his connections to other users, to invite new users to the system or to increase interaction with the social network system by displaying content related to users, objects, activities, or functionalities of the social networking system 202. Examples of social networking content items include suggested connections or suggestions to perform other actions, media provided to, or maintained by, the social networking system 202 (e.g., pictures or videos), status messages or links posted by users to the social networking system, events, groups, pages (e.g., representing an organization or commercial entity), and any other content provided by, or accessible via, the social networking system.

[0060] The content store 212 also includes one or more pages associated with entities having user profiles in the profile store 210. An entity is a non-individual user of the social networking system 202, such as a business, a vendor, an organization or a university. A page includes content associated with an entity and instructions for presenting the content to a social networking system user. For example, a page identifies content associated with the entity's user profile as well as information describing how to present the content to users viewing the brand page. Vendors may be associated with pages in the content store 212, allowing social networking system users to more easily interact with the vendor via the social networking system 202. A vendor identifier is associated with a vendor's page, allowing the social networking system 202 to identify the vendor and/or to retrieve additional information about the vendor from the profile store 210, the action log 216 or from any other suitable source using the vendor identifier. In some embodiments, the content store 212 may also store one or more targeting criteria associated with stored objects and identifying one or more characteristics of a user to which the object is eligible to be presented.

[0061] The action logger 214 receives communications about user actions on and/or off the social networking system 202, populating the action log 216 with information about user actions. Such actions may include, for example, adding a connection to another user, sending a message to another user, uploading an image, reading a message from another user, viewing content associated with another user, attending an event posted by another user, among others. In some embodiments, the action logger 214 receives, subject to one or more privacy settings, transaction information from a financial account associated with a user and identifies user actions from the transaction information. For example, the action logger 214 retrieves vendor identifiers from the financial account's transaction history and identifies an object, such as a page, in the social networking system associated with the vendor identifier. This allows the action logger 214 to identify a user's purchases of products or services that are associated with a page, or another object, in the content store 212. In addition, a number of actions described in connection with other objects are directed at particular users, so these actions are associated with those users as well. These actions are stored in the action log 216.

[0062] In accordance with various embodiments, the action logger 214 is capable of receiving communications from the web server 224 about user actions on and/or off the social networking system 200. The action logger 214 populates the action log 216 with information about user actions to track them. This information may be subject to privacy settings associated with the user. Any action that a particular user takes with respect to another user is associated with each user's profile, through information maintained in a database or other data repository, such as the action log 216. Such actions may include, for example, adding a connection to the other user, sending a message to the other user, reading a message from the other user, viewing content associated with the other user, attending an event posted by another user, being tagged in photos with another user, liking an entity, etc.

[0063] The action log 216 may be used by the social networking system 202 to track user actions on the social networking system 202, as well as external website that communicate information to the social networking system 202. Users may interact with various objects on the social networking system 202, including commenting on posts, sharing links, and checking-in to physical locations via a mobile device, accessing content items in a sequence or other interactions. Information describing these actions is stored in the action log 216. Additional examples of interactions with objects on the social networking system 202 included in the action log 216 include commenting on a photo album, communications between users, becoming a fan of a musician, adding an event to a calendar, joining a groups, becoming a fan of a brand page, creating an event, authorizing an application, using an application and engaging in a transaction. Additionally, the action log 216 records a user's interactions with advertisements on the social networking system 202 as well as applications operating on the social networking system 202. In some embodiments, data from the action log 216 is used to infer interests or preferences of the user, augmenting the interests included in the user profile and allowing a more complete understanding of user preferences.

[0064] Further, user actions that happened in particular context, such as when the user was shown or was seen accessing particular content on the social networking system 200, are captured along with the particular context and logged. For example, a particular user could be shown/not-shown information regarding candidate users every time the particular user accessed the social networking system 200 for a fixed period of time. Any actions taken by the user during this period of time are logged along with the context information (i.e., candidate users were provided/not provided to the particular user) and are recorded in the action log 216. In addition, a number of actions described below in connection with other objects are directed at particular users, so these actions are associated with those users as well.

