Systems and methods to connect members of a social network for real time communication

• US 9,094,506 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Van der Linden, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Al Aubaidi, Rasha
• Application Number:
  US13/631,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20130021951A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,033 Days
• Field of Search: 379/216.01, 379/265.09, 370352-356, 370259-271
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/655 Combination of telephone service and social networking messaging within social networks H04L51/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/35 virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/44 Additional connecting arrangements for providing access to frequently-wanted subscribers, e.g. abbreviated dialling at the subscriber's set H04M1/27; automatic redialling H04M3/424
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0024 Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services arrangements which combine a telephonic equipment and a computer H04M7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/123 where the packet-switched network is an Internet Protocol Multimedia System-type network

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to provide telephonic connections to members of a social network. One embodiment includes: identifying a first member connected to a second member in a social network; determining whether profile data of the first member of the social network includes a telephonic reference of the first member; presenting a user interface element to the second member over a data communication network in response to a determination that the profile data of the first member includes the telephonic reference of the first member; and responsive to a selection of the user interface element, initiating a first telephonic connection to the first member using the telephonic reference of the first member and a second telephonic connection to the second member to provide a telephonic connection between the first member and the second member.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing, in a database of a server system, data representing a social network of a plurality of members, including a first member and a second member;

generating, by the server system, a page for presentation in a social network environment in which the first member is connected to the second member in the social network, the generating comprising;

retrieving, from the database, first member information pertaining to the first member, the first member information previously stored in association with identification information for the first member;

retrieving, from the database, second member information pertaining to the second member, the second member information previously stored in association with identification information for the second member;

processing the first member information to identify whether or not to generate code for a user interface element including a call button in the page to be presented with an end-user device associated with the second member, the identifying based at least in part on whether profile data of the first member information includes a telephonic reference of the first member; and

consequent to identification that the telephonic reference is included in the profile data of the first member information, generating the code to be included in the page, the code to display the call button with the page;

transmitting, by the server system, the user interface element including the call button in the page to the end-user device associated with the second member over a data communication network in response to the identification that the profile data of the first member includes the telephonic reference of the first member; and

receiving, by the server system, an indication of an operation of the call button responsive to a selection of the user interface element, and initiating, by a connection server of the server system, a first telephonic connection to an end-user device associated with the first member using the telephonic reference of the first member and a second telephonic connection to the end-user device associated with the second member to provide a telephonic connection between the first member and the second member.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephonic reference of the first member comprises a telephone number without an extension, a telephone number with an extension, a session initiation protocol (SIP) uniform resource identifier (URI), a user identifier of an instant messaging network, or a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) user identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing the second member information to identify whether profile data of the second member of the social network includes a telephonic reference of the second member;

wherein the code for the user interface element is generated in response to a determination that the profile data of the first member includes the telephonic reference of the first member and the profile data of the second member includes the telephonic reference of the second member; and

wherein the second telephonic connection is initiated using the telephonic reference of the second member.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user interface element includes an encrypted version of the telephonic reference of the first member and the telephonic reference of the second member.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the user interface element includes a reference to the first member and a reference to the second member;

when the user interface element is selected, the reference to the first member is used to look up the telephonic reference of the first member from the profile data of the first member in the social network and the reference to the second member is used to look up the telephonic reference of the second member from the profile data of the second member in the social network to provide the telephonic connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the user interface element corresponds to a subsequent selection, the method further comprising:

transmitting a list of members directly connected to the second member in the social network for presentation responsive to a previous selection of the user interface element, the list of members including the first member;

wherein the initiating the first telephonic connection to the first member is in response to the subsequent selection, which corresponds to a selection of the first member from the list of members.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

responsive to a selection of a third member from the list of members, initiating a third telephonic connection to an end-user device associated with the third member using a telephonic reference of the third member obtained from profile data of the third member; and

joining the third telephonic connection with the first and second telephonic connections to connect the end-user devices respectively associated with the first, second, and third members.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a list of members directly connected to the second member in the social network, the list of members including the first member; and

