Searchable peer-to-peer system through instant messaging based topic indexes

• US 9,473,432 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2013
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chung, Albert A., Gadepalli, Venkata V., Osowski, Richard E. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Halim, Sahera
• Application Number:
  US14/073,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20140164361A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,077 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention, a computer receives, on a first computer, a request to locate a topic. The computer determines a second computer to query for the topic. The computer queries the second computer for the topic. The computer receives identification information of participants of an instant messaging conversation corresponding to the topic. The computer stores, on the first computer, the identification information of the participants and indexing the stored identification information by the topic.

Claims

1. A method for locating information on a topic within a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

receiving, on a first peer computer within the peer-to-peer network, a request to locate a topic;

determining a second peer computer within the peer-to-peer network to query for the topic;

querying an index of the second peer computer for the topic;

responsive to determining the topic exists in the index of the second peer computer, receiving identification information of participants of an instant messaging conversation corresponding to the topic;

determining the received identification information originated from a currently unavailable peer computer, wherein the currently unavailable peer computer previously pushed an index with the identification information to the second peer computer; and

storing, on the first peer computer, the identification information of the participants and indexing the stored identification information by the topic.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the first peer computer, a query from a third peer computer within the peer-to-peer network for a separate topic;

identifying an instant messaging conversation stored on the first peer computer that corresponds to the separate topic; and

sending identification information of participants of the instant messaging conversation that corresponds to the separate topic to the third peer computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving the request to locate the topic comprises, receiving the request from a third peer computer within the peer-to-peer network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting the transcript of the instant messaging conversation from a computer operated by one of the participants of the instant messaging conversation; and

receiving the transcript of the instant messaging conversation on the first peer computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second peer computer is a computer operated by one of the participants of the instant messaging conversation.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the second peer computer is not a computer operated by one of the participants of the instant messaging conversation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the second peer computer to query for the topic, comprises, identifying a user name in a contact list of an instant messaging program operating on the first peer computer, wherein the second peer computer corresponds to the user name.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

prior to identifying the user name in the contact list, wherein the second peer computer corresponds to the user name;

querying a computer corresponding to a different user name in the contact list to locate the topic; and

receiving a notification from the computer corresponding to the different user name that the topic has not been found.