[0065] The action log 216 may also store user actions taken on external websites and/or determined from a financial account associated with the user. For example, an e-commerce website that primarily sells sporting equipment at bargain prices may recognize a user of the social networking system 202 through social plug-ins that enable the e-commerce website to identify the user of the social networking system 202. Because users of the social networking system 202 are uniquely identifiable, e-commerce websites, such as this sporting equipment retailer, may use the information about these users as they visit their websites. The action log 216 records data about these users, including webpage viewing histories, advertisements that were engaged, purchases made, and other patterns from shopping and buying. Actions identified by the action logger 214 from the transaction history of a financial account associated with the user allow the action log 216 to record further information about additional types of user actions.

[0066] In one embodiment, the edge store 218 stores the information describing connections between users and other objects on the social networking system 202 in edge objects. The edge store 218 can store the social graph described above, such as the social graph 108 of FIG. 1. Some edges may be defined by users, allowing users to specify their relationships with other users. For example, users may generate edges with other users that parallel the users' real-life relationships, such as friends, co-workers, partners, and so forth. Other edges are generated when users interact with objects in the social networking system 202, such as expressing interest in a page on the social networking system, sharing a link with other users of the social networking system, and commenting on posts made by other users of the social networking system. The edge store 218 stores edge objects that include information about the edge, such as affinity scores for objects, interests, and other users. Affinity scores may be computed by the social networking system 202 over time to approximate a user's affinity for an object, interest, and other users in the social networking system 202 based on the actions performed by the user. Multiple interactions of the same type between a user and a specific target may be stored in one edge object in the edge store 218, in one embodiment. In some embodiments, connections between users may be stored in the profile store 210, or the profile store 210 may access the edge store 218 to determine connections between users. Users may select from predefined types of connections, or define their own connection types as needed.

[0067] The web server 224 links the social networking system 200 via a network to one or more client devices; the web server 224 serves web pages, as well as other web-related content, such as Java, Flash, XML, and so forth. The web server 224 may communicate with the message server 226 that provides the functionality of receiving and routing messages between the social networking system 200 and client devices. The messages processed by the message server 226 can be instant messages, queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS (short message service) messages, or any other suitable messaging technique. In some embodiments, a message sent by a user to another can be viewed by other users of the social networking system 200, for example, by the connections of the user receiving the message. An example of a type of message that can be viewed by other users of the social networking system besides the recipient of the message is a wall post. In some embodiments, a user can send a private message to another user that can only be retrieved by the other user.

[0068] The API request server 228 allows external systems to access information from the social networking system 200 by calling APIs. The information provided by the social network may include user profile information or the connection information of users as determined by their individual privacy settings. For example, a system interested in predicting the probability of users forming a connection within a social networking system may send an API request to the social networking system 200 via a network. The API request is received at the social networking system 200 by the API request server 228. The API request server 228 processes the request by determining the appropriate response, which is then communicated back to the requesting system via a network.

[0069] The social networking system 202 also includes the flexible sentence management system 222. The flexible sentence management system 222 can be the flexible sentence management system 150 of FIG. 1. The flexible sentence management system 222 can access the stores and modules of the social networking system 202 in order to develop flexible sentences and render flexible sentences for an application running on the social networking system 202. As flexible sentences are developed, the flexible sentence management system 222 can also work with other modules and stores of the social networking system 202 to display the rendered flexible sentences to the client device 204A based on the flexible sentence configurations.

[0070] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of using tokens to generate a specific flexible sentence in a social networking system 300, such as the social networking system 100 of FIG. 1 or the social networking system 200 of FIG. 2. A set of flexible sentence syntaxes may be configured on a developer interface and then rendered from social graph data of the social networking system.

[0071] The social networking system 300 includes a graph API server, such as the graph API server 228 to interact with a user device, such as the user device 204 of FIG. 2. The graph API server may facilitate recording of user profiles and activities in the social networking system 300. In some embodiments, the user profiles and activities can be stored in the profile store 210 and action log 216, respectively. The user profiles may include, but are not limited to, a particular user's name or user identifier (UID), profile picture, gender, birthday, networks, friend list, location, language, country, likes, favorite brands, news, outlets, restaurants, any information the particular user chooses to share with everyone, or any combination thereof.

