Computational systems and methods for disambiguating search terms corresponding to network members

• US 20130060665A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Davis, Marc E., Dyor, Matthew G., Gates, William, Huang, Xuedong, Hyde, Roderick A., Jung, Edward K.Y., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Lu, Qi, Malamud, Mark A., Myhrvold, Nathan P., Nadella, Satya, Reed, Daniel, Shum, Harry, Tegreene, Clarence T., Wood, Lowell L. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 10,074,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/342 between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network; disambiguating the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

circuitry for accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network;

circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and

circuitry for presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network comprises:

circuitry for accepting a name corresponding to at least one member of a network.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the circuitry for accepting a name corresponding to at least one member of a network comprises:

circuitry for accepting at least one of a first name, a last name, a nickname, a username, or a name including initials corresponding to at least one member of a network.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network comprises:

circuitry for accepting at least one of a physical address, an email address, or a web address corresponding to at least one member of a network.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data corresponding to at least one of a mobile phone, a wired telephone, a voice-over-internet-protocol telephone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, or a networked television.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including a telephone number associated with a telephony device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including subscriber identity module data or integrated circuit card identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including mobile equipment identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including international mobile equipment identity data corresponding to at least one communication device.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including international mobile subscriber identity data corresponding to at least one communication device.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including electronic serial number data corresponding to at least one communication device.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with device-identifier data including device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device that is linked to at least one billing account.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one billing account comprises at least one of a cable telecommunications billing account, a wireless telecommunications billing account, or a satellite telecommunications billing account.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one billing account comprises an electronic payment account.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the electronic payment account comprises at least one of a Google Checkout account, an Amazon Payments account, a PayPal account, or a mobile PayPal account.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one billing account comprises at least one of a credit card account or a virtual account.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with email data corresponding to at least one user of at least one communication device.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the email data comprises a simple mail transfer protocol-compatible email address or an email alias.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with network-participation identifier data associated with at least one of a user'"'"'s social security number, a user'"'"'s national identification card, a user'"'"'s biometric measurement, a user'"'"'s passport number, a user'"'"'s tax identification number, a user'"'"'s internet domain, or a user'"'"'s authentication certificate.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with social networking data.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the social networking data comprises at least one of a username, an @-tagged twitter handle, a corporate login, or a website uniform resource locator.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein the social networking data comprises at least one of Facebook data, Twitter data, or LinkedIn data.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein the social networking data comprises at least one of image data, constellation of social contact data, or user input data.

24. The system of claim 20 wherein the social networking data comprises data accumulated from multiple sources.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein the social networking data comprises at least one of data used to create additional data or data used to find additional data.

26. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for associating the at least one search term with a real-world user associated with at least one communication device.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the circuitry for associating the at least one search term with a real-world user associated with at least one communication device includes at least one of circuitry for performing the association using identity prediction, circuitry for performing the association using de-anonymization, or circuitry for performing the association using real-name profiling.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the circuitry for associating the at least one search term with a real-world user associated with at least one communication device includes at least one of circuitry for performing the association using web history tracking, circuitry for performing the association using media content tracking, or circuitry for performing the association using app data tracking.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data further comprises:

circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with network-participation identifier data and device-identifier data.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data further comprises:

circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with data indicating the origin of input of the at least one search term.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the data indicating the origin of input of the at least one search term includes internet protocol address data.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the data indicating the origin of input of the at least one search term is derived from at least one of cellular phone tower proximity, Wi-Fi use, user-entered location data, or proximity to at least one other device.

33. The system of claim 30 wherein the data indicating the origin of input of the at least one search term is derived from at least one of a detected vehicle use, a detected user activity, or a detected user location.

34. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for disambiguating the at least one search term including circuitry for associating the at least one search term with at least one entry in an inter-service-provider directory of device-associated users.

35. The system of claim 1 wherein the circuitry for presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data comprises:

circuitry for presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on both network-participation identifier data and device-identifier data.

36-69. -69. (canceled)

70. A computer program product comprising:

an article of manufacture including a signal-bearing medium bearing

(1) one or more instructions for accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network;

(2) one or more instructions for disambiguating the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and

(3) one or more instructions for presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data.

71. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the signal-bearing medium includes a computer-readable medium.

72. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the signal-bearing medium includes a recordable medium.

73. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the signal-bearing medium includes a communications medium.

74. A system comprising:

a computing device; and

instructions that when executed on the computing device cause the computing device to

(1) accept at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network;

(2) disambiguate the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and

;

(3) present a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data.

75. The system of claim 74 wherein the computing device comprises:

one or more of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal entertainment device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a tablet personal computer, a networked computer, a computing system comprised of a cluster of processors, a computing system comprised of a cluster of servers, a workstation computer, and/or a desktop computer.

76. The system of claim 74 wherein the computing device is operable to present a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data from at least one memory.