Relating people finding results by social distance

• US 20070271232A1
• Filed: 05/22/2006
• Published: 11/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Veeraraghavan, Venkatesh, Fong, Bryant, Narula, Puneet, Mattox, Gregory Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Search results are displayed according to relevance and grouped by the social distance between the person associated with the profile and the user performing the search. Metadata is defined of each of the profiles indicating groups affiliated the profile and a relevance value is determined as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set. The social distance is determined as a function of a colleague designation associated with the profile.

Claims

1. A method of displaying search results to a user, said search results being retrieved from a database containing profiles associated with people, one or more of said profiles including a colleague designation to indicate a direct relationship between one person and another person, said method comprising:

receiving a query from the user;

executing a search on the database to generate a result set of profiles based on the query;

determining a social distance for each of the profiles in the result set, said determined social distance being a function of the colleague designations included in the profiles;

grouping the profiles in the result set by the determined social distance; and

displaying, to the user, the result set grouped by the determined social distance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the social distance further comprises:

assigning a first degree of social distance to each of the profiles in the result set that includes the colleague designation indicating that the person associated with the profile has a direct relationship with the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the social distance further comprises:

assigning a second degree of social distance to each of the profiles in the result set that includes the colleague designation indicating that the person associated with the profile has a direct relationship with at least one other person having a direct relationship with the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating suggested colleague designations for the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the profiles includes one or more of the following properties:

Global Identifier, Security Identifier, Account Name, First Name, Last Name, Preferred Name, Work Phone, Office, Department, Title, Manager, About Me, Picture Uniform Resource Locator, User Name, Quick Links, Responsibilities, Skills, Past Projects, Interests, School, Birthday, Hire Date, Work Email, Cell Phone Number, Fax Number, Home Phone Number, and Memberships.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the profiles includes one or more properties, and further comprising:

counting the number of times a value occurs for one or more selected properties of the profiles in the result set;

displaying the values of the selected properties in descending order by the count;

receiving a selection, by the user, of one of the displayed values; and

displaying a subset of the result set, said subset containing the profiles that include the selected value.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining metadata for the profiles contained in the database indicating groups affiliated therewith;

determining a relevance value as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set, said relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile; and

displaying the profiles in the result set in order of the relevance value.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

9. A method of displaying search results to a user, said search results being retrieved from a database containing a plurality of profiles, said method comprising:

defining metadata for the profiles contained in the database indicating groups affiliated therewith;

executing a search on the database to generate a result set of profiles as a function of search criteria provided by the user and the metadata;

determining a relevance value as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set, said relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile; and

displaying the result set to the user according to the relevance value of each of the profiles in the result set.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the metadata is defined from one of more of the following groups:

distribution lists;

security groups;

collaboration sites; and

a property of the profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the distribution lists and security groups are maintained by a directory service.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

calculating a weight for each defined metadata as a function the group size such that the higher weight the smaller the size of group;

wherein determining the relevance indicator is a function of the metadata and the calculated weight of the metadata.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein defining of the metadata further comprises:

identifying a first distribution list affiliated with the profile;

defining metadata for the profile as a function of the identified first distribution list;

identifying a second distribution list affiliated with the first distribution list; and

defining metadata for the profile as a function of the second distribution list.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

defining metadata for the profiles contained in the database indicating groups affiliated therewith;

determining a relevance value as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set, said relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile; and

displaying the profiles in the result set in order of the relevance value.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

grouping the profiles of the result set by a social distance between the person associated with the profile and the user; and

displaying the grouped result set to the user.

16. A method of performing a people search on a database containing profiles associated with people, one or more of said profiles including colleague designation to indicate a direct relationship between one person and another person, said method comprising:

creating a first degree of social distance list of profiles from the profiles associated with persons that have been designated as colleagues of a user;

for each profile in the first degree of social distance list;

creating a second degree of social distance list of profiles from the profiles associated with persons that have been designated as colleagues by the person associated with the profile in the first degree of social distance list, and wherein each profile appears only once in said second degree of social distance list;

receiving a query from the user;

executing a search on the database to generate a result set of profiles based on the query;

selecting, from the result set, a first group of profiles included in the first degree of social distance list;

selecting, from the result set, a second group of profiles included in the second degree of social distance list;

selecting, from the result set, a third group of profiles not included in either the first degree of social distance list or the second degree of social distance list;

displaying the result set to the user according to the first, second, and third groups of profiles.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the profile is added to the second degree of social distance list only if the user has permission to access the profile.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein permission to access the profile is determined by at least one of the following:

privacy settings of the profile and system policies.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

counting the number of times a value occurs for one or more selected properties of the profiles in the result set;

displaying the values of the selected properties in descending order by the count;

receiving a selection, by the user, of one of the displayed values; and

displaying a subset of the result set, said subset containing the profiles that include the selected value.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

defining metadata for the profiles contained in the database indicating groups affiliated therewith;

executing a search on the database to generate a result set of profiles as a function of search criteria provided by the user and the metadata;

determining a relevance value as a function of the metadata for each of the profiles in the result set, said relevance value indicating a likelihood that the user is searching for the profile; and

displaying each group of the result set according to the relevance value of each of the profiles in the group.