[0072] An application developed by a developer may utilized a social graph stored on the social networking system 300 to interact with the social networking system 300. For example, the application may access the edge store 218 of FIG. 2 through the graph API server. FIG. 3 illustrates a specific developer interface in configuring the application to express information from the social graph through the application.

[0073] The social networking system 300 may generate a developer platform 310, such as the developer interface generated by the developer interface module 154 of FIG. 1, instantiated on a device, such as the client device 204 of FIG. 2. The developer platform 310 allows the developer to configure the flexible sentence syntax for an application, such as the flexible sentence syntax 156 of FIG. 1 for the social networking application 152 of FIG. 1. The flexible sentence syntax is used by the application to interpret actions performed by user accounts on the social networking system 300 and to express those actions in a meaningful way. The interpreted actions may be accessed from the action log 216 through the graph API server or from the edge store. The developer platform 310 can communicate directly with the social networking system 300 or indirectly through the graph API server.

[0074] In some embodiments, the developer platform 310 provides a plurality of options for the developer to generate flexible sentences in the social networking system 300. The developer can start by inputting “actor,” “edge,” and “target” of a specific flexible sentence. For example, the developer can define “actor,” “edge,” and “target” by typing them into their corresponding text boxes. In some embodiments, the “actor” text box is pre-filled with the name of the user using the application of the developer. The particular user can modify it to other names or add other friends.

[0075] On the developer platform 310, options are provided for the developer to choose one or more edge tokens 321-329 (i.e., variables for edge) and/or one or more target tokens 331-339 (i.e., variables for target). The one or more edge tokens 321-329 can be used to define property expressions of “edge” in the specific flexible sentence. The developer can choose edge token(s) 321-329 to further define the “edge” of the specific sentence. Edge tokens 321-329 may be presented to the developer in numerous ways. For example, edge tokens 321-329 can be provided in a check-box list, drop-down menu, selection list, list of buttons, multiple layered menu levels, or any combination thereof. For another example, when the developer types a pre-defined character, such as an open curly bracket (“{”), in front of the “edge,” a drop-down box can be displayed for the developer to select property expressions associated with the “edge.”

[0076] The one or more target tokens 331-339 can be used to define property expressions of “target” in the specific flexible sentence. The developer can choose target token(s) 331-339 to further define the “target” of the specific flexible sentence. Target tokens 331-339 can be presented to the developer via options such as: a check-box list, drop-down menu, selection list, list of buttons, multiple layered menu levels, or any combination thereof.

[0077] Some edge and target tokens may be used more frequently than others by users in the social networking system 300. In some embodiments, the edge and target tokens may be color-coded to distinguish tokens that have different levels of usage frequency by users and/or developers.

[0078] In some embodiments, based on the developer-selected edge and/or target, the developer platform 310 can automatically generate a plurality of sentences for the developer to select. Each sentence may be presented with its corresponding percentage of coverage. The percentage of coverage of a specific sentence is determined by the impressions that the specific sentence has been viewed by users in the social networking system 300 over a given time frame. The impressions may include, but are not limited to, total impressions (i.e., the number of impressions received), total referrals (i.e., total clicks across all channels), feed impressions (i.e., the number of impressions viewed in a user's newsfeed), feed referrals (i.e., the number of clicks viewed in a user's newsfeed), ticker impressions (i.e., the number of impressions viewed in a user's ticker), ticker referrals (i.e., the number of clicks viewed in a user's ticker), etc.

[0079] In some embodiments, the percentage coverage of a specific sentence may also depend on rate of the specific sentence. The rate of the specific sentence can be determined based on feedback, such as like, comment and unlike etc., from users in the social networking system 300.

[0080] The plurality of sentences can be prioritized based on their corresponding percentage of coverage. The sentence with the highest percentage of coverage can be listed on the top. In some embodiments, the percentage of coverage may be color-coded. A specific color is designated to a particular level of percentage of coverage.

[0081] In some embodiments, when the edge is defined, relevant sentences having their corresponding percentage coverage above a predetermined threshold value can be pre-fetched on the developer device to minimize network I/O delay.

