Online Social Network Management System and Method For Simulating Users to Build Various Faces of Relation

• US 20080288612A1
• Filed: 03/15/2006
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Kwon, Oh Sung
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A system and method of managing a social network are disclosed. The method includes the step of recording the IDs and corresponding personal information of users who have subscribed to a service via a network, in a user DB; the step of recording corresponding relationships between the users and relationship indices R, reflecting the degrees of trustworthiness of the users having the corresponding relationships, in a relationship information DB; and the path search step of evaluating one or more paths based on the relationship indices R of respective links constituting the paths and providing evaluation results to a first user so that the first user can select an optimal path from among the paths existing between the first user and a second user on the social network constructed with the users used as nodes and the corresponding relationships of the users used as the links.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing a social network, the method comprising the steps of:

generating at least one relationship index for at least one relationship between users of a social network service;

storing at least some of said generated relationship indices;

evaluating at least one path for a connection between a first user and a second user based, at least in part, upon said stored relationship index in response to the first user'"'"'s request for the connection; and

providing at least one of said evaluated path so that the first user can select an optimal path among possible paths for the connection between the first user and the second user.

2. The method set forth in claim 1, wherein said relationship index is determined based, at least in part, upon a respective connection between the users.

3. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of updating said stored relationship index for a respective connection based, at least in part, upon communications between two users having said respective connection.

4. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of charging a cost for connecting the first user to the second user, wherein the cost is determined based on a selected path and each connection thereof.

7. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of searching the second user based on conditions received from the first user in response to the first user'"'"'s request.

9. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of searching the second user based on predetermined conditions.

10. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the step of requesting at least one intermediate user to function as a bridge for establishing the connection between the first and second users

11. The method as set forth in claim 4, further comprising the step of displaying cost information for each of the evaluated paths between the first user and the second user.

12. The method as set forth in claim 11, wherein the cost is determined in such a way as to increase the cost in proportion to the relationship index to be set between the first user and the second user.

13. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein two users having a corresponding relationship have a limitation on a range of mutual, information sharing or personal information access according to the relationship index.

14. A recording medium storing a computer executable program for performing the method set forth in one of claims 1.

16. The method set forth in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

generating a relationship index for the connection between the first user and the second user based on a selected path; and

storing said generated relationship index for the connection between the first user and the second user.

17. The method set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the evaluated path can be established via at least one intermediate user.

18. The method set forth in claim 17, wherein said intermediate user receives a predetermined credit when the evaluated path via said intermediate user is selected for the connection between the first user and the second user.

19. The method set forth in claim 4, wherein a weight value is assigned to each of the connections comprising the selected path and the cost for the selected path is determined based, at least in part, upon each connection for the selected path and the weight value thereof.

20. The method set forth in claim 19, wherein the weight value to each of the connections is in inverse proportion to a relationship index between two users.

5-6. -6. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

15. A system for managing a social network, comprising:

a user DB for recording IDs and corresponding personal information of users who have subscribed to a service via a network;

a relationship information DB for recording corresponding relationships between the users and relationship class indices R reflecting degrees of trustworthiness of the users having the corresponding relationships; and

a search server configured for evaluating one or more paths based on the relationship index of respective links constituting the paths and providing evaluation results to a first user so that the first user can select an optimal path from among the paths existing between the first user and a second user on the social network constructed with the users used as nodes and the corresponding relationships of the users used as the links.