Yahoo! Inc.

Leonard Lin

Andrew Baio

Gordon Luk

Jonathan James Trevor

Nathanael Joe Hayashi

Edward Stanley Ott, Iv

Edward Ho

Michael Lee Quoc

Matthew Fukuda

Daniel James Wascovich

Gordon David Luk, Jr

A device, system, and method are directed towards determining a start and/or an end time for a spontaneous event. A mobile device user creates a group for the spontaneous event, and sends the members an invite. During the event, members share media content and/or text messages with other members. Based, in part, on a flow of media content and/or text messages between the members, a determination of a start time and/or end time of the spontaneous event is automatically performed. The start time may be based on when the group is created and/or revised when a flow rate of the media content and/or messages exceed a threshold. The end time may be based on the flow rate being less than another threshold. The location of the spontaneous event may also be determined based on a location of the member's mobile devices during the event.

Collecting implicit information for determining context of event actions

Techniques for republishing event data are provided. An event data repository contains event records defining real world events. Users request instructions for republishing event data. The request includes data identifying a set of event data and display characteristics for republication. In response to the request, event data display code is provided back to the client. The user may use the event data display code to display event data on the user's own web pages or applications. When the event data display code is processed by a web browser application, a request is sent to the events repository, which provides the identified set of event data in response. The event data is displayed to users at the web browser using the display characteristics specified by the client.

Generating event data display code

A device, system, and method are directed towards determining a suggested characteristic for an event. At least two events are determined. In one embodiment, at least one characteristic is determined for one of the event. A plurality of other characteristics is determined for the other event. The characteristics of the two events may be determined implicitly from communications during the events or from user input. Based on a relationship between the determined characteristics, the suggested characteristic for the event is then determined. In one embodiment, the relationship is defined as a match of characteristics. The event may then be modified based on the suggested characteristic. For example, a suggested member may be invited to join the event, or the event's time, location, or name may be changed. If the other event is current or pending, the event and the other event may be combined.

Employing matching of event characteristics to suggest another characteristic of an event

Techniques are described herein for notifying a member of a social network system of those changes, within the social network system, that are of most interest to the member. In one embodiment, change records are generated for changes in the social network system. The change records are stored in an activities log. To notify a particular user of changes that would be of interest to the user, a subset of the change records contained in the activities log is selected based on user-specific selection criteria. Once the subset of change records has been selected, a set of notification records is generated based on the subset of change records. To reduce the possibility of information overload, the subset of change records is consolidated by removing duplicates and merging related notifications. The consolidated list of user-specific notifications may then be sent to the user. A variety of mechanisms may be used to send the notifications to the user, including streaming the notifications to a user (e.g. via an RSS feed), placing the notifications in a web page that is sent to the user, and sending the user an email that lists the notifications.

Automatically generating user-customized notifications of changes in a social network system

Techniques for accessing an events information repository are provided. An events repository contains event records defining real world events. A programmatic interface is exposed to third-party applications for accessing the event records within the repository. Specifically, the programmatic interface provides a set of routines that perform operations on the repository. Using the programmatic interface, third-party applications may call the set of routines to cause operations to be executed on the repository. Further, techniques are provided for creating and viewing private events within an events repository and also for associating user-defined tags with events using the events repository.

Creating and viewing private events in an events repository

Techniques for accessing an events repository are provided. An event information repository contains event records defining real world events. A programmatic interface is exposed to third-party applications for accessing the event records within the repository. Specifically, the programmatic interface provides a set of routines that perform operations on the repository. Using the programmatic interface, third-party applications may call the set of routines to cause operations to be executed on the repository. Further, techniques are provided for controlling the display of private events within a first-party event application and also for associating user-defined tags with events using the events repository.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Leonard Lin