Method and system for circulating messages

• US 8,738,060 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2013
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bychkov, Eyal, Ron, Uri, Engelstein, Tal
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US13/949,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20130316747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 307 Days
• Field of Search: 455/518, 455/11.1, 455/13.1, 455/7
• US Class Current: 455/518
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2073 Multipoint, e.g. messaging, broadcast or group SMS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/724 Linked accounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

A method for circulating a message to a group of people, including sending a circulated message and a distribution list comprising identifiers for a plurality of mobile communicators, by a first mobile communicator, and sequentially receiving the circulated message and a distribution list, by a next mobile communicator, and, if the received distribution list is non-empty, then (i) selecting one of the mobile communicators identified in the distribution list, (ii) modifying the distribution list by removing the identifier of the selected mobile communicator therefrom, and (iii) sending the circulated message and the modified distribution list to the selected mobile communicator.

Claims

1. A method for circulating a message to a group of people, comprising:

being instructed to send a message to a defined destination group of multiple mobile communicators;

in response to said being instructed, sending the message and a distribution list comprising identifiers for all but a selected first one of the group of mobile communicators, to the selected first mobile communicator; and

sequentially receiving the message and a distribution list, by a next mobile communicator, and, if the received distribution list is non-empty, then (i) selecting a next one of the mobile communicators identified in the distribution list, (ii) reducing the size of the distribution list by removing the identifier of the selected next mobile communicator therefrom, and (iii) sending the message and the reduced distribution list to the selected next mobile communicator.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said selecting the next one of the mobile communicators comprises randomly selecting one of the mobile communicators identified in the distribution list.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an invitation from an originator one of the plurality of mobile communicators to other mobile communicators;

receiving responses from the other mobile communicators, the responses indicating acceptance or non-acceptance of the invitation; and

creating the distribution list, comprising identifying the mobile communicators from which responses indicating acceptance of the invitation were received.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifiers of the mobile communicators in the distribution list comprise phone numbers of the mobile communicators.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifiers of the mobile communicators in the distribution list comprise pointers to phone numbers of the mobile communicators.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating the total cost of sending the message among the destination group of mobile communicators.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the message is an SMS message, a MMS message, an e-mail message, or a voice message.

3. A communication system for circulating a message to a group of people, comprising:

a plurality of mobile communicators; and

circuitry in each of said mobile communicators, (i) for being instructed to send a message to a defined destination group of multiple mobile communicators, (ii) for sending, in response to the being instructed, the message and a distribution list comprising identifiers for all but a selected first one of the group of mobile communicators, to the selected first mobile communicator, and (iii) for successively receiving the message and a distribution list, by a next mobile communicator, and, if the received distribution list is non-empty, then (iii.a) selecting a next one of the mobile communicators identified in the distribution list, (iii.b) reducing the size of the distribution list by removing the identifier of the selected next mobile communicator therefrom, and (iii.c) sending the message and the reduced distribution list to the selected next mobile communicator.

4. The communication system of claim 3 wherein said circuitry randomly selects the next one of the mobile communicators identified in the distribution list.

8. The communication system of claim 3, wherein said circuitry in each of said mobile communicators, (i) sends an invitation from such mobile communicator to other mobile communicators, (ii) receives responses from the other mobile communicators, the responses indicating acceptance or non-acceptance of the invitation, and (iii) creates the distribution list by identifying the mobile communicators from which responses indicating acceptance of the invitation were received.

9. The communication system of claim 8 wherein the identifiers of said mobile communicators comprise phone numbers of the mobile communicators.

10. The communication system of claim 8 wherein the identifiers of said mobile communicators comprise pointers to phone numbers of the mobile communicators.

13. The communication system of claim 3, further comprising a billing manager for allocating the total cost of circulating sending the message among the destination group of mobile communicators.

14. The communication system of claim 3 wherein the message is an SMS message, a MMS message, an e-mail message, or a voice message.