Online social networking major Facebook Inc has received a patent in India for an invention related to social advertisements, a concept which uses the activities of the friends or friends group in a social network website to show advertisements to a member. In the patent specification on ‘a method of providing information about users of a social network and system thereof’ which the company has filed with the Patent Office, it explains, “A social ad, for example, may inform a member that a friend (or a number of friends) of the member has purchased a particular item made by an advertiser, will attend an event sponsored by an advertiser, or has added a connection to a profile for a business or other entity.” The company claims that while generally the advertisers use the user information to show the the ads, which are no different than targeting of ads that exist in many other context, but have not yet been able to exploit the relationships and connections among members of a social …