[0082] In some embodiments, the developer can configure the application running on the social networking system 30 to publish a summary of activities at once in aggregation. The developer platform 310 can provide the developer different aggregation types to select. The aggregation types may include, but are not limited to, a gallery type, table, list, map, or any combination thereof. For example, if the edge is “cook,” the aggregation may list all the things that a particular user has recently cooked.

[0083] In some embodiments, when the edge and target are selected, the developer platform 310 can provide the developer a plurality of aggregations to select. For example, if the edge and target of the specific sentence are “listen to a song,” the aggregations may include the particular user's favorite albums, favorite playlists, and/or favorite artists. The developer can customize the aggregation and preview the customized aggregations to visualize how the aggregations may be perceived by other users in the social networking system 300. For example, the developer may configure the application running on the social networking system 100 to aggregate favorite albums into a gallery type.

[0084] FIG. 4A illustrates examples of options to configure verb tenses of a specific flexible sentence on a developer platform 400, such as the developer platform 310 of FIG. 3. A developer may configure the specific flexible sentence by selecting from a plurality of edge configurations 410. The edge configurations 410 may include, but are not limited to, one to one (e.g., “John hiked hike.title on social hiking”); one to one without target title (e.g., “John hiked a hike on social hiking”); one to two (e.g., “John hiked hike1.title and hike2.title on social hiking”); one to many (e.g., “John hiked hike1.title and 5 other hikes on social hiking”); one to two/many without target titles (e.g., “John hiked 5 hikes on social hiking”); two to one (e.g., “John and Mary hiked hike.title on social hiking); and many to one (e.g., “John and 3 others hiked hike.title on social hiking). Each edge configuration 410 may be stored as a flexible sentence syntax, such as the flexible sentence syntax 156 of FIG. 1.

[0085] When the developer publishes a specific flexible sentence, the published specific sentence can appear not only in newsfeeds but also in tickers on user devices 115 of the particular user's friends in the social networking system 300. In some embodiments, the developer can preview the sentences with different “edge configurations.” For example, the developer platform 310 may provide a preview box for the developer to display the specific flexible sentence in news feeds and tickers. The tickers normally have less space than the newsfeeds have. Based on the preview, the developer may have to shorten the sentence to convey the same information in tickers.

[0086] In some embodiments, the preview box can simulate a display of the specific flexible sentence or newsfeed story on different platforms to help the developer visualize how the specific sentence and/or newsfeed story could be perceived by users on these platforms.

[0087] FIGS. 4B-C illustrate examples of options to edit tense of a specific flexible sentence on the developer platform 400. As illustrated in FIG. 4B, when editing a specific flexible sentence, the developer can use tokens to choose property expressions of edge and target. For example, the particular use can use a pre-defined character, such as an open curly bracket (“{”) 420, plus “hike” to bring a drop-down box with a plurality of property expressions 430 of the edge “hike.” The developer can choose one or more property expressions associated with the edge “hike” of the specific flexible sentence. For example, the property expressions may include edge tokens associated with the edge “hike,” such as hike.title, hike.audio, hike.description, hike.determiner, hiker.image, hike.restrictions, hike.see_also, hike.site_name, etc. Each of edge tokens in the drop-down box can be selected and edited. For example, the developer can select hike.image and edited it with one or more images that are related to the edge “hike.”

[0088] In some embodiments, the developer can add additional property expressions to customize the edge and target of the specific flexible sentence. For example, the developer may add hike.locale (e.g., a place with reference to the edge “hike”) as a customized property for the “hike” edge. For another example, if the edge and target are “watch a movie,” the developer can customize the target “movie” by adding property expressions such as director of the movie, actors/actresses in the movie, studio releasing the movie, particular subject or genre of the movie, etc.

[0089] In some embodiments, the developer can enable a particular user to tag other users in the specific flexible-sentence. By tagging other users, the specific flexible sentence can be published not only in the timeline of tagged users but also in the tickers and newsfeeds of tagged users' friends.

