Central account manager

• US 8,789,147 B1
• Filed: 10/16/2012
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Naveen, Sachs, Eric, Kong, Guibin, Duan, Mengcheng, Eaton, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sanders, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US13/653,325
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system and computer-implemented method including receiving a request from a first service provider, at a central account manager, to provide a user account for a user logging into a first service provider, identifying one or more user accounts at one or more service providers other than the first service provider associated with the user maintained at the central account manager, providing the one or more user accounts for display to the user, receiving a selection of a first user account of the one or more user accounts and providing the selected first user account to the first service provider in response to the request.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, using one or more computing devices, a request from a first service provider, at a central account manager, to provide a user account for a user logging into a first service provider;

identifying, using the one or more computing devices, one or more user accounts at one or more service providers other than the first service provider associated with the user maintained at the central account manager;

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the one or more user accounts for display to the user;

receiving, using the one or more computing devices, a selection of a first user account of the one or more user accounts; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the selected first user account to the first service provider in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user accounts associated with the user comprise one or more of user accounts previously accessed by the user, user accounts previously used by the user to access a service provider, or user accounts provided by the user to the central account manager.

3. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

retrieving the listing of user accounts maintained at the central account manager; and

selecting the one or more user accounts from the listing of user accounts based on information associated with the request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information associated with the request comprises information regarding the first service provider, information regarding the user, and information regarding similar service providers or similar users.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information regarding the first service provider comprise one or more of the user accounts supported by the first service provider or user accounts previously used in association with the first service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a new user account associated with the user; and

adding the new user account to the listing of user accounts at the central account manager.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indication is received in response to the user account being used to access a service provider.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the indication is received in response to the user account being accessed independent of a service provider.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether the new user account is an authorized user account, wherein the new user account is added when it is determined that the new user account is an authorized user account.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the listing of user accounts associated with the user includes user accounts not previously used to access the first service provider.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first service provider comprises one of a website or application that requires user authentication before providing the user with access.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the user account is used at the first service provider to authenticate the user to provide the user with access to the service provider.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the central account manager is remote and independent from the first service provider.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a request from a first service provider, at a central account manager, to provide a user account associated with a service providers other than the first service provider for a user logging into a first service provider, wherein the listing of user accounts comprises one or more of user accounts used to access one or more service providers including the first service provider, user accounts used by a user independent of service providers or user accounts manually added to the central account manager by a user;

providing the listing of user accounts for display to the user;

receiving a selection of a first user account of the one or more user accounts; and

providing the selected first user account to the first service provider in response to the request.

15. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

ranking the one or more user accounts of the listing of user accounts maintained at the central account manager based on information associated with the request, wherein the listing of user accounts provided to the user is provided according to the ranking.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the information associated with the request comprises information regarding the first service provider, information regarding the user, and information regarding similar service providers or similar users.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the information regarding the first service provider comprise one or more of the user accounts supported by the first service provider or user accounts previously used in association with the first service provider.

18. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

receiving an indication of a new user account associated with the user;

determining whether the new user account is an authorized user account; and

adding the new user account to the listing of user accounts at the central account manager when it is determined that the new user account is an authorized user account.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request from a first service provider, at a central account manager, to provide a user account for a user logging into the first service provider, wherein the listing of user accounts comprises one or more user accounts maintained at one or more other service providers;

providing at least one of the one or more user accounts of the listing of user accounts for display to the user;

receiving a selection of a first user account of the one or more user accounts; and

providing the selected first user account to the first service provider in response to the request, wherein the first service provider comprises one of a service provider or application that requires user authentication before providing the user with access and wherein the selected first user account is used at the first service provider to authenticate the user and provide the user with access to the first service provider.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, the operations further comprising:

receiving an indication of a new user account associated with the user, wherein the new user account comprises one of user accounts used to access one or more service providers including the first service provider, user accounts used independent of service providers or user accounts manually added to the central account manager;

determining whether the new user account is an authorized user account; and

adding the new user account to the listing of user accounts at the central account manager when it is determined that the new user account is an authorized user account.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, the operations further comprising selecting the at least one user account from the one or more user accounts of the listing of user accounts based on information associated with the request, wherein the information associated with the request comprises information regarding the first service provider, information regarding the user, and information regarding similar service providers or similar users.