Providing a map indicating locations of users in a social network

• US 8,504,089 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2011
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chemtron Research LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Behemoth Development Company LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Stewart, Brett B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferguson, Keith
• Application Number:
  US13/029,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20110137813A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• Field of Search: 455/518, 455/519, 455/517, 455/500, 4554141-4144, 4554561-457, 455/560, 455/561, 455/550.1, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/426.1, 455/426.2, 455/571.1, 455/422.1, 455/403, 709/203, 709/204, 709/218, 709/219, 709/224, 370/310, 370/328, 370/329, 370/343
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus and software have been discovered for use by individual users to monitor the geographic location of other people or assets with some relationship to the user. Once some manner of location information is determined, users have the ability to describe that location in various ways and control how that information is shared with other users.

Claims

1. A computer accessible non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving location information associated with a plurality of users, wherein the location information identifies a first location associated with a first user and a second location associated with a second user;

displaying the first location on a client device based on a predetermined user preference according to a first location sharing constraint; and

displaying the second location on the client device based on a default setting according to a second location sharing constraint.

2. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location and the second location are displayed on a map on the client device.

3. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 2, wherein the first location and the second location are displayed by indicators on the map, and wherein the indicators are associated with a legend that provides additional information about the first user and the second user.

4. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 2, wherein the first location and the second location are displayed by icons on the map, and wherein different icons are used to distinguish the first user and the second user.

5. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 2, wherein a first color is used to indicate the first user, and wherein a second color is used to indicate the second user.

6. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 2, wherein a first shape is used to indicate the first user, and wherein a second shape is used to indicate the second user.

7. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location sharing constraint associates the first user with a list on the client device, and wherein the second location sharing constraint indicates that the second user is not associated with the list.

8. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 7, wherein the list corresponds to friends in a social networking service.

9. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location sharing constraint associates the first user with a user-supplied location label, and wherein the first location is indicated by the user-supplied location label.

10. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 9, wherein the second sharing constraint associates the second user with a default location label, and wherein the second location is indicated by the default location label.

11. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing a plurality of labels associated with the first location, wherein the plurality of labels comprises a user-supplied location label and a default location label; and

associating the user-supplied label with the first user according to the first location sharing constraint, wherein the first location is displayed as the user-supplied label.

12. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 11, wherein the user-supplied location label comprises an alias of the first location, and wherein the default location label comprises a street address of the first location.

13. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location sharing constraint specifies one or more of when, how and to whom the location information is sent.

14. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location sharing constraint specifies to whom the location information is sent.

15. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first location sharing constraint specifies when the location information is sent.

16. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 1, wherein the first user is a member of a social networking service, and wherein the first location is displayed by an indicator that indicates the first user is the member of the social networking service.

17. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 16, wherein the indicator further indicates that the first user is included on a list of friends in the social networking service, and wherein the second location is displayed by an indicator that indicates the second user is not included on the list of friends.

18. A system comprising:

a processing device;

a non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving location information associated with a plurality of users, wherein the location information identifies a first location associated with a first user and a second location associated with a second user;

displaying the first location on a client device based on a predetermined user preference according to a first location sharing constraint; and

displaying the second location on the client device based on a default setting according to a second location sharing constraint.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing device is further configured to display indicators on a map of the client device indicating the first location and the second location.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing device is further configured to display icons on a map of the client device indicating the first location and the second location.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein different types of icons are used to indicate the first location and the second location.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein different colors are used to indicate the different types of icons.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein different shapes are used to indicate the different types of icons.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the first location and the second location are displayed as location labels on a map of the client device, and wherein the first location is displayed as a user-supplied location label selected from a plurality of location labels based, at least in part, on the first location sharing constraint.

25. The system of claim 24,

wherein the first location sharing constraint identifies the client device as being a member of a social network group comprising the first user.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the second location sharing constraint identifies the second user as being a non-member of the social network group.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the user-supplied location label is used to identify members of the social network group who are located at the first location, and wherein a system default location label is used to identify non-members of the social network group who are located at the first location.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein members of the social network group are identified as friends of the first user.

29. A computer accessible non-transitory memory medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving location information associated with a plurality of users, wherein the location information identifies a first location associated with a first user and a second location associated with a second user;

identifying the first user as belonging to a list of users associated with a social network group;

selecting a first location label to indicate the first location in response to identifying the first user;

selecting a second location label to indicate the second location; and

displaying the first location label and the second location label on a display device, wherein an appearance of the first location label is distinguishable from the second location label to indicate that the first user is associated with the social network group.

30. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 29, wherein the social network group comprises a friends list of a social networking service.

31. The computer accessible non-transitory memory medium of claim 30, wherein an appearance of the second location label is distinguishable from the first location label to indicate that the second user is not associated with the social network group.

32. A method comprising:

receiving location information associated with a plurality of users, wherein the location information identifies a first location associated with a first user and a second location associated with a second user;

identifying the first user as belonging to a list of users associated with a social network group;

selecting a first location label to indicate the first location in response to identifying the first user;

selecting a second location label to indicate the second location; and

displaying the first location label and the second location label on a display device, wherein an appearance of the first location label is distinguishable from the second location label to indicate that the first user is associated with the social network group.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the first location label comprises a user-supplied location label, and wherein the second location label comprises a default location label.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the user-supplied location label comprises an alias for the first location.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the second location label comprises a street address.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the user supplied-label is selected from a plurality of labels including a default location label for the first location.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the default location comprises a street address.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the location information comprises a wireless access point located at the second location, and wherein the second location label is associated with the wireless access point.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the location information comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) address associated with a processing device located at the second location, and wherein the second location label is associated with the MAC address.

40. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

comparing the first location with a list of known locations;

identifying the first location as being unknown; and

requesting a user of the display device to enter an alias for the first location.