Associating received contact information with user profiles stored by a social networking system

• US 9,535,944 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2016
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hudack, Michael Nicholas, Turitzin, Christopher, Baker, Edward, Xu, Hao
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOULIHAN, STEPHEN J
• Application Number:
  US15/135,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20160239535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 257 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4594 Address books, i.e. directories containing contact information about correspondents telephone directories in user terminals H04M1/27453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A social networking system receives contact information from a social networking system user. The received contact information is stored and associated with a user profile in the social networking system including information matching at least a portion of the stored content information. This increases the information associated with the user profile. Subsequently received content information is compared to user profiles and stored contact information associated with one or more user profiles. User profiles including information matching at least a portion of the subsequently received content information or associated with stored contact information matching at least a portion of the subsequently received content information are identified as potential connections for the user providing the subsequently received contact information.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive, at a social networking system, contact information for a plurality of contacts from a first user of the social networking system;

store, by the social networking system, the contact information for the plurality of contacts in user profile information associated with the first user;

retrieve stored user profile information associated with one or more other users of the social networking system, wherein the one or more other users do not include the first user;

receive, at the social networking system, from the first user additional contact information for a particular user of the social networking system, wherein the one or more others users includes the particular user;

determine, by a processor, which of the one or more other users of the social networking system are not connected to the first user in the social networking system based on the retrieved user profile information;

compare the received additional contact information for the particular user with the retrieved user profile information associated with those of the one or more other users of the social networking system not connected to the first user;

responsive to a match between at least a portion of the retrieved user profile information associated with a matching user of the one or more other users not connected to the first user and the received additional contact information for the particular user, select the matching user of the social networking system for recommendation; and

recommend to the first user a connection be made between the first user and the matching user in the social networking system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein contact information is selected from a group consisting of:

an email address, a phone number, a screen name, and any combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

invite the selected user to establish an account with the social networking system if no user profile or stored contact entry includes information matching at least a portion of the contact information included in the additional contact entry.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

determine whether the received contact information matches at least a portion of the stored user profile information associated with a particular user of the one or more other users; and

responsive to the received contact information matching a portion of the stored user profile information associated with the particular user, add a remaining portion of the received contact information to the stored user profile information of the particular user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein contact information is selected from a group consisting of:

an email address, a phone number, a screen name, and any combination thereof.

6. A system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive, at a social networking system, contact information for a plurality of contacts from a first user of the social networking system;

store, by the social networking system, the contact information for the plurality of contacts in user profile information associated with the first user;

retrieve stored user profile information associated with one or more other users of the social networking system, wherein the one or more other users do not include the first user;

responsive to a match between at least a portion of the retrieved user profile information associated with a particular user of the determined one or more other users not connected to the first user and the received additional contact information, associate the additional contact information with a user profile for the particular user;

receive, at the social networking system, additional contact information from an additional user of the social networking system, the additional user different from the first user;

compare the received additional contact information with information in the user profiles associated with other users and with information in contact entries associated with one or more of the retrieved user profiles;

responsive to a match between at least a portion of the retrieved user profile information and the received additional contact information, select a user associated with the contact information matching at least a portion of the additional contact information; and

recommend to the additional user a connection between the additional user and the selected user in the social networking system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein contact information is selected from a group consisting of:

an email address, a phone number, a screen name, and any combination thereof.