Tools for micro-communities

• US 9,137,194 B1
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wren, Christopher, Aharony, Nadav
• Primary Examiner(s): Nawaz, Asad
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALI, SYED
• Application Number:
  US14/220,086
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A system and method for associating users with a micro-community that is relevant to an object reference. The object reference is anything that can be perceived either physically or conceptually, such as a location, a document, a calendar entry, a document, a news feed, a biometric key, an image, a news feed, etc. A micro-community engine identifies users who are associated explicitly with the object reference as well as people who would be interested in the object implicitly and associates them with a micro-community. The micro-community engine provides an intuitive and flexible means for communication between members of the micro-community.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, with one or more computing devices, an object reference based on input from a first user device, wherein the first user device is different from the one or more computing devices;

generating, with the one or more computing devices, a list of account references that are relevant to the object reference, wherein generating the list of account references that are relevant to the object references includes identifying users who are associated explicitly with the object reference as well as users who are implicitly interested in the object reference, and wherein at least one of the account references being associated with a second user and at least one of the users that are explicitly associated with the object reference and the users that would find the object reference interesting, wherein generating the account references of the users that would find the object reference interesting is based at least in part on at least one of a preference of the users, activities on a social network, an interaction of the users with a webpage and a heterogeneous data source;

generating, with one or more computing devices, a rating for each account reference in the list based on relevance to the object reference;

determining, with one or more computing devices, whether a micro-community exists, the micro-community being relevant to the object reference;

responsive to determining an absence of the micro-community, determining, with one or more computing devices, a subset of account references from the list of the account references to associate with the micro-community based on the ratings, the subset including the account reference associated with the second user; and

generating, with one or more computing devices, the micro-community for the subset of account references relevant to the object reference including the account references associated with the first and second users wherein the micro-community and account references are output to the first user device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the micro-community includes features of at least one of a group, an email, a mailing list, an activity stream thread, a chat room, an audio conference call, a video conference call, a social arena and a group supported by a third-party service.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the micro-community ends after an expiration of time or an event associated with a calendar item occurs.

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

determining, with one or more computing devices, that a third user would be interested in the micro-community based on a viewing history associated with the third user; and

inviting the third user to join the micro-community.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein responsive to the micro-community existing, further comprising:

determining, with one or more computing devices, whether one or more of the listed account references and the subset of account references are associated with the micro-community; and

transmitting, with one or more computing devices, an invitation to join the micro-community to unassociated account references.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the object reference includes a calendar reference, the method further comprising determining a topic associated with the calendar entry and identifying other users that are interested in the topic.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the object reference includes at least one from the group of a reference to a location, a reference to a calendar entry, a reference to a document, a reference to an image, a reference to a biometric key, a reference to a barcode, a reference to a newsfeed, a reference to a webpage and a reference to a person or a group.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the account references include at least one of a reference to an email account, a reference to the social network account, an identity of at least one of the users and an identity of a device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising extracting the list of the account references and the micro-community from a third-party service.

10. A system for associating users with a micro-community, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

an account reference fetcher stored on a memory coupled to the one or more processors and executable by the one or more processors, the account reference fetcher configured to receive an object reference received from a first user device and to generate a list of the account references, at least one of the account references being associated with a second user;

a ratings server stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the ratings server configured to generate a rating for each account in the list based on relevance to the object reference; and

a micro-community fetcher stored on the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the micro-community fetcher configured to receive the object reference and to determine whether the micro-community exists, the micro-community being relevant to the object reference and responsive to determining an absence of the micro-community, to determine a subset of account references from the list of the account references to associate with the micro-community based on the ratings, to generate the micro-community for the subset of account references including the first and second users, to infer that a third user would be interested in the micro-community based on a viewing history associated with the third user, and to generate the account references that are implicitly associated with the object reference wherein generating the account references that are implicitly associated with the object reference is based at least in part on at least one of a preference of the users, activities on a social network, an interaction of the users with a webpage and a heterogeneous data source; and

a notification module configured to invite the third user to join the micro-community and output the micro-community and account references to the first user device.

11. The system of claim 10, the micro-community includes features of at least one of a group, an email, a mailing list, an activity stream thread, a chat room, an audio conference call, a video conference call, a social arena and a group supported by a third-party service.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the micro-community ends after an expiration of time or an event associated with a calendar item occurs.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising a notification module configured to invite the third user to join the micro-community.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein responsive to the micro-community existing, the micro-community fetcher determines whether one or more of the listed account references and the subset of account references are associated with the micro-community, and further comprising a notification module configured to transmit an invitation to unassociated account references for joining the micro-community.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the object reference includes a calendar reference and the object type parser is further configured to determine a topic associated with the calendar entry and wherein the micro-community fetcher is further configured to identify other users that are interested in the topic.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the micro-community fetcher generates the account references that are explicitly associated with the object reference.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

receive an object reference based on input from a first user device;

automatically identify account references that are relevant to the object reference, at least one of the account references being associated with a second user;

generate a list of the account references that are relevant to the object reference, wherein generating the list of account references that are relevant to the object references includes identifying users who are associated explicitly with the object reference as well as users who are implicitly interested in the object reference, and wherein at least one of the account references being associated with a second user and at least one of the users that are explicitly associated with the object reference and the users that would find the object reference interesting, wherein generating the account references of the users that would find the object reference interesting is based at least in part on at least one of a preference of the users, activities on a social network, an interaction of the users with a webpage and a heterogeneous data source;

generate a rating for each account reference in the list based on relevance to the object reference;

determine whether the micro-community exists, the micro-community being relevant to the object reference;

responsive to determining an absence of the micro-community, determine a subset of account references from the list of the account references to associate with the micro-community based on the ratings, the subset including the account reference associated with the second user; and

generate the micro-community for the subset of account references relevant to the object reference including the account references associated with the first and second users wherein the micro-community and account references are output to the first user device.