[0090] For example, if the edge and target are “cook a recipe,” the developer may add an additional target “ingredient.” The target “ingredient” can be in various different types, such as an image, geopoint, day, time, array of ingredients, Boolean and/or integer, etc. If the recipe is egg roll, the particular use may add favorite ingredients (e.g., egg, ground pork, and green onion) of a typical egg roll recipe. The developer may also add a new target type “occasion,” such as “birthday.” The occasion is a property of the “cook” edge. The developer may also add another property of the “cook” edge, “place” (e.g., “John's home”). By tagging other users (e.g., Jim and Jane), the specific sentence can be published in the tickers and newsfeeds of Jim and Jane's friends as if they have done the action represented by the edge too. The developer may further add a target property expression, for instance “delicious,” to the specific sentence. The published specific sentence in the newsfeed may look like, “John cooked a recipe with Jim and Jane at John's home, delicious egg roll for birthday made with egg, green onions and ground pork.”

[0091] In some embodiments, the tense of edge (i.e., verb) in the specific sentence can be edited by clicking on the gray box surrounding the verb. In some embodiments, the platform 301 provides a dialog box for the developer to edit the tenses of the specific sentence. The developer can change the verb itself in the dialog box (e.g., from “hiked” to “walked”). The change results in the verb being changed in all stories of that type.

[0092] The tenses of the verb in the specific sentence may include, such as, past tense, plural past tense, present tense, plural present tense, continuous tense, perfect tense, perfect continuous tense and imperative tense. The developer can choose one or more tenses for the edge of the specific flexible sentence. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4C, the developer can choose both past and present tenses 440 to show stories with the edge “hike.” In some embodiments, in the absence of the developer's selection, the name of the edge can be displayed in the past tense by default.

[0093] FIG. 4D illustrates examples of options to select attributions of a specific flexible sentence on the developer platform 400. In some embodiments, an attribution token 460 can be provided for the developer to customize how the developer's application is attributed in a story. The attribution token 460 can be selected with options such as: a check-box list, drop-down menu, selection list, list of buttons, multiple layered menu levels, or any combination thereof. As illustrated in FIG. 4D, the developer may select a specific attribution “on social hiking” 463 when edit a specific flexible sentence.

[0094] While embodiments have been described in the context of the developer platform 310, various embodiments can generate and publish a specific flexible sentence from a mobile web, iOS, Android, desktop web, and/or applications that exist on Windows OS, Linux, or Unix.

[0095] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing a set of operations 500 that may be used for generating a specific flexible sentence in a social networking system, such as the social networking system 100 of FIG. 1 or the social networking system 202 of FIG. 2. At step 520, the social networking system provides a developer interface for the developer to define a specific flexible sentence syntax on a developer device.

[0096] At step 530, one or more edge tokens can be generated for the developer to choose property expressions of a specific edge of the specific flexible sentence syntax. At step 540, one or more target tokens can be generated for the developer to choose property expressions of a specific target of the specific flexible sentence syntax. At step 550, a tense token may be generated for the developer to define tense of the specific edge in the specific flexible sentence syntax.

[0097] At step 560, based on the specific edge, the specific target and defined tense of the specific edge, a plurality of relevant sentence syntaxes can be generated for the developer to determine the specific flexible sentence syntax. The plurality of relevant sentence syntaxes can be prioritized according to their corresponding percentage of coverage.

[0098] In some embodiments, the developer may generate a summary of activities to publish at once in aggregation. Different aggregation types can be provided for the developer to select. In some embodiments, a plurality of aggregations can be automatically provided for the developer to select.

[0099] At step 570, a preview option can be provided for the developer to preview and publish the specific flexible sentence syntax. In some embodiments, a preview box can be provided for the developer to visualize how the specific flexible sentence syntax can be perceived by users using different types of platforms. An edge configuration of the flexible sentence syntax may be published by storing the edge configuration as a flexible sentence syntax on the social networking system. For example, run-time rendition of the flexible sentence syntax may be rendered by the sentence rendition module 160 of FIG. 1 by interpreting the social graph data through the graph API server 228 of FIG. 2. The rendition of the sentences may occur in response to new user actions generating new edges on the social networking system. Each new edge that maps to the edge configuration may be rendered into a new instance of a rendered flexible sentence syntax.

