System and method for searching, finding and contacting dates on the internet in instant messaging networks and/or in other methods that enable immediate finding and creating immediate contact
First Claim
1. A System for searching, finding and contacting dates on the Internet in instant messaging networks, comprised of at least the following elements:
- a. A Client program, located on the User'"'"'s computer;
b. At least one Server, located on the Internet;
c. At least one module for filling and making changes to a computer dating compatibility questionnaire;
d. A search module for finding potential dates which can check also if they are currently Online;
e. At least one of;
An ability to search also for dates who are not currently Online, and The ability to search for dates based on reciprocal compatibility;
f. An instant messaging element which keeps sending to a server on the Internet at short intervals short messages, so that the system may know at all times if the user is still On-line, and also enables instant exchange of messages between users.
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Accused Products
Abstract
When searching for new people, the current instant messaging networks typically allow users to search mainly by name or by e-mail and some of them also by interests, although one of them (Odigo) allows to search also by sex, age, area, languages, occupation & interests. However, to the best of the inventor'"'"'s knowledge there is no way to systematically search in these networks for compatible dates by attributes such as education, general background, appearance, attitudes, and personality, or by reciprocal compatibility in any of the above mentioned attributes. This is a waste of a huge potential since some of these networks already have more than dozens of millions of people. Also, Odigo allows searching by only among people currently connected, which means that highly compatible dates can be missed just because they don'"'"'t happen to be connected at exactly the time of the search. The present invention is a novel concept which applies computer dating to the context of instant messaging, in a systematic and flexible way that to the best of the inventor'"'"'s knowledge has never been done before. This system and method enable the user to search and find instantly compatible dates in instant messaging networks on the basis of attribute search or 1-way compatibility search or 2-way compatibility search instead of being limited to search only by the limited options described above, and to search either for potential dates that are currently Online or Offline, and also take advantage of many additional features, and especially features that are based on improved integration between computer dating and instant messaging.
181 Citations
101 Claims
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1. A System for searching, finding and contacting dates on the Internet in instant messaging networks, comprised of at least the following elements:
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a. A Client program, located on the User'"'"'s computer;
b. At least one Server, located on the Internet;
c. At least one module for filling and making changes to a computer dating compatibility questionnaire;
d. A search module for finding potential dates which can check also if they are currently Online;
e. At least one of;
An ability to search also for dates who are not currently Online, and The ability to search for dates based on reciprocal compatibility;
f. An instant messaging element which keeps sending to a server on the Internet at short intervals short messages, so that the system may know at all times if the user is still On-line, and also enables instant exchange of messages between users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 19, 20, 23, 28)
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9. A method for searching, finding and contacting dates on the Internet in instant messaging networks, comprised of at least the following steps:
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a. Providing a Client program, located on the User'"'"'s computer;
b. Providing at least one Server, located on the Internet;
c. Providing at least one module for filling and making changes to a computer dating compatibility questionnaire;
d. Providing a search module for finding potential dates which can check also if they are currently Online;
e. Providing at least one of;
An ability to search also for dates who are not currently Online, and The ability to search for dates based on reciprocal compatibility;
f. Providing an instant messaging element which keeps sending to a server on the Internet at short intervals short messages, so that the system may know at all times if the user is still On-line, and also enables instant exchange of messages between users. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)
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21. An Online computer dating system wherein for users that gave also an IM id number, the system tries to find out if they are currently Online through an element that contacts the relevant server, and if so, when showing a potential date'"'"'s data on a dating search results list, the system shows also his/her IM id number, the IM network that it belongs to, and an indication if he/she is Online, so that the user can contact him/her through the appropriate IM client program.
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22. An Online computer dating system wherein being Online can be defined as at least one of:
- a. A user has logged into the system with his/her user name and password not longer than a certain time ago, b. A user has performed at least 1 activity in the system not longer than a certain time ago.
- View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96)
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76. An Online computer dating system wherein the system uses at least one of the following methods to try to automatically catch suspect duplicate records:
- [a. Check if the e-mail starts with at least a very similar name on the left side of the “
@”
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b. Check if the user name is at least very similar. C. Check if the birth date is at least very similar;
] and if so, preferably the system checks if other data are also very similar, and then automatically decides if the data is similar enough to decide that it is the same person, and if it is, then the system automatically uses the new data as an update of the older data, and If the system is less sure, then it does at least one of;
[a. Ask the user if he/she is indeed the same person, b. Report in to a log for human decision, c. Warn the user that various sanctions will be taken against people who deliberately try to mislead the system].
- [a. Check if the e-mail starts with at least a very similar name on the left side of the “
- 77. In an Online dating system a method wherein users can be notified automatically as soon as someone new fitting a certain criterion sends his/her data to the system.
- 83. In an Online computer Dating service, a method wherein a systematic data pool of pictures of males and of females is used so that each user can mark at least 1 picture that it most similar to himself/herself.
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97. In an Online computer dating system, a method wherein being Online can be defined as at least one of:
- a. A user has logged into the system with his/her user name and password not longer than a certain time ago, b. A user has performed at least 1 activity in the system not longer than a certain time ago.
- View Dependent Claims (98, 99, 100, 101)
Specification