Method of facilitating contact between mutually interested people

• US 20080147743A1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verent, LLC
• Original Assignee: Taylor Morgen Corp.
• Inventors: Taylor, Gregory, Morgen, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 8,935,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

An improved method of facilitating contact between mutually interested people takes advantage of existing contact lists such as those on social networking sites, instant messaging programs, or cell phones. A program is integrated into one or more of those technologies, allowing the user to characterize each contact on the basis of the user'"'"'s level of interest in that contact as a date. The program keeps these rankings secret until two users indicate an interest in each other that surpasses a certain threshold. The users are then notified of the mutual interest. Ads and dating advice are sent along with the notification.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating contact between mutually interested entities, comprising:

providing a graphical interface for a user to rate its level of interest in one or more respects in at least one other user from a pre-existing list of contacts,

not displaying the user'"'"'s ratings to other users,

and notifying a pair of users when each user'"'"'s rating for the other has exceeded a threshold level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing a graphical interface further comprises modifying an existing graphical interface of a social networking site, instant messaging software, cell phone, or PDA.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the modifying an existing graphical interface further comprising modifying an existing graphical interface of two or more social networking sites, instant messaging software, or cell phones, and combining lists of contacts from each so that a user can rate contacts from at least two of the two or more social networking sites, instant messaging software, cell phones, or PDAs from a single graphical interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-existing list of contacts is from a social networking site, instant messaging software, cell phone, or PDA, and the graphical interface is provided on a separate website.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the notifying a pair of users further comprises sending an email, instant message, or cell phone text message.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing a graphical interface allowing the user to set the way in which it is notified.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the notifying a pair of users further comprises sending the pair of users suggestions for date or meeting locations, events to go to, general relationship or dating advice, or context-specific relationship advice.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the suggestions or advice further comprise advertisements.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the context-specific advice varies depending on the relative ratings of each of the pair of users for the other.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the context-specific advice includes suggestions of how to best contact and establish a baseline relationship with the other user of the pair of users.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface for users to set a preference for one party to initiate and modifying the notifying a pair of users based on the preference of the pair of users.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising suggesting to a first user other users that first user may be interested in based on a comparison of the first user'"'"'s ratings with other users'"'"'.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the other users suggested are not on the first user'"'"'s pre-existing list of contacts.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the other users suggested are users rated highly by users other than the first user who rate the users on the first user'"'"'s pre-existing list of contacts similarly to the first user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface to allow the user to match-make by suggesting potential matches to other users they know.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the one or more respects is a non-romantic respect.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface that allows a user to import contacts from an instant messaging software, social networking site, PDA, or cell phone, and displaying a comprehensive list of contacts for the user to rate.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein user settings or preferences can be set and adjusted for all the modified graphical interfaces from a central location.

19. The method of claim 3, wherein user settings or preferences can be set and adjusted for all the modified graphical interfaces from any one of the modified graphical interfaces.

20. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing a graphical interface that allows the user to invite contacts who are not yet users of a social networking site, instant messaging software, cell phone, or PDA with the modified graphical interface to join the social networking site, instant messaging software, cell phone, or PDA with the modified graphical interface.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the notifying a pair of users when each user'"'"'s rating for the other has exceeded a threshold level further comprises checking each contact the user has rated above the threshold level to see if that contact has also rated the user above that threshold level whenever a user rates a new contact or changes an existing rating.

22. The method of claim 2, further comprising storing rating information on a social networking site or in an instant messaging software or instant messaging software server.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein the providing a graphical interface further comprises modifying an existing graphical interface of a cell phone or PDA and the rating information is stored on an online server.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the notifying a pair of users further comprises sending a single notification as soon as the pair'"'"'s ratings exceed the threshold level, and wherein another notification is not sent unless the ratings change such that one of the pair'"'"'s ratings does not exceed the threshold level, and subsequently the pair'"'"'s ratings change again such that each rating exceeds the threshold level.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an indicator that indicates for the user each contact on a pre-existing list of contacts for which that contact'"'"'s rating of the user and the user'"'"'s rating of that contact each exceed the threshold level.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface that allows the user to set a number of preferences regarding how contact lists and ratings are displayed and accessed.

27. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing a single graphical interface outside of the social networking sites, instant messaging software, cell phones, or PDAs with modified graphical interfaces that the user can use to rate contacts from at least two of the two or more social networking sites, instant messaging software, cell phones, or PDAs.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the single graphical interface outside of the social networking sites, instant messaging software, cell phones, or PDAs with modified graphical interfaces is a downloadable program or website.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising maintaining a central database of contact, rating, and preference information with the downloadable program or website.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing a graphical interface, not displaying a user'"'"'s ratings to other users, and notifying a pair of users are performed using an existing website and software infrastructure, wherein additional storage or servers or maintenance of a separate website are not necessary.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface allowing the threshold level to be modified by the user.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the threshold level can be modified upwards but not downwards.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical interface allowing a desired threshold level to be set by the user and setting the threshold level to the highest desired threshold level of the pair of users.

34. The method of claim 11, wherein the modifying the notifying a pair of users based on the preference of the pair of users comprises notifying one user of the pair before the other when both prefer one party to initiate.

35. The method of claim 11, wherein the modifying the notifying a pair of users based on the preference of the pair of users comprises notifying at least one user of the pair of the preference for one party to initiate of the other.

36. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an option to the user to receive relationship advice when the user rates another user highly but the other user does not rate the user above the threshold level, when the user rates another user more highly than the other user rates the user and the other user does rate the user above the threshold level, or whenever a pair of users including the user is notified.

37. The method of claim 1, further comprising informing the user when another user who the user has rated does not have a rating for the user.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising providing an option to the user to allow another user to be informed when the user does not have a rating for the other user, and otherwise not informing the other user.

39. The method of claim 12, wherein the suggesting is only done when the user has opted to receive such suggestions.

40. The method of claim 15, further comprising allowing the user to choose not to receive suggested potential matches.

41. The method of claim 15, further comprising allowing the user to choose whether to receive suggested potential matches depending on characteristics of the suggested potential match.

42. The method of claim 15, further comprising notifying one member of a suggested potential match if the other party has opted not to receive the suggested potential match.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising providing an option for the other party to allow the notifying one party of a suggested potential match to include informing the one party of the reason the other party has opted not to receive the suggested potential match.

44. The method of claim 16, wherein the providing a graphical interface for a user to rate its level of interest in one or more respects in at least one other user further comprises providing different access points and contact lists for the user to rate its level of interest in romantic and non-romantic respects.

45. The method of claim 16, wherein a single access point and contact list are used for rating interest in romantic and non-romantic respects.

46. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading the pre-existing list of contacts, displaying the list, checking to see if a new contact was added to the contact list, if so providing a graphical notice for the user to rate the new contact, sorting the list according to rating, displaying the sorted list, scanning the list for ratings exceeding the threshold level, and checking to see if contacts rated above the threshold level have rated the user above the threshold level.