MOBILE TERMINAL AND METHOD OF SEARCHING A CONTACT IN THE MOBILE TERMINAL

• US 20110078184A1
• Filed: 02/26/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: SONG, Yoo-Mee, CHO, Hye-Youn, YEO, Byung-Sang, SON, Kyoung-Hee, YUN, Yee-Rang, CHO, Seong-Yoon
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A mobile terminal includes a wireless communication unit communicating with a server providing a social network service, a memory storing a contact list and account information related to the social network service, a user input unit receiving a search query, a controller searching for a contact person in the contact list based on the search query, the controller also connecting and transmitting information of the contact person found in the contact list to the server, and receiving a search result from the server, and a display unit displaying the search result.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a wireless communication unit configured to communicate with a server providing a social network service;

a memory configured to store a contact list and account information related to the social network service;

a user input unit configured to receive a search query;

a controller configured to search for a contact person in the contact list based on the search query, connect and transmit information of the contact person found in the contact list to the server, and receive a search result from the server; and

a display unit configured to display the search result.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the information of the contact person comprises at least a phone number, a name, an email, a home page address, or a user name.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the account information is pre-stored in the memory.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication unit connects to the server while controller is searching for the contact person in the contact list.

5. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the user input unit is further configured to receive a control command from the server, the control command comprising a command for searching for the contact person.

6. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the memory stores a client application for executing the social network service.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether the contact person is a subscriber of the social network service and whether the contact person is registered as a friend with regard to the social network service.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to display the search result along with applicable command icons related to the contact person on the display unit based on whether the contact person is the subscriber and whether the contact person is registered as the friend.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein the command icons comprise at least an icon for adding the contact person as a friend, an icon for inviting the contact person to the social network service, an icon for removing the contact person as a friend.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the user input unit comprises a touch screen.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 1 wherein:

the wireless communication unit connects to a plurality of preset servers, a user of the mobile terminal being a subscriber of each of a plurality of social network services provided by the plurality of preset servers, and

the controller transmits the information of the contact person found in the contact list to each of the plurality of preset servers and receives a plurality of search results from the plurality of preset servers.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein:

the controller updates the contact list based on the plurality of search results, and

the display unit displays the contact list with information related to the plurality of social network services provided by the plurality of preset servers, the information comprising at least one icon representing at least one of the plurality of social network services.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein:

the controller updates the contact list based on the plurality of search results, and

the display unit displays the contact list with information related to the plurality of social network services provided by the plurality of preset servers such that each contact person in the contact list is displayed with a plurality of icons, each of the plurality of icons representing each of the plurality of social network services and indicating a status of the contact person with respect to each of the plurality of social network services.

14. A mobile terminal comprising:

a user input unit receiving a search query from a user;

a controller searching for a contact from contact information stored in the mobile terminal based on the search query;

a wireless communication unit connecting to a website for a social networking service, transmitting information of the contact found from the contact information to the website, and receiving a search result from the website; and

a display unit displaying the search result,

wherein the search result is obtained by the website by matching the information of the contact received from the mobile terminal to information of social network service subscribers stored at the website.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the information of the contact comprises at least a phone number, a name, an email, a home page address, or a user name.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 14, further comprising a memory storing social network service account information, wherein the controller connects to the website by using the social network service account information stored in the memory.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the controller searches for the contact according to a preset mode selected from a search option, the search option comprising searching for the contact in the contact information stored in the mobile terminal and searching for the contact in the contact information stored in the mobile terminal and then searching for the contact from the website using the information of the contact found from the contact information.

18. A method of searching for a contact in a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

connecting to a server providing a social network service and having information about social network service subscribers by using user account information related to the social network service;

receiving a search query for searching for the contact from the server;

displaying a search result received from the server; and

updating a contact list stored in the mobile terminal according to the search result.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein updating the contact list comprises:

adding information of the social network service related to the contact to pre-existing information related to the contact.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein updating the contact list comprises:

adding the contact with information of the social network service to the contact list as a new contact upon determining that the contact is not present in the contact list.