Targeted telephone number lists from user profiles

• US 8,688,719 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sekaran, Dhigha D., Parandekar, Amey, Ananthanarayanan, Krishnan
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Assistant Examiner(s): Weinrich, Brian E.
• Application Number:
  US13/306,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20130138621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 853 Days
• Field of Search: 707/754, 707/732, 707/705
• US Class Current: 707/754
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A data structure that includes a user profile including user profile information, and a data structure comprising a set of available telephone numbers can be accessed. A targeted list of one or more telephone numbers can be generated using the set of available telephone numbers and information from the user profile. The targeted list can include one or more telephone numbers from the set of available telephone numbers that match at least a portion of the user profile information. Also, the targeted list can be sent to a rendering computing environment for display. User input selecting a telephone number from the targeted list can be received. In response to user input, the selected telephone number can be associated with a user profile in a data structure.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing a data structure comprising a user profile, the user profile comprising user profile information;

accessing a data structure comprising a set of available telephone numbers;

generating a targeted list of one or more telephone numbers using the set of available telephone numbers and the user profile information, the targeted list comprising one or more available telephone numbers from the set of available telephone numbers that match at least a portion of the user profile information, the targeted list further comprising one or more additional telephone numbers whose availability to be associated with a user profile in a telephone number assignment data structure is configured to be requested after the generation of the targeted list, the one or more additional telephone numbers being different from the set of available telephone numbers, generating the targeted list comprising determining that the one or more available telephone numbers and the one or more additional telephone numbers are matching telephone numbers that match the at least a portion of the user profile information, and determining that matching telephone numbers match the at least a portion of the user profile information comprising;

deriving one or more terms from information comprising representations of letters in the user profile information; and

determining that the one or more matching telephone numbers each includes at least one matching sequence of digits that matches an order of letters in at least one of the one or more terms, with a digit of a sequence matching a letter of a term by corresponding to a letter on a standard telephone keypad that is the same as the letter of the term; and

sending the targeted list to a rendering computing environment that includes a display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user input selecting a telephone number from the targeted list; and

in response to the user input, associating the selected telephone number with a user profile in the telephone number assignment data structure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user profile with which the selected telephone number is associated is the user profile used to generate the targeted list.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the user profile with which the selected telephone number is associated is a different user profile from the user profile used to generate the targeted list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed automatically.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed without user input requesting the targeted list.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein sending the targeted list to the rendering environment comprises sending a message over a computer network.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein sending the targeted list to the rendering environment is done in response to receiving user input signing into a computer system that manages the user profile.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the targeted list to the rendering environment comprises sending the targeted list over a computer network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the targeted list using the set of available telephone numbers and information from the user profile comprises:

generating a list of telephone numbers using the information from the user profile; and

filtering out telephone numbers that are not included in the set of available telephone numbers.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein method further comprises requesting availability of at least one of the one or more additional telephone numbers to be associated with a user profile in a telephone number assignment data structure after the generation of the targeted list.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein requesting availability of at least one of the one or more additional telephone numbers is done in response to user input.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the targeted list is configured to respond to selection of an available telephone number of the available telephone numbers by initiating a process to associate the selected available telephone number with a user profile in the telephone number assignment data structure, and wherein the targeted list is configured to respond to selection of an additional telephone number in the targeted list by initiating a process to request availability of the selected additional telephone number to be associated with a user profile in the telephone number assignment data structure.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause at least one processor to perform acts comprising:

accessing a set of available telephone numbers;

accessing user profile information from a source user profile;

deriving a targeted list of one or more telephone numbers from the set of available telephone numbers and from the user profile information, the one or more telephone numbers in the targeted list comprising one or more available telephone numbers in the set of available telephone numbers and the targeted list further comprising one or more additional telephone numbers whose availability to be associated with a user profile in a telephone number assignment data structure is configured to be requested after the derivation of the targeted list, the one or more additional telephone numbers being different from telephone numbers in the set of available telephone numbers, at least one of the available telephone numbers and at least one of the additional telephone numbers in the targeted list each matching a piece of information from the user profile, deriving the targeted list comprising determining that the at least one of the available telephone numbers and the at least one of the additional telephone numbers matches the piece of information from the user profile, and the determining that the at least one of the available telephone numbers and the at least one of the additional telephone numbers matches the piece of information from the user profile comprising;

deriving one or more terms from information comprising representations of letters in the piece of information; and

determining that each telephone number of the at least one of the available telephone numbers and the at least one of the additional telephone numbers includes at least one matching sequence of digits that matches an order of letters in at least one of the one or more terms, with a digit of a sequence matching a letter of a term by corresponding to a letter on a standard telephone keypad that is the same as the letter;

sending the targeted list of telephone numbers to a rendering computing environment; and

instructing the rendering computing environment to display the targeted list of telephone numbers.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the targeted list is configured to respond to selection of an available telephone number of the available telephone numbers by initiating a process to associate the selected available telephone number with a user profile in the telephone number assignment data structure, and wherein the targeted list is configured to respond to selection of an additional telephone number in the targeted list by initiating a process to request availability of the selected additional telephone number to be associated with a user profile in the telephone number assignment data structure.

15. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory comprising instructions stored thereon that when executed by at least one processor cause at least one processor to perform acts comprising;

deriving a targeted list of one or more telephone numbers from a set of available telephone numbers and from user profile information from a source user profile, the source user profile being stored separately from the set of available telephone numbers, the targeted list comprising one or more available telephone numbers from the set of available telephone numbers that match at least a portion of the user profile information, the targeted list further comprising one or more additional telephone numbers whose availability to be associated with a user profile in a telephone number assignment data structure is configured to be requested after the deriving of the targeted list, the one or more additional telephone numbers being different from the set of available telephone numbers, deriving the targeted list comprising determining that the one or more available telephone numbers and the one or more additional telephone numbers match the user profile information, and the determining that the one or more available telephone numbers and the one or more additional telephone numbers match the user profile information comprising deriving one or more terms from information comprising representations of letters in the user profile information and determining that one or more matching telephone numbers in the targeted list each includes at least one matching sequence of digits that matches an order of letters in at least one of the one or more terms, with a digit of a sequence matching a letter of a term by corresponding to a letter on a standard telephone keypad that is the same as the letter of the term; and

receiving user input selecting a telephone number from the targeted list.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein at least one telephone number in the targeted list is derived from a piece of information from the user profile information, the piece of information being selected from a group consisting of a first name, a last name, a birth date, a nickname, a hometown, an occupation, a hobby, an interest, and combinations thereof.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the acts further comprise sending the targeted list of telephone numbers to a rendering computing environment.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the acts further comprise instructing the rendering computing environment to display the targeted list of telephone numbers.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the source user profile is a social network profile.