Characteristic tagging

• US 20080172363A1
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kishore, Ajitesh, Wang, Esther Hsiu-Meng
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Embodiments are provided to enable a user to easily and conveniently assign, share, and/or locate characteristic and other information associated with others. In an embodiment, a user can assign, share, and use one or more characterizing tags. A user can use the one or more characterizing tags to characterize a person of interest and/or a relationship or association between the user and the person of interest. A user can also perform searches using one or more characterizing tags to locate others who may be associated with the one or more characterizing tags. Users can also view user profiles including any characterizing tags and/or communicate with others based in part on a characterizing tag. The various embodiments provide a forum for social tagging, allowing a user to apply and use one or more characterizing tags that are associated with a person of interest.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium including executable instructions which, when executed, enable tagging by:

identifying a contact to associate with a characterizing tag;

tagging the contact with the characterizing tag, wherein the characterizing tag identifies information associated with the contact and defines an association with the contact; and

,

storing the characterizing tag in a tag store, including storing identification information associated with a tagging user.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by tagging the contact with the characterizing tag, wherein the characterizing tag identifies information related to the contact and the association with the contact is based in part on a communication with the contact.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by recommending one or more characterizing tags as one or more recommended tags, wherein the one or more recommended tags are based in part on a prior communication with the contact.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by selecting one or more of the recommended tags when tagging the contact with the one or more characterizing tags.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by tagging the contact with the characterizing tag, wherein the characterizing tag comprises metadata which corresponds to the information associated with the contact.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by locating one or more contacts based in part on a search of one or more characterizing tags.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by presenting a profile of a located contact based on the characterizing tag search.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by storing the characterizing tag to the tag store, including storing temporal information to the tag store, wherein the temporal information is associated with when the contact was tagged with the characterizing tag.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by presenting a number of contacts based on a characterizing tag search.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, enable tagging by collecting one or more words of a prior communication with the contact and recommending one or more of collected words as one or more characterizing tags.

11. A system to enable tagging comprising:

a tag component to tag a contact with a characterizing tag associated with the contact, wherein the characterizing tag is based on at least one of a personal perception and an association with the contact;

a tag store to store the characterizing tag; and

,

a search component to search the tag store using a tag query, wherein the search component is configured to return a search result based on the tag query.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the characterizing tag comprises metadata and is associated with at least one of a communication and a characterization of the contact.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising a collector component to collect applicable nouns and phrases associated with a communication with the contact.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a recommendation component to recommend one or more recommended tags, wherein the one or more recommended tags are based in part on the applicable nouns and phrases collected by the collector component.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising a tag notification component to notify the contact of a tag event and an associated tagger of the tag event.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising an administration component to administer tag-related settings.

17. A method of social tagging comprising:

selecting a person of interest to tag;

applying a characterizing tag to the person of interest, wherein the characterizing tag is based in part on at least one of a communication or an association with the person of interest; and

storing the characterizing tag in a tag store.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising applying the characterizing tag to the person of interest, wherein the characterizing tag comprises metadata and is based on a prior communication with the person of interest.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising searching for one or more contacts based in part on a characterizing tag query.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing the characterizing tag on a dedicated serving computing device.