Aggregating and searching profile data from multiple services

• US 7,818,396 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dolin, Rob, Obasanjo, Oludare, Fluegel, Jason C., Torres, Michael I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): KHAN, AFTAB N
• Application Number:
  US11/766,363
• Publication Number:
  US 20080316925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 709/230, 709/218, 709/237, 709/217, 709/227, 709/228, 709/206, 709/204, 707/1, 707/3, 707/5, 707/10, 707/709, 707/784
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Profile data from multiple networking services can be combined and queried from one networking service. A primary networking service may store user profile data for one or more secondary networking services and the primary networking service. When stored, the data from the multiple networks may be aggregated or merged. The stored data may include user profile data and relationship data for each networking service that a primary networking service has a profile account with. A graph of user-contact relationships existing over the primary networking service and one or more secondary networking services may be constructed and queried against.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for storing data, comprising:

identifying a first user of a primary networking service associated with a first set of profile data maintained by the primary networking service, the first set of profile data including a user identifier for the first user in connection with a secondary networking service;

using the user identifier, automatically accessing the secondary networking service and retrieving from the secondary networking service a second set of profile data associated with the first user, a user identifier for each contact associated with the first user, and relationship data indicating the relationship between the first user and each contact;

aggregating the first set of profile data associated with the primary networking service with the second set of profile data retrieved from the secondary networking service; and

storing the aggregated profile data, the user identifier for each contact associated with the first user in the secondary networking service and the relationship data retrieved from the secondary networking service in a data store maintained by the primary networking service.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second set of profile data is retrieved by a crawler mechanism in communication with the one or more data stores.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing includes:

determining whether each contact in the secondary networking service has a profile in the primary networking service;

when a contact in the secondary networking service has a profile in the primary networking service, storing the user identifier for the contact associated with the primary networking service; and

when a contact in the secondary networking service does not have a profile in the primary networking service, storing the user identifier for the contact associated with the secondary networking service.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing includes:

storing the aggregated data in a user profile table.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of storing includes:

storing user identification information for the primary networking service and profile relationship data associated with the secondary networking service account in a user relationship table.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user interface configured to allow a first user to designate at least a user identifier for each secondary networking service that the first user maintains an account with, wherein the user interface is provided by the primary networking service; and

storing the information provided by the user via the user interface in a data store maintained by the primary networking service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing and retrieving comprises:

obtaining the user identifier for the first user from the first set of profile data;

identifying that the secondary networking service is a predefined networking service;

retrieving a profile URL associated with the secondary networking service from a configuration file; and

establishing a connection with the secondary networking service using the user identifier and profile URL.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of retrieving a second set of profile data associated with the first user includes:

determining location information of the second set of profile data of the secondary networking service and the user identifier for the first user associated with the secondary networking service account; and

accessing the second set of profile data of the secondary networking service using the location information.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein said step of determining location information includes:

determining a URL based on the user identifier.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein said step of determining location information includes:

determining the location information from the user identifier and a URL data contained in a configuration file accessible by the primary networking service.

11. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media having processor readable code embodied on said non-transitory computer readable storage media, said processor readable code for programming the media to perform a method comprising:

importing, from at least one secondary networking service, user profile data associated with a first user, a user identifier for each of the first user'"'"'s contacts in the secondary networking service, and user relationship data between the first user and each contact;

aggregating the imported user profile data, user identifier for each contact and user relationship data with existing user profile data, existing user identifiers for each contact and existing relationship data stored in a data storage device of the primary networking service;

storing the aggregated user profile data, user identifiers and relationship data in the data storage device;

receiving a request from a client for one or more user profiles associated with the first user that match a profile parameter and a relationship separation parameter;

querying the data storage device for the requested one or more user profiles matching the profile parameter and the relationship separation parameter contained in the query;

receiving the one or more matching user profiles from the data storage device; and

providing the one or more matching user profiles to the client.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11, wherein said step of querying a data store includes:

accessing a user relationship table that contains relationship data between users of the primary networking service over the one or more secondary networking services.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the relationship separation parameter indicates the degrees of separation allowed between a contact associated with the first user and the first user.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the relationship separation parameter indicates:

a first trusted relationship exists between a first user and a second user in the primary networking service;

a second trusted relationship exists between the second user and a third user in the secondary networking service; and

a relationship exists between the first user and the third user over two degrees of separation.

15. A computer implemented method for accessing data, comprising:

selecting a first user of a primary networking service associated with a first set of profile data maintained by the primary networking service, wherein the first set of profile data includes a user identifier for the first user associated with a secondary networking service storing a second set of profile data for the first user and user profiles of contacts associated with the first user in the secondary networking service;

using the user identifier, retrieving the a second set of profile data associated with the first user and a user identifier for each contact from the secondary networking service, wherein the retrieved second set of profile data includes relationship data linking the first user to each of the contacts associated with the first user;

storing the second set of profile data in one or more data storage devices associated with the primary networking service;

receiving a request for one or more user profiles associated with the first user, the request containing a relationship separation parameter;

selecting the user profiles stored in the one or more data storage devices that match the relationship separation parameter;

providing the selected user profiles to the client.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of retrieving the second set of profile data comprises:

retrieving a URL associated with the secondary networking service from a configuration file;

establishing a connection with the secondary networking service using the URL retrieved from the configuration file and the user identifier in the first set of profile data.