SOCIAL NETWORKS SERVICE

• US 20090313235A1
• Filed: 06/12/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Karkanias, Chris Demetrios, Rosenbloom, Oren, Ray, Kenneth D., Horvitz, Eric J., Van Hoof, Hubert, Gounares, Alexander G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,516 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A social network service provides trusted, timely and managed communications between a querying individual and an informed individual by optimizing distribution of queries to reflect a requisite amount of expertise necessary (i.e., interest, background, education, demographic attribute, etc.). Those candidate recipients with a rare level of expertise or specialization can specify a desired level of participation, which is respected. In order not to exhaust their availability, those who are less qualified or part of a larger demographic category appropriate for the query are selected to handle queries of lesser difficulty or less specialization. Anonymity if desired by the recipient party can be supported by increasing the pool of candidate recipients so that the querying party cannot reasonably ascertain who is responding. Timeliness of response, as well as satisfaction in the response, is tracked in order to affect redirection of a query.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a recipient for a query from a party within a social network, comprising:

receiving a response constraint from a first party of a social network;

receiving a query containing a query constraint from a second party of the social network;

selecting a subset of parties of the social network that satisfy the query constraint;

excluding the first party in the subset based upon the response constraint not being satisfied by the query; and

managing communication between the second party and at least one third party of the selected subset.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a degree of association between the first and second party to determine satisfaction of the response constraint.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a number of degrees of separation between the first and second parties.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a shared personal demographic category to determine satisfaction of the response constraint.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a degree of association between the first and second party to determine satisfaction of the query constraint.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a number of degrees of separation between the first and second parties.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a shared personal demographic category to determine satisfaction of the query constraint.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a query containing a query constraint of time criticality and selecting the subset of parties based upon availability satisfying the time criticality.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining a lack of a timely response from the at least one third party and redirecting the query to another third party of the subset.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising managing anonymous communication between the second party and a third party of the selected subset.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the subset is too small for anonymity;

expanding the query criteria to increase the selected subset; and

communicating the expanded query criteria to the first party.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a degree of difficulty of the query;

determining a level of expertise of a plurality of parties of the social network relevant to the query; and

optimizing distribution of queries by selecting a party of lower expertise to receive the query in response to a determination of a lower degree of difficulty and otherwise selecting a party of higher expertise.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising redirecting the query in response to determining that first party deems a response from the at least one third party of the selected subset to be unsatisfactory.

14. An apparatus for selecting a recipient for a query from a party within a social network, comprising:

a computer-readable medium, comprising;

a set of codes for causing a computer to receive a response constraint from a first party of a social network;

a set of codes for causing the computer to receive a query containing a query constraint from a second party of the social network;

a set of codes for causing the computer to select a subset of parties of the social network that satisfy the query constraint;

a set of codes for causing the computer to exclude the first party in the subset based upon the response constraint not being satisfied by the query; and

a set of codes for causing the computer to manage communication between the second party and at least one third party of the selected subset.

15. A method for selecting a recipient for a query from a party within a social network, comprising:

receiving a query from a querying party of a social network;

determining a query constraint necessary to answer the query;

selecting a plurality of candidate recipients as a subset of parties of the social network that satisfy the query constraint;

determining a level of difficulty of the query constraint;

excluding a candidate recipient capable of responding to more difficult level of query constraint in response to determining that another candidate recipient can respond in order to optimize query distribution; and

managing communication between the querying party and at least one recipient party of the selected subset.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising managing communication anonymously between the querying party and the at least one recipient party.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising expanding the query constraint in order to return the subset of sufficient size for maintaining anonymity.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising managing communication between the querying party and the at least one recipient party by selecting the subset based upon time criticality of the query and responsiveness of the candidate parties.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting the plurality of candidate recipients based at least in part upon degrees of separation.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting the plurality of candidate recipients based at least in part upon a determination of a shared personal demographic category.