Community notification based on profile update

• US 8,856,250 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2012
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Jayaram, Vinodh, Ryu, Janet Sun, Gaffney, Caroline, Shmukler, Elliot, Moon, Avery
• Primary Examiner(s): Osman, Ramy M
• Application Number:
  US13/486,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20130325945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/206, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 705/14.66, 705/319
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A notification machine may receive an update to a user profile that describes a user and indicates a group of users as being socially connected to the user by a social network. The update may reference a community (e.g., an employer or a club) of the user. The user profile may be modified by including a reference to the community within the user profile. The notification machine may identify a further user who is included in the community (e.g., employed by the employer, or part of the club). The further user may be socially unconnected to the user by the social network. The notification machine may then generate and provide a notification that the further user is employed by the employer. This notification may contain suggestions that the user initiate communication with the further user, become socially connected with the further user, or both.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an update to a user profile that describes a user and indicates a group of users socially connected to the user by a social network,

the update referencing a community of the user and being received from a device of the user;

modifying the user profile based on the update by including a reference to the community of the user within the user profile;

identifying a further user that is included in the community and that is socially unconnected to the user by the social network,

the identifying of the further user being performed by a processor of a machine based on the update that references the community of the user; and

generating and providing a notification that the further user is included in the community,

the generating of the notification incorporating a community profile of the community into the notification,

the notification being provided to the device of the user and including the community profile of the community.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the community is a current community of the user; and

the update includes a replacement of a previous community of the user with the current community of the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the current community of the user is a current employer of the user; and

the previous community of the user is a previous employer of the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the current community of the user is a current club of the user; and

the previous community of the user is a previous club of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the providing of the notification occurs within a threshold period of time after the receiving of the update that references the community of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the modifying of the user profile based on the update includes accessing the user profile in an unmodified state from which the reference to the community is absent and altering the user profile to a modified state in which the reference to the community is included.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the providing of the notification that the further user is included in the community includes providing a suggestion that the user initiate a communication with the further user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the providing of the notification that the further user is included in the community includes providing a suggestion that the user become socially connected with the further user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the providing of the notification that the further user is included in the community is performed using at least one of an email, a text message, a telephone call, a voicemail, or a mobile app that is executing on the device of the user.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the generating of the notification is based on a further user profile that describes the further user and that indicates a further group of users socially connected to the further user by the social network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the generating of the notification incorporates a third-party description of the community into the notification; and

the providing of the notification includes providing the third-party description.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the generating of the notification incorporates a list of available jobs in the community into the notification; and

the providing of the notification includes providing the list of available jobs.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the generating of the notification incorporates a suggestion that the user initiate a communication with the further user into the notification; and

the providing of the notification includes providing the suggestion that the user initiate the communication with the further user.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the generating of the notification incorporates a suggestion that the user become socially connected with the further user into the notification; and

the providing of the notification includes providing a suggestion that the user become socially connected with the further user.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a further notification that the user is included in the community,

the further notification being provided to a further device of the further user that is socially unconnected to the user by the social network.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the providing of the further notification that the user is included in the community includes providing a suggestion that the further user initiate a communication with the user.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the providing of the further notification that the user is included in the community includes providing a suggestion that the further user become socially connected with the user.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving an update to a user profile that describes a user and indicates a group of users socially connected to the user by a social network,

the update referencing a community of the user and being received from a device of the user;

modifying the user profile based on the update by including a reference to the community of the user within the user profile;

identifying a further user that is included in the community and that is socially unconnected to the user by the social network,

the identifying of the further user being performed by the one or more processors of the machine and based on the update that references the community of the user; and

generating and providing a notification that the further user is included in the community,

the generating of the notification incorporating a community profile of the community into the notification,

the notification being provided to the device of the user and including the community profile of the community.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein:

the providing of the notification that the further user is included in the community includes providing a suggestion that the user initiate a communication with the further user.

20. A system comprising:

a reception module configured to receive an update to a user profile that describes a user and indicates a group of users socially connected to the user by a social network,

the update referencing an employer of the user and being received from a device of the user;

an update module configured to modify the user profile based on the update by including a reference to the employer of the user within the user profile;

a processor configured by an identification module to identify a further user that is employed by the employer and that is socially unconnected to the user by the social network,

the identifying of the further user being based on the update that references the community of the user;

a generation module configured to generate a notification that the further user is employed by the employer,

the generating of the notification incorporating a community profile of the community into the notification; and

a provision module configured to provide the notification that the further user is employed by the employer,

the notification being provided to the device of the user and including the community profile of the community.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a generation module configured to generate the notification based on a further user profile that describes the further user and that indicates a further group of users socially connected to the further user by the social network.