System and method for establishing presence in a brokered chat system

• US 10,460,290 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kakao Corp.
• Original Assignee: Path Mobile Inc Pte. Ltd. (Kakao Corp.)
• Inventors: Levinson, Stuart J., Crane, Riley W., Johnson, Sean, Buschmann, Brian F., Byrum, James M., Balasubramanian, Santhosh, Zorn, Nathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang, Hau
• Application Number:
  US13/612,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20130066988A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,603 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining status of a user in a brokered chat service are disclosed. In one example, the method comprises acts of receiving, via the brokered chat service, a check-in message from the user, establishing the status of the user as available in the brokered chat service, transmitting at least one message to the user via the brokered chat service in response to establishing the status of the user as available, and updating the status of the user in the brokered chat service in response to communication from the user.

Claims

1. A method for determining status of an entity in a brokered chat service, the method comprising acts of:

establishing the status of the entity in the brokered chat service based on an availability of a plurality of agents representing the entity, wherein establishing of the status of the entity comprises;

establishing the status of the entity as online when at least one agent of the plurality of agents is established as available to represent the entity; and

establishing the status of the entity as offline when no agent of the plurality of agents is available to represent the entity;

transmitting at least one message to the at least one available agent via the brokered chat service while the status of the entity is online;

responsive to not receiving a response to the at least one message from any of the at least one available agent within a predetermined time period, sending an inquiry message to the at least one available agent, the inquiry message being different from the at least one message and the inquiry message inquiring of the at least one available agent about whether to maintain presence status associated with the entity in the brokered chat service;

updating the status of the entity in the brokered chat service base on a response to the inquiry message;

receiving a search request for the entity; and

ranking the entity in search results based on the status of the entity in the brokered chat service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a check-out message from the at least one available agent, via the brokered chat service.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising establishing the status of the entity as offline in response to receiving the check-out message from a last-remaining, available agent representing the entity.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising suspending transmission of the at least one message to any agent representing the entity while the status of the entity is offline.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the at least one message is received by the at least one available agent via the brokered chat service.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting via the brokered chat service the inquiry message to the at least one available agent in response to determining that no message is received by the at least one available agent.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising establishing the status of the entity as offline in response to failing to receive a response to the inquiry message.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising suspending transmission of the at least one message in response to establishing the status of the entity as offline.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving the response to the inquiry message from the at least one available agent and updating the status of the entity as online as a result of receiving the response to the inquiry message.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the status of the entity in the search results.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking of the entity in the search results is further based on responsiveness of the entity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the responsiveness of the entity is based on a response time of the entity to messages transmitted to the at least one available agent via the brokered chat service.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking of the entity in the search results is further based on a number of instances of successful communications with the entity in prior attempts to communicate with the entity via the brokered chat service.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking of the entity in the search results is further based on a number of instances of unsuccessful communications with the entity in prior attempts to communicate with the entity via the brokered chat service.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein ranking of the entity in the search results is further based on a number repeat instances of communications with the entity via the brokered chat service.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a responsiveness ranking of the entity in the search results along with the entity.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instruction that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the operation method of claim 1.

17. A brokered chat system comprising:

a receiving gateway configured to receive at least one message from a first user via a first device, the first user included in a plurality of users;

a transmitting gateway configured to transmit the at least one message from the first user to a second user via a second device, the second user included in a plurality of agents representing an entity, the first device and the second device included in a plurality of devices;

a computer processor coupled to the transmitting and receiving gateways, and configured to perform a method including;

establishing the status of the entity based on an availability of the plurality of the agents representing the entity, by establishing the status of the entity as online when at least one agent is established as available to represent the entity, and establishing the status of the entity as offline when no agent is available to represent the entity;

transmitting the at least one message to the at least one available agent while the status of the entity is online;

responsive to not receiving a response to the at least one message from any of the at least one available agent within a predetermined time period, sending an inquiry message to the at least one available agent, the inquiry message being different from the at least one message and the inquiry message inquiring of the at least one available agent about whether to maintain presence status associated with the entity;

updating the status of the entity in the brokered chat system based on a response to the inquiry message;

receiving a search request for the entity; and

ranking the entity in search results based on the status of the entity in the brokered chat service.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer processor is further configured to receive a check-out message from the at least one available agent via at least one device of the plurality of devices corresponding to the at least one available agent.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer processor is further configured to establish the status of the entity as offline in response to receiving the check-out message from a last-remaining, available agent representing the entity.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the transmitting gateway is further configured to suspend transmission of the at least one message to the plurality of agents representing the entity.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer processor is further configured to:

determine first protocol information for the first device and second protocol information for the second device; and

configure the at least one message from the first device based on the second protocol information for the second device.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer processor is further configured to determine whether the at least one message is received by the at least one available agent.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer processor is further configured to transmit via the transmitting gateway the inquiry message to the at least one available agent in response to determining that no message is received by the at least one available agent.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the computer processor is further configured to establish the status of the entity as offline in response to failing to receive a response to the inquiry message.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the computer processor is further configured to suspend transmission of the at least one message in response to establishing the status of the entity as offline.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the receiving gateway is further configured to receive a response to the inquiry message from the at least one available agent and the computer processor is further configured to update the status of the entity as online as a result of receiving the response to the inquiry message.

28. A method for determining status for first user in a brokered chat service, the method comprising acts of:

receiving, via the brokered chat service, a check-in message from the first user;

establishing the status of the first user as available in the brokered chat service responsive to receiving the check-in message;

transmitting at least one message from a second user in the brokered chat service to the first user via the brokered chat service while the status of the first user is available;

responsive to not receiving a response to the at least one message from the first user within a first predetermined time period, sending an inquiry message to the first user to determine a continued presence of the first user in the brokered chat service, the inquiry message being different from the at least one message and the inquiry message inquiring of the first user about whether to maintain presence in the brokered chat service;

establishing the status of the first user as absent from the brokered chat service in response to receiving a negative response to the inquiry message or not receiving any response to the inquiry message within a second predetermined time period; and

;

suspending transmission of another message from the second user to the first user while the status of the first user is absent,

wherein communications via the brokered chat service are based on short-lived network sockets.