Delivering Personalized Content Based on a Social Graph of Sharing Activity of Users of the Open Web

Abstract

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. Personally identifiable information is not collected. 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. Building of the social graph can include creating an edge in the social graph that is representative of a particular category type. Based on the social graph, personalized digital content can be selected.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving first activity information for a sender of a first link to at least one recipient collected by a collection resource at a Web site, wherein first personally identifiable information that would uniquely identify the sender is not collected in collecting the first activity information;   storing the first activity information at a storage server;   receiving second activity information when a recipient accesses the first link sent by the sender corresponding to the first activity information stored at the storage server, wherein second personally identifiable information that would uniquely identify the recipient is not collected in collecting the second activity information;   using at least one processor, attempting to identify a first node representative of the sender in a social graph, wherein the social graph is formed without using third personally identifiable information that uniquely identifies a person;   when a first node representative of the sender in a social graph is not identified and after receiving the second activity information, creating a second node to represent the sender in the social graph; and   based on at least information associated with the second node in the social graph, selecting a personalized digital content for delivery to the sender.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 maintaining the social graph comprising: 
 using activity information stored at the storage server, determining a plurality of nodes representing persons specified in a plurality of activity information stored at the storage server; 
 generating a plurality of edges in the social graph, wherein each edge represents at least one activity information of the plurality of activity information; and 
 using the plurality of edges to couple the plurality of nodes. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the determining the plurality of nodes representing persons specified in a plurality of activity information stored at the storage server comprises disallowing access to personally identifiable information that would uniquely identify the persons including e-mail addresses of the persons. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of activity information, each activity information represented in the social graph by an edge coupling at two nodes of the social graph. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first activity information is generated by a mobile application. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first activity information is generated by activity at a Web site. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the selecting a personalized digital content for delivery to the sender is in response to at least one of a bid request from a real-time bidding exchange or an ad request from a publisher network. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein at the plurality of activity data comprises at least one activity data collected from a sharing widget installed on a device of the sender. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of activity data comprises activity data collected from an instant messaging application. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein selecting a personalized digital content for delivery to the sender comprises:
 using a user predictive model appropriate for the second node in the social graph to select the personalized digital content, wherein the user predictive model considers sharing activity associated with the second node. 
 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first activity information comprises at least one of sending a video, sending a file, cutting and pasting of content, or sending of e-mail. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first activity information comprises sending an instant message from the sender to the recipient. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each edge between nodes in the social graph represents a sharing category. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  comprising:
 sending a bid in response to a bid request from a real-time bidding exchange, wherein the bid comprises the selected personalized digital content. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1  comprising:
 making a bid to an ad exchange for an advertisement, wherein the bid comprises the selected personalized digital content. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the receiving first activity information for the sender of the first link comprises:
 sending of an e-mail including the first link by the sender via a mobile device. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the receiving second activity information when the recipient accesses the first link comprises:
 receiving of the e-mail including the first link by the recipient via a mobile device. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the receiving second activity information when the recipient accesses the first link comprises:
 receiving of the e-mail including the first link by the recipient via a nonmobile device. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the receiving first activity information for the sender comprises:
 sending of an e-mail including the first link by the sender via a nonmobile device. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the receiving second activity information when the recipient accesses the first link comprises:
 receiving of the e-mail including the first link by the recipient via a mobile device. 
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19  wherein the receiving second activity information when the recipient accesses the first link comprises:
 receiving of the e-mail including the first link by the recipient via a nonmobile device. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first personally identifiable information includes an e-mail address of the sender. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein the second personally identifiable information includes an e-mail address of the recipient.