Identifying and employing social network relationships

• US 20090177744A1
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kennedy, Ryan, Curtis, Michael, Krishnappa, Yathin, Sample, Neal, Davis, Marc, Boerries, Marco, Wroblewski, Luke, Marlow, Cameron, Hayashi, Joe
• Granted Patent: US 8,954,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are described for detecting social relationships across multiple networks and/or communication channels. These social relationships may then be utilized in a wide variety of ways to support and enhance a broad range of user services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity, comprising:

generating an identity of the first user with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, and at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity;

identifying a plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user with reference to the first data source, the at least one external data source, and the identity of the first user, first ones of the contacts not being identifiable from the first data source; and

determining a relevancy measure for each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the contact, the relevancy measure for each contact being determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the identity of the first user comprises identifying and aggregating a plurality of identity tokens from the first data source and the at least one external data source.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the first data source and the at least one external data source corresponds to one of a social networking system, a messaging system, a content sharing system, or a member network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the plurality of contacts comprises referring to one or more of an address book, a contact list, a message sender, a message recipient, a publisher of content, a subscription to content, or social network data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the relevancy measure is determined with reference to one or more of a frequency of communication, a recency of communication, a volume of communication, a periodicity of communication, a number of connections, a group membership, a demographic characteristic, a name, a relationship category, or a geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising ranking the plurality of contacts with reference to the relevancy measures.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising grouping the plurality of contacts with reference to the relevancy measures.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting first invitations to connect with the first user to a subset of the contacts selected by the first user.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating identifying the plurality of contacts and determining the relevancy measures with reference to an additional data source identified by the first user.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining that two or more of the plurality of contacts correspond to one person, and aggregating the two or more contacts into a single contact for the one person.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising aggregating vitality generated by a first one of the contacts in multiple contexts for consumption by the first user.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing messages received by the first user with reference to the relevancy measures.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein each external data source employs a permissioning model for controlling access to information associated with the external data source, the method further comprising accessing the information associated with each external data source according to the corresponding permissioning model, thereby aggregating the permissioning models associated with the external data sources.

14. A system for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity, comprising at least one computing device configured to:

generate an identity of the first user with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, and at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity;

identify a plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user with reference to the first data source, the at least one external data source, and the identity of the first user, first ones of the contacts not being identifiable from the first data source; and

determine a relevancy measure for each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the contact, the relevancy measure for each contact being determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source.

15. A computer program product for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity, comprising at least one computer readable medium having computer program instructions stored therein configured to cause at least one computing device to:

generate an identity of the first user with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, and at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity;

identify a plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user with reference to the first data source, the at least one external data source, and the identity of the first user, first ones of the contacts not being identifiable from the first data source; and

determine a relevancy measure for each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the contact, the relevancy measure for each contact being determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source.

16. A computer-implemented method for identifying social relationships for a first user operating in a first network context controlled by a first entity, comprising presenting to the first user a plurality of contacts having a relationship with the first user, the plurality of contacts having been determined with reference to a first data source associated with the first network context and under control of the first entity, at least one external data source outside of the first network context and not under control of the first entity, and an identity of the first user, the identity having been determined with reference to the first data source and the at least one external data source, first ones of the contacts not being identifiable from the first data source, wherein the plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with a relevancy measure associated with each of the contacts which represents a relevance of the relationship between the first user and the associated contact, the relevancy measure for each contact having been determined with reference to one or more of the first data source or the at least one external data source.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein each of the first data source and the at least one external data source corresponds to one of a social networking system, a messaging system, a content sharing system, or a member network.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the relevancy measure is representative of one or more of a frequency of communication, a recency of communication, a volume of communication, a periodicity of communication, a number of connections, a group membership, a demographic characteristic, a name, a relationship category, or a geographic location.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising enabling the first user to select a subset of the contacts to which the first user would like to extend an invitation to connect with the first user.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising enabling the first user to identify an additional data source, and presenting a revised version of the plurality of contacts, wherein the revised version of plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with a revised relevancy measure associated with each of the contacts determined with reference to the additional data source.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising presenting aggregated vitality generated by a first one of the contacts in multiple contexts to the first user.

22. The method of claim 16 further comprising presenting messages directed to the first user in accordance with the relevancy measures.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein a ranking of the plurality of contacts was conducted with reference to the relevancy measures, and wherein the plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with the ranking.

24. The method of claim 16 wherein a grouping of the plurality of contacts was conducted with reference to the relevancy measures, and wherein the plurality of contacts is presented in accordance with the grouping.

25. The method of claim 16 wherein each external data source employs a permissioning model for controlling access to information associated the external data source, and wherein the plurality of contacts were determined with reference to the at least one external data source according to the permissioning model corresponding to each external data source, thereby aggregating the permissioning models associated with the external data sources.