Third-Party Web Page Personalization via Social Media Intermediary

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Solution Overview

Problem

Third-party websites lack the resources and social information to provide personalized experiences for users, as they do not have access to the rich social data maintained by social networking systems, resulting in an inferior user experience.

Innovation Solution

A mechanism that allows third-party websites to incorporate personalized content from social networking systems into their web pages by using markup language documents with instructions to retrieve and display social information, such as recent activities or recommendations, without requiring access to user social information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If third-party websites attempt to maintain their own user social information, then they can provide personalized content, but the device complexity and resource requirements increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepersonalization capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where the social networking system acts as a mediator between third-party websites and user social information. The markup language document with embedded instructions serves as the intermediary that enables data transfer without direct access. This allows third-party websites to obtain personalized content while avoiding the complexity of maintaining their own social information infrastructure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts the social information management function from third-party websites and relocates it to the social networking system. By embedding instructions in markup language documents that point to external social networking APIs, the third-party websites can access needed social information without maintaining it themselves, thus extracting the complex functionality while preserving the benefit.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Device complexity

If third-party websites do not have access to user social information, then system complexity remains low, but the quality of personalized content deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem complexityVSAvoidsocial information access

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the mechanical system of direct data access and storage with an information-based system using markup language documents containing instructions. Instead of mechanically storing and managing social information, third-party websites use embedded instructions that reference external social networking systems, substituting direct access with indirect retrieval through standardized interfaces.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The markup language document structure serves multiple functions: it maintains the third-party website's content delivery simplicity while simultaneously enabling access to external social information through embedded instructions. This universal approach allows the same document structure to function both as a simple web page and as a gateway to personalized social content.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Adaptability or versatility

If third-party websites build their own social information systems, then they can provide customized experiences, but the time and resources required increase substantially

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecustomization capabilityVSAvoiddevelopment time

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The social networking system performs preliminary action by maintaining ready-to-use social information and user profiles in advance. Third-party websites can then access this pre-prepared information through markup language instructions without needing to spend time building their own social information systems from scratch, thus gaining immediate customization capability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The social networking system provides self-service by maintaining its own social information infrastructure and making it accessible to third-party websites through standardized markup language interfaces. This eliminates the need for third-party websites to independently build and maintain social information systems, saving substantial development and maintenance time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS9930137B2Personalizing a web page outside of a social networking system with content from the social networking system

Publication Date: 2018.03.27 META PLATFORMS INC

AI summary

A user device requests a web page from a web server of a third-party website, which is separate from a social networking system. The web server from the third-party website sends a markup language document for the requested web page to the user device which includes an instruction for a browser application running on the user device to incorporate information obtained from the social networking system within the web page. Based on the instruction in the received markup language document, the user device requests personalized content from the social networking system, which generates the requested personalized content based on social information about the user. The user device then renders the web page with the personalized content contained in a frame and displays the rendered web page and the frame to the user.