Contact Resolution Using Social Graph Information

• US 20120150955A1
• Filed: 12/10/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tseng, Erick
• Application Number:
  US12/965,094
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150955A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

In one embodiment, a social networking system imports a user'"'"'s contacts to a local address book of the user by merging the user'"'"'s social graph information to the local address book.

Claims

1. A method for merging an address book with social graph information relative to a first user, the method comprising:

accessing a social graph to generate a list of users that are separated by one degree from a first user, wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to a respective user, and edge data identifying connections between nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein a degree of separation between a first node and a second node in the social network graph is a minimum number of hops required to traverse from the first node to the second node;

each node corresponding to a user profile including a user name and communication channel information;

accessing an address book of the first user, the address book including one or more contact entries, each contact entry comprising a name and communication channel information;

merging user profile information from the social graph and the address book by;

matching, for each user profile associated with the list of users, the user profile to a contact entry in the address book;

if there is an exact match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match;

if there is a partial match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, then

presenting the contact entry to the first user to confirm the partial match; and

associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating the user profile and the contact entry further comprises:

if the communication channel information of the user profile is accessible to the first user based on one ore more privacy settings, importing the communication channel information of the user profile to the contact entry of the address book.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each user profile associated with the list of users that is not associated with a contact entry in the address book, copying the communication channel information to the address book.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by two degrees from the first user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by three degrees or less from the first user.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the associating the user profile and the contact entry further comprises presenting an option to the first user to send an invitation to a user associated with a matched user profile to establish a first-degree separation relationship.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the address book is maintained on a mobile device.

8. A system for merging an address book with social graph information relative to a first user, the system comprising:

a memory;

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory, storage medium storing computer-readable instructions operative, when executed, to cause the one or more processors to;

access a social graph to generate a list of users that are separated by one degree from a first user, wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to a respective user, and edge data identifying connections between nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein a degree of separation between a first node and a second node in the social network graph is a minimum number of hops required to traverse from the first node to the second node;

each node corresponding to a user profile including a user name and communication channel information;

access an address book of the first user, the address book including one or more contact entries, each contact entry comprising a name and communication channel information;

merge user profile information from the social graph and the address book by;

matching, for each user profile associated with the list of users, the user profile to a contact entry in the address book;

if there is an exact match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match;

if there is a partial match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, then

presenting the contact entry to the first user to confirm the partial match; and

associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein to associate the user profile and the contact entry, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

if the communication channel information of the user profile is accessible to the first user based on one ore more privacy settings, import the communication channel information of the user profile to the contact entry of the address book.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to:

for each user profile associated with the list of users that is not associated with a contact entry in the address book, copy the communication channel information to the address book.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by two degrees from the first user.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by three degrees or less from the first user.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein to associate the user profile and the contact entry, further comprising instructions operable to cause the one or more processors to present an option to the first user to send an invitation to a user associated with a matched user profile to establish a first-degree separation relationship.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the address book is maintained on a mobile device.

15. One or more computer-readable tangible storage media embodying software operable when executed by one or more computing devices to:

access a social graph to generate a list of users that are separated by one degree from a first user, wherein the social graph comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to a respective user, and edge data identifying connections between nodes of the plurality of nodes, wherein a degree of separation between a first node and a second node in the social network graph is a minimum number of hops required to traverse from the first node to the second node;

each node corresponding to a user profile including a user name and communication channel information;

access an address book of the first user, the address book including one or more contact entries, each contact entry comprising a name and communication channel information;

merge user profile information from the social graph and the address book by;

matching, for each user profile associated with the list of users, the user profile to a contact entry in the address book;

if there is an exact match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match;

if there is a partial match between the user profile and a contact entry in the address book, then

presenting the contact entry to the first user to confirm the partial match; and

associating the user profile and the contact entry as a match.

16. The media of claim 15, wherein to associate the user profile and the contact entry, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

if the communication channel information of the user profile is accessible to the first user based on one ore more privacy settings, import the communication channel information of the user profile to the contact entry of the address book.

17. The media of claim 15, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to:

for each user profile associated with the list of users that is not associated with a contact entry in the address book, copy the communication channel information to the address book.

18. The media of claim 15 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by two degrees from the first user.

19. The media of claim 15 wherein the list of users further comprises one or more users that are separated by three degrees or less from the first user.

20. The media of claim 18, wherein to associate the user profile and the contact entry, further comprising software operable when executed by the one or more computing devices to present an option to the first user to send an invitation to a user associated with a matched user profile to establish a first-degree separation relationship.

21. The media of claim 15 wherein the address book is maintained on a mobile device.