[0100] While the method 500 of FIG. 5 is described in the context of a single networking system, the present disclosure contemplates a plurality of networking systems and/or servers. The plurality of networking systems and/or servers can be located at a single location or variety of locations.

[0101] FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram of a computer system 600, in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present disclosure. The computer system 600 may include at least one processor 610, one or more network interface 630 and one or more computer readable medium 620, all interconnected via one or more bus 670. In FIG. 6, various components are omitted for illustrative simplicity. The computer system 600 is intended to illustrate a device on which any other components described in this specification (i.e., any of the components depicted in FIGS. 1-5) can be implemented.

[0102] The computer system 600 may take a variety of physical forms. By way of examples, the computer system 600 may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a tablet PC, a wearable computer, an interactive kiosk, a mobile phone, a server, a mainframe computer, a mesh-connected computer, a single-board computer (SBC) (i.e., a BeagleBoard, a PC-on-a-stick, a Cubieboard, a CuBox, a Gooseberry, a Hawkboard, a Mbed, a OmapZoom, a Origenboard, a Pandaboard, a Pandora, a Rascal, a Raspberry Pi, a SheevaPlug, a Trim-Slice, etc.), an embedded computer system, or a combination of two or more of these. Where appropriate, the computer system 600 may include one or more computer systems 600, be unitary or distributed, span multiple locations, span multiple machines, or reside in a cloud, which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one or more computer systems 600 may perform without substantial spatial or temporal limitation one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. As an example and not by way of limitation, one or more computer systems 600 may perform in real time or in batch mode one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. One or more computer systems 600 may perform at different times or at different locations one or more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

[0103] The computer system 600 preferably may include an operating system such as, but not limited to, Windows®, Linux® or Unix®. The operating system may include a file management system, which organizes and keeps track of files. In some embodiments, a separate file management system may be provided. The separate file management can interact smoothly with the operating system and provide enhanced and/or more features, such as improved backup procedures and/or stricter file protection.

[0104] The at least one processor 610 may be any suitable processor. The type of the at least one processor 610 may comprise one or more from a group comprising a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a physics processing unit (PPU), a digital signal processor, a network processor, a front end processor, a data processor, a word processor and an audio processor.

[0105] The one or more bus 670 is configured to couple components of the computer system 600 to each other. As an example and not by way of limitation, the one or more bus 670 may include a graphics bus (i.e., an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)), an Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HyperTransport (HT) interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an Infiniband interconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI-Express (PCI-X) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, or another suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Although the present disclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosure contemplates any suitable bus or interconnects.

[0106] The one or more network interface 630 may include one or more of a modem or network interface. It will be appreciated that a modem or network interface can be considered to be part of the computer system 600. The interface can include an analog modem, an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) modem, a cable modem, a doubleway satellite modem, a power line modem, a token ring interface, a Cambridge ring interface, a satellite transmission interface or any suitable interface for coupling a computer system to other computer systems. The interface can include one or more input and/or output devices. The I/O devices can include, by way of example but not limitation, a keyboard, a mouse or other pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, a touch screen, a Tablet screen, and other input and/or output devices, including a display device. The display device can include, by way of example but not limitation, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a 3-D display, or some other applicable known or convenient display device. For simplicity, it is assumed that controllers of any devices not depicted in the example of FIG. 6 reside in the interface.

[0107] The computer readable medium 620 may include any medium device that is accessible by the processor 610. As an example and not by way of limitation, the computer readable medium 620 may include volatile memory (i.e., a random access memory (RAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), and/or a static RAM (SRAM)) and non-volatile memory (i.e., a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), and/or an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM)). When appropriate, the volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory may be single-ported or multiple-ported memory. This disclosure contemplates any suitable memory. In some embodiments, the computer readable medium 620 may include a semiconductor-based or other integrated circuit (IC) (i.e., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disc (i.e., a CD-ROM, or a digital versatile disk (DVD)), an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD), a magnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD), a secure digital (SD) card, a SD drive, or another suitable computer-readable storage medium or a combination of two or more of these, where appropriate. The computer readable medium 620 may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, where appropriate.

