Defining a social network model implied by communications data

• US 8,990,323 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2011
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hein, Brian, New, Jon
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Oanh
• Application Number:
  US13/272,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,259 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 709223-224, 705/319, 707/758
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Systems and methods to define a social network for a user using data implied by communications of the user with others. In one embodiment, a method includes scanning a set of messages (e.g., emails to and from a user of a client device) to identify a plurality of primary persons addressed in the messages as a primary recipient and to identify a plurality of secondary persons addressed in the messages as a secondary recipient; mapping the primary persons to a plurality of friends and mapping the secondary persons to a plurality of other persons; and defining a social network model based on the friends and other persons, wherein the model comprises a friends category including the friends and an all category including the friends and other persons.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

scanning, by a first user terminal, a set of messages to identify a plurality of primary persons addressed in the messages as a primary recipient and a plurality of secondary persons addressed in the messages as a secondary recipient;

building person profiles for each of the primary persons and each of the secondary persons;

computing scores of the primary persons to determine a relevancy of each primary person to a user of the first user terminal;

mapping, by the first user terminal, the primary persons to a plurality of friends and the secondary persons to a plurality of other persons;

defining, by the first user terminal, a first social network model based on the friends and the other persons, wherein the model comprises a friends category including the friends and an all category including the friends and the other persons;

selecting persons for the friends category of the first social network model based on the scores;

storing, by the first user terminal, the first social network model;

receiving, by the first user terminal, a request from a gadget running on a second user terminal, the second user terminal storing a second social network model that is different from the first social network model;

in response to the request from the gadget, providing access to friend data for the primary persons as defined by the first social network model, the gadget to provide services based on the friend data for a relevant context, the friend data being different for each context in which the services are provided, and the access exposing friend data for a top-ranked number of the primary persons based on the relevancy of the primary persons to the user as determined by the scores; and

sending, from the first user terminal, the friend data to the second user terminal, the friend data comprising data from the person profiles for the top-ranked primary persons.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each primary recipient is listed in a To field of an email, and each secondary recipient is listed in a Cc or Bcc field of an email.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mapping of the primary persons is performed without manual input from the user regarding each of the friends.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing the first social network model with a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for a web-based social network application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the set of APIs is implemented as an OpenSocial container.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising hosting the set of APIs on the first user terminal.

7. A user terminal, comprising:

a storage device to store a set of messages and to store a first social network model;

a network builder to scan the set of messages to identify a plurality of primary persons addressed in the messages as a primary recipient and a plurality of secondary persons addressed in the messages as a secondary recipient, to map the primary persons to a plurality of friends and the secondary persons to a plurality of other persons, to build person profiles for each of the primary persons and each of the secondary persons, and to compute scores of the primary persons to determine a relevancy of each primary person to a user of the user terminal; and

at least one processor configured to;

define the first social network model based on the friends and the other persons, the model comprising a friends category including the friends and an all category including the friends and the other persons;

select persons for the friends category of the first social network model based on the scores;

receive a request from a gadget running on a different user terminal, the different user terminal storing a second social network model that is different from the first social network model;

in response to the request from the gadget, provide access to friend data for the primary persons, the gadget to provide services based on the friend data for a relevant context, the friend data being different for each context in which the services are provided, and the access exposing friend data for a top-ranked number of the primary persons based on the relevancy of the primary persons to the user as determined by the scores; and

send the friend data to the different user terminal, the friend data comprising data from the person profiles for the top-ranked primary persons.

8. A non-transitory machine readable storage media storing a set of instructions, the instructions to cause at least one processor to:

scan, by a first user terminal, a set of messages to identify a plurality of primary persons addressed in the messages as a primary recipient and a plurality of secondary persons addressed in the messages as a secondary recipient;

build person profiles for each of the primary persons and each of the secondary persons;

compute scores of the primary persons to determine a relevancy of each primary person to a user of the first user terminal;

map, by the first user terminal, the primary persons to a plurality of friends and the secondary persons to a plurality of other persons;

define, by the first user terminal, a first social network model based on the friends and other persons, wherein the model comprises a friends category including the friends and an all category including the friends and other persons;

select persons for the friends category of the first social network model based on the scores;

store, by the first user terminal, the first social network model;

receive, by the first user terminal, a request from a gadget running on a second user terminal, the second user terminal storing a second social network model that is different from the first social network model;

in response to the request from the gadget, provide access to friend data for the primary persons, the gadget to provide services based on the friend data, the friend data being different for each context in which the services are provided, and the access exposing friend data for a top-ranked number of the primary persons based on the relevancy of the primary persons to the user as determined by the scores; and

send, from the first user terminal, the friend data to the second user terminal, the friend data comprising data from the person profiles for the top-ranked primary persons.