Crossing paths notification service

• US 6,714,916 B1
• Filed: 07/07/1999
• Issued: 03/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Robertson, Brian D., Adams, Warren W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US09/348,355
• Time in Patent Office: 1,728 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/6, 705/8, 705/9, 700/201, 345/961, 345/963
• US Class Current: 705/7.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 2001/085 Partner search devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42008 Systems for anonymous communication between parties, e.g. by use of disposal contact identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 : Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A network-computer-based personal contact manager system is disclosed wherein users of networked clients maintain and update a set of user information which is stored in a relational database on a networked server. The personal contact manager system allows each user to specify on an individual basis which of their contacts are permitted to access respective datums of their user information. In some cases, and assuming permission is granted, the system will issue notifications (e.g., by e-mail) to a user'"'"'s contacts when the user changes his information or when a preset event, such as a birthday, as defined by the user, is to occur. The system also allows users to find contacts based on common group affiliations and notifies users when there are coincidences in their data (e.g., travel plans, astrological compatibility). The personal contact manager system supports the retrieval of information on the contacts of contacts, assuming such as permission has been granted by the contacts and their contacts, and can also be used to synchronize the server database with a PIM database of the user and any contacts of the user whoe have the appropriate permissions.

Claims

1. A contact management system, comprising:

a database which stores personal contact information and travel schedules for a plurality of users;

a server coupled to a computer network to provide the users remote access to the database; and

an application program which uses the contact information and the travel schedules to detect and notify users of crossing paths events;

wherein the application program detects crossing paths events for a first user that is traveling to a destination location by at least one of (a) searching for contacts of the first user that are scheduled to travel to within a pre-specified distance of the destination location, and (b) searching for contacts of the first user that live within a pre-specified distance of the destination location.

2. The contact management system of claim 1, wherein the application program maintains personal address books for the users.

3. The contact management system of claim 2, wherein the application program permits each first user to specify, on a user-by-user basis, other users within the first user'"'"'s address book that are to be notified of crossing paths events with the first user.

4. The contact management system of claim 1, wherein the application program detects crossing paths events by at least identifying users that will be within a pre-specified distance of one another at the same time.

5. The contact management system of claim 4, wherein the application program identifies users that will be within a pre-specified distance of one another using a table which stores geographic coordinates of a plurality of cities.

6. The contact management system of claim 1, wherein the application program detects crossing paths events for a first user that is traveling to a destination location by at least (a) searching for contacts of the first user that are scheduled to travel to within a pre-specified distance of the destination location, and (b) searching for contacts of the first user that live within a pre-specified distance of the destination location.

7. The contact management system of claim 1, wherein the server provides Web-based access to users of a publicly-accessible computer network.

8. The contact management system of claim 1, wherein the application program further notifies users of at least one of the following types of events (a) birthdays of contacts, (b) anniversaries of contacts, and (c) correspondence of astrological signs with contacts.