Mapping External Web Pages to Social Graph Nodes

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Social networking systems lack an efficient mechanism to track and interact with externally sourced information, such as user purchases, as these are not represented as nodes within the social graph, limiting their ability to facilitate interactions and maintain socially relevant data.

Innovation Solution

A mechanism is introduced to allow social networking systems to obtain and convert data from external web pages into a format for presentation within the system, enabling user interaction with content from third-party websites by using templates that include action buttons and meta-information tags, thus integrating external content into the social graph.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If external web page data is integrated into the social networking system, then the ability to track and interact with externally sourced information is improved, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveability to track and interact with externally sourced informationVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary component that extracts structured data from external web pages using markup languages and transforms it into a format compatible with the social networking system's graph database. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of external data integration, allowing the core system to interact with external information through standardized interfaces without direct exposure to the complexity of diverse web page structures.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameter representation of external web page data by transforming unstructured or semi-structured web content into structured graph database parameters (nodes, edges, properties). This parameter transformation enables external information to be stored and queried using the same schema as native social networking data, improving adaptability while managing complexity through standardized data models.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Quantity of substance

If more external content is integrated into the social graph, then the quantity of socially relevant information increases, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring relevant data increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequantity of socially relevant informationVSAvoiddifficulty of detecting and measuring relevant data
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments external web page data into distinct structured components (nodes, edges, properties) that can be independently processed and stored in the graph database. This segmentation allows the system to handle large quantities of external information by breaking them down into manageable, standardized units that can be efficiently detected, measured, and queried without being overwhelmed by the sheer volume or diversity of raw web content.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP2661711B1Mapping a third-party web page to an object in a social networking system
Publication Date: 2019.03.13 META PLATFORMS INC
  • EP2661711B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2661711B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2661711B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A social networking system includes a mechanism for customizing display of content from an external web page. Nodes associated with a web page are included in the social graph based on one or more tags included in a web page, which contain meta-information for defining the node in the social networking system, such as the type of the node. The social networking system retrieves the tags from the markup language document and stores their information in connection with the node for the web page while using the tags to identify a template that describes display of content from the web page. The template may include user interface elements for receiving input, allowing a user to interact with a node in the social graph associated with the web page, allowing user interactions with the web page content to be tracked by and reflected back within the social networking system.