[0108] Programs 6201 may be stored on the one or more computer readable media 620. As an example, but not by way of limitation, the computer system 600 may load the programs 6201 to an appropriate location on the one or more compute readable media 620 for execution. The programs 6201, when executed, may cause the computer system 600 to perform one or more operations or one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In some implementations, the operations may include, but are not limited to, the method 500 of FIG. 5.

[0109] As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the operations or methods may be instantiated locally (i.e., on one local computer system) and may be distributed across remote computer systems. For example, it may be determined that the available computing power of the local computer system is insufficient or that additional computing power is needed, and may offload certain aspects of the operations to the cloud.

[0110] While the computer-readable medium is shown in an embodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable medium” should be taken to include single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that stores the one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the computer and that cause the computer to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the presently disclosed technique and innovation.

[0111] Further examples of computer-readable medium, machine-readable storage medium, machine-readable medium or computer-readable (storage) medium include but are not limited to recordable type medium such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, optical disks, Digital Versatile Disks, among others and transmission type medium such as digital and analog communication links.

[0112] In some circumstances, operation of a memory device, such as a change in state from a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versa, for example, may comprise a transformation, such as a physical transformation. With particular types of memory devices, such a physical transformation may comprise a physical transformation of an article to a different state or thing. For example, but without limitation, for some types of memory devices, a change in state may involve an accumulation and storage of charge or a release of stored charge. Likewise, in other memory devices, a change of state may comprise a physical change or transformation in magnetic orientation or a physical change or transformation in molecular structure, such as from crystalline to amorphous or vice versa. The foregoing is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all examples in which a change in state for a binary one to a binary zero or vice-versa in a memory device may comprise a transformation, such as a physical transformation. Rather, the foregoing are intended as illustrative examples.

[0113] A storage medium typically may be non-transitory or comprise a non-transitory device. In this context, a non-transitory storage medium may include a device that is tangible, meaning that the device has a concrete physical form, although the device may change its physical state. Thus, for example, non-transitory refers to a device remaining tangible despite this change in state.

[0114] The computer may be, but is not limited to, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, an iPhone®, an iPad®, a processor, a telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine.

[0115] In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

[0116] Some portions of the detailed description may be presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like.

[0117] It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or “generating” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

[0118] The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the methods of some embodiments. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the techniques are not described with reference to any particular programming language, and various embodiments may thus be implemented using a variety of programming languages.

[0119] In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application, component, program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as “programs.” The programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or more processing units or processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspects of the disclosure.

[0120] Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems, various embodiments are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of computer-readable medium used to actually effect the distribution.

[0121] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but is not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all the following interpretations of the word, any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list and any combination of the items in the list.

[0122] The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of and examples for the disclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined and/or modified to provide alternative or sub combinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples—alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.

[0123] Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.

[0124] The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used to describe the disclosure are discussed herein, to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certain terms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotation marks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the same context, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated that the same thing can be said in more than one way.

[0125] Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification, including examples of any term discussed herein, is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.

[0126] Without intent to further limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given herein. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.

[0127] The teaching of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to other systems and not necessarily to the system described above. Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified if necessary to employ the systems, functions and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.

[0128] Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified if necessary to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the disclosure.

[0129] These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of the above Detailed Description. While the above description describes certain embodiments of the disclosure and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the teachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may vary considerably in its implementation details while still being encompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure under the claims.

[0130] While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the disclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6, other aspects may likewise be embodied as a means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied in a computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6 will begin with the words “means for”.) Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the disclosure.

[0131] Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively to others skilled in the art. These operations, while described functionally, computationally or logically, are understood to be implemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits, microcode or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, without loss of generality. The described operations and their associated modules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware or any combinations thereof.

[0132] Any of the steps, operations or processes described herein may be performed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, a software module is implemented with a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code, which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or all of the steps, operations or processes described.

[0133] Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise a general-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage medium, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification may include a single processor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

[0134] Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product that is produced by a computing process described herein. Such a product may comprise information resulting from a computing process, where the information is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer program product or other data combination described herein.