Reference notification method and apparatus

• US 8,892,668 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2012
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Ye, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Krisna
• Application Number:
  US13/482,116
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A method and an apparatus of reference notification comprises obtaining an instant message that is sent from a sending user. A contact is selected that satisfies a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user. For the selected contact, content is determined that is of interest to the selected contact, and content is found that is of interest and is included in the obtained instant message based on the determined content of interest. Based on the found content of interest, a reference notification message is sent to a contact corresponding to the found content of interest, for notifying the contact that the content of interest is referenced. By using the technical scheme of the present disclosure, the problems of existing technologies that a user cannot accurately and quickly determine whether an instant message references content with which he/she is concerned are solved.

Claims

1. A reference notification method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions;

obtaining an instant message sent from a sending user;

selecting a contact that satisfies a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user;

determining, for the selected contact, content of interest to the selected contact;

finding content of interest included in the obtained instant message based on the determined content of interest; and

for the found content of interest, sending, to the contact corresponding to the content of interest, a reference notification message notifying the contact that the content of interest is referenced.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting the contact that satisfies the predetermined criterion from the contacts of the sending user comprises:

determining each target receiving user who receives the instant message; and

rendering each target receiving user as the contact that satisfies the predetermined criterion.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the content of interest comprises at least one of the following content:

a user identifier of the contact;

a user identifier of a user of interest to the contact;

or

a keyword of interest to the contact.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein finding the content of interest included in the obtained instant message based on the determined content of interest comprises:

separately matching information content of the obtained instant message with each determined content of interest; and

rendering successfully matched content of interest as the content of interest included in the obtained instant message.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein prior to sending the reference notification message to the contact corresponding to the content of interest, the method further comprises:

determining whether the contact corresponding to the content of interest is a receiving user of the instant message; and

if a determination result is negative, determining that the instant message includes a predetermined character adjacent to the content of interest.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein sending the reference notification message to the contact corresponding to the content of interest comprises:

determining whether the contact corresponding to the content of interest is currently online;

if a determination result is affirmative, sending the reference notification message to the contact; and

if the determination result is negative, storing the reference notification message in an instant messaging server.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein sending the reference notification message to the contact corresponding to the content of interest comprises:

determining whether the contact corresponding to the content of interest is currently online;

if a determination result is affirmative, sending the reference notification message to the contact; and

if the determination result is negative, storing the reference notification message in an instant messaging server, and sending the reference notification message to the contact in response to detecting that a status of the contact changes from offline to online.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein sending the reference notification message to the contact in response to detecting that the status of the contact changes from offline to online comprises:

in response to detecting that the status of the contact changes from offline to online, determining each reference notification message to be sent to the contact from stored reference notification messages; and

upon combining each determined reference notification message, sending a combined reference notification message to the contact.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the reference notification message comprises content information of the instant message and/or attribute information of the instant message.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the content information of the instant message comprises an entire text or an abstract of the instant message.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the attribute information of the instant message comprises at least one of the following information:

the content of interest;

a user identifier of the sending user;

an information identifier of the instant message;

a sending time of the instant message;

or

a messaging identifier corresponding to the instant message.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein:

if the instant message is a chat instant message for an instant chat, the messaging identifier corresponding to the instant message is a chat identifier of the instant chat; and

if the instant message is a group instant message for a messaging group, the message identifier corresponding to the instant message is a group identifier of the messaging group.

13. A reference notification apparatus comprising:

one or more processors;

memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

an acquisition unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to obtain an instant message that is sent from a sending user;

a selection unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to select a contact that satisfies a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user;

a first determination unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to determine, for the contact selected by the selection unit, content that is of interest to the contact;

a searching unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to find content of interest included in the instant message obtained by the acquisition unit based on the content determined by the first determination unit; and

a sending unit stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that is configured to send, to a contact corresponding to the found content of interest, a reference notification message for notifying the contact corresponding to the found content of interest that the content of interest is referenced.

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, wherein the selection unit comprises:

a first determination sub-unit configured to determine each target receiving user who receives the instant message; and

a second determination sub-unit configured to render each target receiving user determined by the first determination sub-unit as a contact that satisfies the predetermined criterion.

15. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, wherein the searching unit comprises:

a matching sub-unit configured to separately match information content of the instant message that is obtained by the acquisition unit with the determined content of interest determined by the first determination unit; and

a determination sub-unit configured to render content of interest successfully matched by the matching sub-unit as content of interest included in the instant message obtained by the acquisition unit.

16. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

a judging unit configured to determine, for each content of interest found by the searching unit, whether a contact corresponding to the respective content of interest is a target receiving user of the instant message; and

a second determination unit configured to determine, for each content of interest found by the searching unit, if a determination result of the judging unit is negative, and to determine that the instant message includes a predetermined character that is adjacent to the respective content of interest.

17. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, wherein the sending unit comprises:

a judging sub-unit configured to determine, for the content of interest found by the searching unit, whether a contact corresponding to the content of interest is currently online;

a sending sub-unit configured to send the reference notification message to the contact if a determination result of the judging sub-unit is affirmative; and

a storage sub-unit configured to store the reference notification message in an instant messaging server if the determination result of the judging sub-unit is negative.

18. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, wherein the sending unit comprises:

a judging sub-unit configured to determine, for the content of interest found by the searching unit, whether a contact corresponding to the content of interest is currently online;

a first sending sub-unit configured to send the reference notification message to the contact if a determination result of the second judging sub-unit is affirmative;

a storage sub-unit configured to store the reference notification message in an instant messaging server if the determination result of the judging sub-unit is negative;

a detection sub-unit configured to detect a status of the contact if the determination result of the judging sub-unit is negative; and

a second sending sub-unit configured to send the reference notification message that is stored by the storage sub-unit to the contact when the detection sub-unit detects that the status of the contact changes from offline to online.

19. The apparatus as recited in claim 18, wherein the second sending sub-unit comprises:

a determination module configured to determine each reference notification message to be sent to the contact when the detection sub-unit detects that the status of the contact changes from online to offline;

a combination module configured to combine together each determined reference notification message that is determined by the determination module; and

a sending module configured to send a combined reference notification message that has been processed by the combination module to the contact.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media configured with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

obtaining an instant message sent from a sending user;

selecting one or more contacts that satisfy a predetermined criterion from contacts of the sending user;

for each of the one or more selected contacts, determining content of interest to the respective one of the one or more selected contacts;

finding content of interest included in the obtained instant message based on the determined content of interest to each of the one or more selected contacts; and

sending a reference notification message to a contact corresponding to the found content of interest, the reference notification message notifying the corresponding contact that the found content of interest is referenced.