Building a Social Graph with Sharing Activity Between Users of the Open Web
A social graph is built which includes interactions, sharing activity, and connections between the users of the open Web and can be used to improve ad targeting and content personalization. Sharing activity between two users will affect ads or content that both users will be presented while surfing the Web. This sharing activity includes sending of links, sending of videos, sending of files, cutting and pasting of content, sending text messages, and sending of e-mails.
1 . A method comprising:
collecting activity data from a plurality of Web sources using a plurality of collection devices, wherein the activity data does not contain any personally identifiable information;
identifying a plurality of users and sharing activity between the users in the activity data;
using at least one processor, forming a social graph of the users and sharing activity, wherein users are represented as nodes in the social graph and sharing activity are represented as edges in the social graph; and
using the social graph including sharing activity, selecting an on-line advertisement for delivery to a user in the social graph.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the collection devices comprise URL shortening.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the collection devices comprise an instant messenging application.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein each edge between nodes in the social graph represents a different sharing category.
5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying a plurality of users and sharing activity between the users in the activity data comprises:
extracting a user identifier from a cookie in the activity data; and
identifying a first node in the social graph based on the user identifier.
6 . The method of claim 5 comprising:
updating a value of an edge coupled to the first node.