# How Facebook's Share Button Works Across Different Websites > A patent describing how a social network can pull content from an outside website and share it with friends based on specific user-selected settings. - **Patent:** US 9602605 - **Original title:** Sharing digital content on a social network - **Owner:** Facebook Inc - **Granted:** 2017 - **Status:** Active - **Times cited:** 4 - **Field:** consumer_electronics, software, ecommerce ## What it does This patent explains the mechanism behind the 'Share' button found on third-party websites. When a user clicks a sharing control outside of a social network, the social network server receives a request and serves an interface back to the user. This interface allows the user to define 'sharing parameters,' such as which specific parts of a webpage to include, how the content should look, and which friends or channels (like a wall or private message) should receive it. The system then retrieves the content from the external site and distributes it within the social network based on those user-defined settings. ## What it does NOT cover - Does not cover sharing content that is already hosted directly on the social network's own servers. - Does not cover automated sharing that happens without an explicit interface for the user to select parameters. - Does not cover the underlying technology of the web browser or the external website itself. - Does not cover methods of sharing that do not involve a social networking system with established user connections. ## The clever bit The system dynamically tracks the original external content; if the source material on the external website is modified, the system can update the shared version within the social network to reflect those changes. ## Real-world examples 1. Facebook Share buttons on news articles 2. Embedded social media widgets on blogs 3. Cross-platform content syndication tools ## Why it matters This patent describes the plumbing for the 'social web' that emerged in the late 2000s. By standardizing how external content is pulled into a social feed, it enabled the viral spread of articles, images, and videos across platforms like Facebook, effectively turning the entire internet into an extension of the social network's ecosystem. ## Frequently asked questions ### What does How Facebook's Share Button Works Across Different Websites cover? A patent describing how a social network can pull content from an outside website and share it with friends based on specific user-selected settings. ### Who owns patent US 9602605? Facebook Inc owns this patent, granted in 2017. ### When does this patent expire? This patent is expected to expire on March 21, 2037, when the invention enters the public domain. ### What is patent US 9602605 cited by? This patent has been cited by 4 later patents that build on its ideas. ### What problem does this patent solve? This patent describes the plumbing for the 'social web' that emerged in the late 2000s. By standardizing how external content is pulled into a social feed, it enabled the viral spread of articles, images, and videos across platforms like Facebook, effectively turning the entire internet into an extension of the social network's ecosystem. ### What does this patent NOT cover? Does not cover sharing content that is already hosted directly on the social network's own servers. **Full plain-English explainer:** https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9602605/facebook-stories **Original patent:** https://patents.google.com/patent/US9602605 --- _Source: PatentBrief — https://patentbrief.org. Patent facts are from public records; the plain-English explanation is PatentBrief's._ ## Related patents Semantically similar inventions in the PatentBrief corpus: - [How a Server Aggregates Comments from Different Websites About One File](https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/9037656/facebook-live-video) — A system that collects comments or data from multiple websites about a single photo or video and bundles them together to display on your device. - [How Facebook's News Feed Picks Stories You'll Like](https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8171128/facebook-social-graph) — Facebook's 2012 patent explains how it creates a personalized news feed by showing stories about friends' actions, ordered by your interest, and updating it based on what you click. - [Displaying Friends' Activities in a Social Network Feed](https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7669123/facebook-news-feed-social-network) — This patent describes how social networks like Facebook collect what users do, create short updates about those actions, and show them to specific friends in a personalized list called a "news feed." - [How Facebook Ranks Search Results Based on Your Friends' Activity](https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8914392/facebook-events) — A method for ranking search results by prioritizing links that your social network friends have clicked on previously. - [How Eventbrite Recommends Events Based on Your Social Network](https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8700540/facebook-messenger) — A system that suggests events to you by analyzing your social media connections and your past attendance history to see what your friends are doing.