Method of leveraging social networking with a messaging client

• US 9,043,405 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2007
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ly, Eric, Tau, Edward, Work, James Duncan
• Primary Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US11/678,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20070250585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,011 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for leveraging social networking information with a messaging client are disclosed. In one aspect, a messaging client (e.g., email client), or an application designed to be closely integrated with an email client, analyzes a message to identify a sender, and then generates a query including information identifying the sender that is forwarded to a social networking application to be processed. The social networking application returns information about the sender (e.g., from a social networking profile), that can be viewed by a user of the messaging client, thereby providing additional information about the sender of a particular message.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying information indicating a sender of a message;

in response to sending said information to a social networking application, receiving, from the social networking application, summary information from a user profile associated with said sender of the message; and

displaying said summary information along with the message.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein identifying information indicating a sender of a message includes identifying a name or an email address of the sender of the message so as to enable the social networking application to search for a profile associated with the name or the email address of the sender.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein displaying said summary information along with the message includes displaying a graphical user interface object to indicate that said summary information is available.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein displaying said summary information along with the message includes displaying any one or more of the following:

a level of connectedness between a recipient and the sender of the message as indicated by social networking profiles of users of the social networking application, wherein the level of connectedness is measured in degrees, each degree representing a connecting person in a chain of person-to-person relationships connecting the recipient and the sender of the incoming message;

information from the social networking profile associated with said sender of the message;

a link to said social networking profile associated with said sender of the message;

reputation information related to the sender of the incoming message, said reputation information derived from the social networking application;

or

a level of relevance of the incoming message, wherein said level of relevance is determined by comparing content of the incoming message to interests specified by the recipient of the incoming message.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a rank to the message based on analysis of information from the user profile associated with said sender of the message; and

displaying said rank along with the incoming message.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

arranging or displaying the message based on the analysis of information from the user profile associated with said sender of the message.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising

assigning a rank to the message based on analysis of information from the user profile associated with said sender of the message and information from a user profile associated with the recipient of the message;

and

displaying said rank along with the incoming message.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a level of connectedness between the recipient and the sender of the message, measured in degrees, based on analysis of information from the user profile associated with said sender of the message and information from a user profile associated with the recipient of the message; and

displaying said rank along with the incoming message.