Personalized Location Information for Mobile Devices
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of providing information about a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system to other users of the electronic communications system, the method comprising:
- accessing an indication of a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system;
in response to accessing the indication of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, updating a message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system;
making available the updated message, which is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and which has been updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to only a first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system; and
making available an alternative message, which is descriptive of the user but which has not been similarly updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system as an alternative to the message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and that includes the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Providing location information on a mobile device includes receiving signals from external devices. Each signal includes information that specifies a geographic location for the external device that has provided the signal. A geographic location for the mobile device is calculated by using the information contained in each of the received signals. A representation of the geographic location of the mobile device is generated. The representation of the geographic location is included within an electronic message that provides information describing a user of the mobile device to other users of an electronic communications system. The electronic message is transmitted to another device to provide an indication of the geographic location for the user to one of the other users of the electronic communications system.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of providing information about a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system to other users of the electronic communications system, the method comprising:
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accessing an indication of a location attributable to a user of an electronic communications system; in response to accessing the indication of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, updating a message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system to include a descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system; making available the updated message, which is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and which has been updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to only a first limited subset of users of the electronic communications system; and making available an alternative message, which is descriptive of the user but which has not been similarly updated to include the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system, to a second limited subset of users of the electronic communications system as an alternative to the message that is descriptive of the user of the electronic communications system and that includes the descriptive representation of the location attributable to the user of the electronic communications system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer-implemented method of providing information about a status of a user of an instant messaging system to other users of the instant messaging system, the method comprising:
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maintaining, on behalf of a user of an instant messaging system, a first status message, the first status message having been designated by the user as being intended for a first limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system and reflecting a status of the user that the user intends to communicate to constituent members of the first limited subset of co-users; maintaining, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system and concurrently with maintaining the first status message, a second status message, the second status message being different from the first status message and having been designated by the user as being intended for a second limited subset of co-users of the instant messaging system and reflecting a status of the user that the user intends to communicate to constituent members of the second limited subset of co-users; processing an instruction to generate, on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system; receiving an indication of a location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; in response to receiving the indication of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system, updating the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include a representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; and after having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and after having updated the first status message maintained on behalf of the user to include the representation of the location attributable to the user of the instant messaging system; receiving, from a first co-user of the instant messaging system, a first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, in response to receiving the first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system; identifying the first co-user of the instant messaging system as the sender of the first instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, determining that the first co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the first limited subset of co-users, as a consequence of having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and as a consequence of having determined that the first co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the first limited subset of co-users, generating a first automatic response to the first instant message, the first automatically-generated response including the updated first status message maintained on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, and transmitting the first automatically-generated response, including the updated first status message, to the first co-user of the instant messaging system, receiving, from a second co-user of the instant messaging system, a second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, and in response to receiving the second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system; identifying the second co-user of the instant messaging system as the sender of the second instant message intended for the user of the instant messaging system, determining that the second co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the second limited subset of co-users, as a consequence of having processed the instruction to generate automatic responses to incoming instant messages intended for the user of the instant messaging system and as a consequence of having determined that the second co-user of the instant messaging system is a member of the second limited subset of co-users, generating a second automatic response to the second instant message, the second automatically-generated response including the second status message maintained on behalf of the user of the instant messaging system, and transmitting the second automatically-generated response, including the second status message, to the second co-user of the instant messaging system. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification