Group Network Connector

• US 20130097529A1
• Filed: 08/13/2012
• Published: 04/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andrei Postoaca
• Original Assignee: Andrei Postoaca
• Inventors: Postoaca, Andrei
• Granted Patent: US 9,047,645 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for contacts management and an interface application for managing, searching and sharing electronic contact information of users of a group.

Claims

1. A contact management interface application for managing and sharing electronic contacts of users of a group, comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by the processor cause the processor to generate:

electronic contacts received from one or more sources of a first user shared with all the users of the entire group or with selected users of subgroups within the group wherein all the users of the group have a preexisting connection between each other;

a interface configured display the first user'"'"'s electronic contacts linked to the first user;

a sharing interface configured to share a selected set of the electronic contacts of the first user with all the users of the group or among the selected users of the subgroups and place the selected set of the electronic contacts of the first user into a common pool of shared contacts of other users of the group;

a searching interface configured to search for specific contacts from the common pool of contacts based on search criteria entered by the first user and configured to serve as a management interface to permit the first user to manage his specific contacts; and

an access interface configured to identify and display connectivity information between the electronic contacts and the users, to all the users of the group and display the source from which the electronic contact has been received from, in order to facilitate a communication between a user viewing the access interface and the electronic contact through an introduction from the user connected to the contact.

2. The contact management interface application of claim 1, wherein the one or more sources comprise a social network sources or an address book of email accounts and or mobile phones or business applications or other contact databases of the first user.

3. The contact management interface application of claim 1, wherein the interface is configured to download all the electronic contacts of all the users of the application from external sources and all the downloaded contacts are automatically merged before displayed in the common pool of contacts.

4. The contact management interface application of claim 1, wherein the sharing interface is configured to permit sharing and displaying the selected set of the electronic contacts with other selected users of the group is controlled by the first user, and the interface is configured to provide the first user an option to select which contacts from the external sources are shared and displayed into the common pool of contacts, wherein degree of the display of the shared contacts in the interface is controlled by the user, wherein the degree of the display comprises:

an option to display a contact'"'"'s attributes in a search result without displaying who the contact is connected to;

an option not to display the contact at all in any search; and

an option to display the contact'"'"'s attributes and the user the contact is linked to.

5. The contact management interface application of claim 1, wherein the searching interface provides the first user with the option to conduct keyword based searching of contacts based on their attributes stored in the interface.

6. A computer implemented method for use in a computer system that executes program steps recorded in a computer readable medium for managing and sharing electronic contact information of users of a group into a contact management interface application available to the entire group, the computer implemented method comprising:

providing a recordable media;

providing a processor for accessing the recordable media; and

providing a program of computer-readable instructions embodied on the recordable media executable by the processor of the computer system to perform operations comprising;

sharing electronic contacts of a first user from different external sources with all the users of the entire group or with selected users of subgroups of the entire group;

downloading all the electronic contacts shared by the first user from the external sources into the contact management interface application;

merging the downloaded electronic contacts from the different external sources shared by the first user in the contact management interface application, and displaying to the first user the user'"'"'s contacts, gathered and merged by the contact management interface application from all the external sources linked to the first user and identifying each externally gathered contact by the external source from which it originated from;

receiving from the first user, a selected set of the merged electronic contacts to be shared into a common pool of contacts of other users of the group of the contact management interface application with all the users of the group or among the selected users of the subgroups;

searching specific contacts in a searching interface from the common pool of contacts and allowing the all users of the group to manage their specific contacts;

providing access to all the users of the group to identify and display connectivity information between the electronic contacts and the users to all the users of the group and display the external source from which the electronic contact has been received from, in order to facilitate a communication between a user viewing the access interface and the electronic contact through an introduction from the user connected to the contact; and

integrating the contact management interface application with a business application by adding, merging and sharing the electronic contacts and their attributes from the common pool of contacts of the contact management interface application into the business application, wherein the contacts to be added can match with contacts stored in the business application and the connectivity information of the electronic contact is highlighted in the business application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different external sources are social network sources, address book of email accounts and mobile phones, business applications and other contact databases of all users of the group.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the step for downloading the electronic contacts is used by all the users of the application to download all the electronic contacts belonging to each user from each user'"'"'s external sources, wherein all the downloaded contacts are automatically merged before displayed in the common pool of contacts.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the sharing of the selected set of the merged electronic contacts with other selected users of the group is controlled by the first user, and the interface application is configured to provide the first user an option to choose which contacts from the external sources are shared and displayed into the common pool of contacts, wherein degree of the display of the shared contacts in the interface is controlled by the first user, wherein the degree of the display comprises:

an option to display a contact'"'"'s attributes in a search result without displaying who the contact is connected to;

an option not to display the contact at all in any search; and

an option to display the contact'"'"'s attributes and the user the contact is linked to.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the searching interface provides the first user with the option to conduct keyword based searching of contacts based on the contact'"'"'s attributes stored in the contact management interface application.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the business application includes a customer relationship management (CRM) application of the group and wherein the merging of the electronic contacts from the contact management interface with the contacts from the CRM applications is done automatically or manually by all users of the group.

12. A computer implemented method for use in a computer system that executes program steps recorded in a computer readable medium for managing and sharing electronic contact information of users of a group into a contact management interface application available to the entire group, the computer implemented method comprising:

providing a recordable media;

providing a processor for accessing the recordable media; and

providing a program of computer-readable instructions embodied on the recordable media executable by the processor of the computer system to perform operations comprising;

sharing electronic contacts of a first user from different external sources with all the users of the entire group or with selected users of subgroups;

downloading all the electronic contacts shared by the first user from the external sources into the contact management interface application;

merging the downloaded electronic contacts from the different external sources shared by the first user in the contact management interface application, and displaying to the first user the first user'"'"'s contacts, gathered and merged by the contact management interface application from all the external sources linked to the first user and identifying each externally gathered contact by the external source from which it originated from;

receiving from the first user, a selected set of the merged electronic contacts to be shared into a common pool of contacts of other users of the contact management interface application with all the users of the group or among the selected users of the subgroups;

searching specific contacts in a searching interface from the common pool of contacts and allowing all the users of the group to manage their specific contacts;

providing access to all the users of the group to identify and display connectivity information between the electronic contacts and the users to all the users of the group and display the external source from which the electronic contact has been received from, in order to facilitate a communication between the user and the electronic contact through an introduction from the user connected to the contact; and

integrating the contact management interface application with a business application by adding, merging and sharing the electronic contacts and their attributes from the common pool of contacts of the contact management interface application into the business application, wherein the contacts to be added can match with contacts stored in the business application and the connectivity information of the electronic contact is highlighted in the business application; and

creating a watchlist interface to notify the first user as soon as a new contact of interest or a new link to a contact established by any user of the contact management interface application is available.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the different external sources are social network sources, address book of email accounts and mobile phones, business applications and other contact databases of all users of the group.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step for downloading the electronic contacts is used by all the users of the application to download all the electronic contacts belonging to each user from each user'"'"'s external sources, wherein all the downloaded contacts are automatically merged before displayed in the common pool of contacts.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the sharing of the selected set of the merged electronic contacts with other selected users of the group is controlled by the first user, and the interface application provides the first user an option to choose which contacts from the external sources are shared and displayed into the common pool of contacts, wherein degree of the display of the shared contacts in the interface is controlled by the first user, wherein the degree of the display comprises:

an option to display a contact'"'"'s attributes in a search result without displaying who the contact is connected to;

an option not to display the contact at all in any search; and

an option to display the contact'"'"'s attributes and the user the contact is linked to.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the searching interface provides the first user with the option to conduct keyword based searching of contacts based on the contact'"'"'s attributes stored in the contact management interface application.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the business application includes a customer relationship management (CRM) application of the group and wherein the merging of the electronic contacts from the contact management interface with the contacts from the CRM applications is done automatically or manually by all users of the group.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the watchlist interface allows the first user to add the target contact or target company to the watchlist to receive alerts via email alerts or message alert as soon as new electronic contacts or a new link to a contact established by any user is available among all the users of the group of the contact management interface application.