transmitting the list of members to the end-user device associated with the second member, the list of members including the user interface element selectable to request the telephonic connection between the end-user devices respectively associated with the first member and the second member.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first member and the second member are not charged a fee for the initiating of the first and second telephonic connections to provide the telephonic connection between the first member and the second member.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a list of members indirectly connected to the second member in the social network, the list of members including the first member; and

transmitting the list of members to the end-user device associated with the second member, the list of members including the user interface element selectable to request the telephonic connection between the end-user devices respectively associated with the first member and the second member.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the second member is charged a communication fee for the telephonic connection provided between the first member and the second member.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface element is presented in a profile page of the first member.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting to the end-user device associated with the second member a list of top friends of the second member, the list of top friends including the first member;

wherein the user interface element is provided to present the first member in the list of top friends.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the first member is currently available to have a telephonic conversation with the second member based on a callable schedule of the first member;

wherein the user interface element is presented to the second member in response to a determination that the first member is currently available.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating an appearance of the user interface element to indicate availability of the first member to have a telephonic conversation based on a callable schedule of the first member.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the selection or another selection of the user interface element, prompting the second member to specify a telephonic reference for a connection to the first member.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

exposing a user interface to the second member over a data communication connection to show progress of the telephonic connection.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

responsive to a request from an end-user device associated with a third member requesting a telephonic connection directed to the first member or the second member while the end-user devices respectively associated with the first member and the second member are connected by the telephonic connection, causing presentation of an option to join the end-user device associated with the third member into a conference between the end-user devices respectively associated with the first member and the second member;

wherein the option is presented via the user interface.

19. A non-transitory machine readable media embodying instructions, the instructions causing a server system to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing, in a database of the server system, data representing a social network of a plurality of members, including a first member and a second member;

generating, by the server system, a page for presentation in a social network environment in which the first member is connected to the second member in the social network, the generating comprising;

retrieving, from the database, first member information pertaining to the first member, the first member information previously stored in association with identification information for the first member;

retrieving, from the database, second member information pertaining to the second member, the second member information previously stored in association with identification information for the second member;

processing the first member information to identify whether or not to generate code for a user interface element including a call button in the page to be presented with an end-user device associated with the second member, based at least in part on whether profile data of the first member information includes a telephonic reference of the first member; and

consequent to identification that the telephonic reference is included in the profile data of the first member information, generating code to be included in the page, the code to display the call button with the page;

transmitting, by the server system, the user interface element including the call button in the page to the end-user device associated with the second member over a data communication network in response to the identification that the profile data of the first member includes the telephonic reference of the first member; and

receiving, by the server system, an indication of an operation of the call button responsive to a selection of the user interface element, and initiating, by a connection server of the server system, a first telephonic connection to an end-user device associated with the first member using the telephonic reference of the first member and a second telephonic connection to the end-user device associated with the second member to provide a telephonic connection between the first member and the second member.

20. A system, comprising:

a server system comprising a connection server, a database, and memory storing instructions configured to instruct the server system to perform operations including;

storing, in the database, data representing a social network of a plurality of members, including a first member and a second member;

generating, by the server system, a page for presentation in a social network environment in which the first member is connected to the second member in the social network, the generating comprising;

retrieving, from the database, first member information pertaining to the first member, the first member information previously stored in association with identification information for the first member;

retrieving, from the database, second member information pertaining to the second member, the second member information previously stored in association with identification information for the second member;

processing the first member information to identify whether or not to generate code for a user interface element including a call button in the page to be presented with an end-user device associated with the second member, based at least in part on whether profile data of the first member information includes a telephonic reference of the first member; and

consequent to identification that the telephonic reference is included in the profile data of the first member information, generating code to be included in the page, the code to display the call button with the page;

transmitting, by the server system, the user interface element including the call button in the page to the end-user device associated with the second member over a data communication network in response to the identification that the profile data of the first member includes the telephonic reference of the first member; and

receiving, by the server system, an indication of an operation of the call button responsive to a selection of the user interface element, and initiating, by a connection server of the server s stem a first telephonic connection to an end-user device associated with the first member using the telephonic reference of the first member and a second telephonic connection to the end-user device associated with the second member to provide a telephonic connection between the first member and the second member.