Facebook, Inc.

Brian Thomas Boland

Nipun Mathur

Gokul Rajaram

Philip Zigoris

Scott Aaron Shapiro

Kelly Leanne MacLean

Antonio Felipe Garcia-Martinez

Robert Kang-Xing Jin

Robert Kang-Xin Jin

An ad bidder receives a request from a user device to select an advertisement ('ad') for presentation along with a web page. The ad bidder includes a user profile database and may be a social networking system. The ad bidder determines if the user of the user device is logged into the ad bidder and selects the advertisement based on information in the user profile database if the user is logged into the ad bidder. If the ad bidder determines the user is not logged into the ad bidder, the ad bidder retrieves a device cookie stored on the user device. The device cookie describes interactions with content from the user device, such as viewed web pages or ads. Data stored by the device cookie is then used to select the ad for presentation.

Selection of advertisements based on social networking system login status

Based on information used by the external system to identify a target user, the external system generates a target user hash identifier that is communicated to the social networking system along with a message. Using information from user profiles maintained by the social networking system, the social networking system generates hash identifiers for its users and compares the target user hash identifier to the generated hash identifiers hash identifiers for social networking system users are generated. The social networking system sends the message to a user associated with a hash identifier generated from user profile information that matches the target user hash identifier. Hence, an external application may communicate with social networking system users without accessing access information about the users maintained by the social networking system.

Third-party communications to social networking system users using user descriptors

Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to sponsored story generation from an organic activity stream in a social networking site. A user wishing to promote an entry from an organic activity stream may, using a sponsor user interface, specify the types of stories to promote to a portion of the home page displayed to a member of a social network.

Sponsored stories unit creation from organic activity stream

An entity provides a competitive block list for one or more of its objects in a social networking system. The competitive block list identifies advertisers or other entities prevented from targeting advertisements based on connections between users and objects of the entity. If a later received advertisement is targeted based on a connection between a user and an object of the entity, the social networking system determines whether the advertiser associated with the advertisement is included on the competitive block list. If the competitive block list includes the advertiser, the advertisement is determined not to be valid, and not presented to users. Otherwise, the advertisement is determined to be valid, and may be presented to users thereafter.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Brian Thomas Boland