Location-based social software for mobile devices

• US 9,319,832 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Crowley, Dennis P., Rainert, Alexander M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, John J
• Application Number:
  US13/784,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20130196690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,142 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/414.2, 455/456.1, 455/457, 455/414.1, 455/266, 455/414.3, 455/415, 455/412.2, 455/435.1, 455/463, 455/456.2, 455/466
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/205 Broadcasting broadcasting in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2094 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 between corresponding nodes

Abstract

A method for communicating location information to a device includes receiving, at a computer system that implements a social networking service, location information that represents a geographic location of a device associated with a first user; associating, by the computer system, the received location information with a profile associated with the first user; and sending, from the computer system to a device associated with a second user, a message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

Claims

1. A method for communicating location information to a device, comprising:

receiving, at a computer system that implements a social networking service, location information that represents a geographic location of a device associated with a first user;

associating, by the computer system, the received location information with a profile associated with the first user;

determining that a second user is included in a group of users of the social networking service that are selected to create a relationship, before the location information has been received, and, in response, sending the message to the device associated with the second user, wherein the relationship is created by the first user, another user of the group of users, or both; and

sending, from the computer system to a device associated with the second user, a message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device associated with the first user is a GPS-enabled mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received location information comprises a GPS coordinate.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the first user is in proximity to the second user, based on the location information of the first user and location information of the second user, and wherein sending the message is in response to determining that the first and second users are in proximity to each other.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving status information provided by the first user and associating the received status information with the profile associated with the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the received location information to determine a street address of the device associated with the first user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information includes an electronic image of the first user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated message includes a user name of the first user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the computer system, a message from a device, identifying the message as including a non-alphanumeric control character in the message and performing an operation identified by the non-alphanumeric control character using alpha-numeric text in the message as an operand.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the received location information with the profile associated with the first user comprises matching a user identifier received with the location information to a user identifier for the profile.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining the user identifier received with the location information by splitting a “

from”

field around an “

at”

sign, into a user identifier and a messaging source.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the location information was received from a mobile messaging source.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, to the device associated with the first user, a confirmation message that confirms that a message sent with the location information has been broadcast to the second user.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, before sending the message to the second user, confirming that the second user is currently active with response to the computer system that implements the social networking service.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, to other users in the group of users and based on a determination that the other users are in the group of users, the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a response from one of the other users in the group of users, and forwarding the response to the device associated with the first user.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising forwarding, to the device associated with the first user, identifying information for the one of the other users.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the first user and via a web site associated with the server system, identifications of users, and adding the identified users as registered acquaintances of the first user.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the identified users are added as registered acquaintances of the first user only if the identified users agree to be added as registered acquaintances of the first user.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, from the computer system and to the second user with the message, a digital image provided by the first user.

36. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a textual message from the device associated with the first user, and sending the textual message to the device associated with the second user.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the textual message is received as part of an SMS-format text message, and the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information is sent in a format for a non-text-messaging computer application for one or more registered friends of the first user.

21. A method for communicating location information to a device comprising

receiving, at a computer system that implements a social networking service, location information that represents a geographic location of a device associated with a first user;

associating, by the computer system, the received location information with a profile associated with the first user;

determining a location name that corresponds to the received location information from astored association between the location name and stored location information that corresponds to the received location information, and including the location name in the message to a second user and

sending, from the computer system to a device associated with the second user, a message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the location name comprises a venue name that corresponds to the received location information.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving a textual message from the device associated with the first user, and sending the textual message to the device associated with the second user.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the textual message is received as part of an SMS-format text message, and the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information is sent in a format for a non-text-messaging computer application for one or more registered friends of the first user.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising sending, to the device associated with the first user, a confirmation message that confirms that a message sent with the location information has been sent to the second user.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising sending, to other users in the group of users and based on a determination that the other users are in the group of users, the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising receiving a response from one of the other users in the group of users, and forwarding the response to the device associated with the first user.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving, from the first user and via a web site associated with the server system, identifications of users, and adding the identified users as registered acquaintances of the first user.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising sending, from the computer system and to the second user with the message, a digital image provided by the first user.

30. One or more tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media having recorded thereon instructions, that when executed by one or more computer processors, perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a computer system that implements a social networking service, location information that represents a geographic location of a device associated with a first user;

associating, by the computer system, the received location information with a profile associated with the first user;

determining that a second user is included in a group of users of the social networking service that are selected to create a relationship, before the location information has been received, and, in response, sending the message to the device associated with the second user, wherein the relationship is created by the first user, another user of the group of users, or both; and

sending, from the computer system to a device associated with a second user, a message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

31. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the device associated with the first user is a GPS-enabled mobile device.

32. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise determining a location name that corresponds to the received location information, from a stored association between the location name and stored location information that corresponds to the received location information, and including the location name in the message to the second user.

33. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 32, wherein the location name comprises a venue name that corresponds to the received location information.

34. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the second user is included in a group of users of the social networking service selected by the first user, and, in response, sending the message to the device associated with the second user.

35. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise receiving, at the computer system, a message from a device, identifying the message as including a non-alphanumeric control character in the message and performing an operation identified by the non-alphanumeric control character using alpha-numeric text in the message as an operand.

38. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a textual message from the device associated with the first user, and sending the textual message to the device associated with the second user.

39. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 38, wherein the textual message is received as part of an SMS-format text message, and the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information is sent in a format for a non-text-messaging computer application for one or more registered friends of the first user.

40. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein associating the received location information with the profile associated with the first user comprises matching a user identifier received with the location information to a user identifier for the profile.

41. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 40, further comprising determining the user identifier received with the location information by splitting a “

from”

field around an “

at”

sign, into a user identifier and a messaging source.

42. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the location information was received from a mobile messaging source.

43. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise sending, to the device associated with the first user, a confirmation message that confirms that a message sent with the location information has been broadcast to the second user.

44. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 43, wherein the operations further comprise, before sending the message to the second user, confirming that the second user is currently active with response to the computer system that implements the social networking service.

45. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise sending, to other users in the group of users and based on a determination that the other users are in the group of users, the message that is generated based at least in part on the location information.

46. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 45, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a response from one of the other users in the group of users, and forwarding the response to the device associated with the first user.

47. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 46, wherein the operations further comprise forwarding, to the device associated with the first user, identifying information for the one of the other users.

48. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise receiving, from the first user and via a web site associated with the server system, identifications of users, and adding the identified users as registered acquaintances of the first user.

49. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 48, wherein the identified users are added as registered acquaintances of the first user only if the identified users agree to be added as registered acquaintances of the first user.

50. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise sending, from the computer system and to the second user with the message, a digital image provided by the first user.