Method for indicating the context of a call to a called party

• US 9,860,374 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2016
• Issued: 01/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Belz, Steven M., Pearson, Larry B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US15/257,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20160381216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• Field of Search: 370352, 370254, 379 9317, 37914204, 37926509, 37937301, 379 882, 379 9307, 37920702, 37921102, 37921801, 455551, 4554351, 455519, 4555501, 4555521, 705 1419, 705 1454, 709204, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/56 Arrangements for indicating or recording the called number at the calling subscriber's set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/576 associated with a pictorial or graphical representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

In embodiments of the disclosed technology, a plurality of ratings of websites is received, wherein each rating is associated with a category and a rater and each rater is associated with at least one group. A selection of a category is received from the user, wherein the user is associated with at least one group. One website location (or a plurality of website locations) is provided in the category to the user based on at least one rating of the plurality of ratings provided by at least one of the raters, wherein at least one group associated with the rater and at least one the group associated with the user are the same group.

Claims

1. A server device, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that when executed by the processing, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

sending a request for user profile information to a social network server;

identifying contact information for a called party from a plurality of group messages;

initiating a telecommunication session between a calling party and the called party according to the contact information;

receiving, from the social network server, user profile information associated with the calling party and the called party of the telecommunication session according to identification information associated with the calling party and the called party;

determining group membership information from the user profile information;

providing the group membership information as a message to a called party'"'"'s user device, wherein the message comprises an instant message that is received by the called party'"'"'s user device before the telecommunication session is connected; and

transmitting a profile picture to the called party'"'"'s user device, wherein the user profile information further comprises the profile picture.

2. The server device of claim 1, wherein the telecommunication session is a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication session.

3. The server device of claim 1, wherein the request is sent responsive to initiation of the telecommunication session by a calling party'"'"'s user device, wherein the initiation comprises a selection, at a calling party'"'"'s communication device, of the called party from a contact list.

4. The server device of claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises phone numbers without names of the calling party and the called party.

5. The server device of claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises names of the calling party and the called party.

6. The server device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a location of a calling party'"'"'s user device; and

providing the location of the calling party'"'"'s user device in the message.

7. The server device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise

adjusting the identification information associated based on a location of a calling party'"'"'s user device to generate adjusted identification information;

and

providing a query to the social network server based on the adjusted identification information.

8. The server device of claim 7, wherein the adjusted identification information comprises a phone number without names of the calling party and the called party.

9. The server device of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating multiple versions of the identification information; and

sending multiple queries to the social network server based on multiple versions of the identification information.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processing system including a processor, a request for user profile information from a network server;

identifying contact information for a called party from a plurality of group messages;

initiating a telecommunication session between a calling party and the called party according to the contact information;

accessing, by the processing system, the user profile information associated with the calling party and the called party of the telecommunication session based on identification information;

identifying, by the processing system, a common membership group for the called party and calling party based on the user profile information;

transmitting, by the processing system, an identifier for the common membership group to the network server to cause the network server to provide the identifier for the common membership group to a recipient user device of the called party, wherein the identifier is sent in an instant message to the recipient user device of the called party before the telecommunication session is connected; and

sending, by the processing system, a profile picture to the recipient user device via the network server, wherein the user profile information further comprises the profile picture.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the telecommunication session is a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication session.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the request is sent responsive to initiation of the telecommunication session by a sender end device of the calling party.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the identification information comprises phone numbers without names of the calling party and the called party.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying, by the processing system, a location of a sender user device of the calling party; and

providing, by the processing system, the location of the sender user device of the calling party to recipient user device via the network server.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the accessing of the user profile information further comprises:

adjusting, by the processing system, the identification information based on a location of a sender user device of the calling party to generate adjusted identification information; and

providing, by the processing system, a query to a social network database based on the adjusted identification information.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the accessing of the user profile information comprises utilizing, by the processing system, multiple queries based on multiple versions of the identification information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a first version of the multiple versions of the identification information is generated based on a location of a sender end device of the calling party.

18. A first device, comprising:

a display;

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations comprising;

receiving group membership information via an instant message associated with a first party and a second party, wherein the group membership information is determined via user profile information at a social network server according to identification information associated with a called party and a calling party of a telecommunication session, and wherein the first

device is associated with one of the calling party, the called party, or a combination thereof, wherein contact information for the called party is identified from a plurality of group messages, and wherein the telecommunication session is initiated between the calling party and the called party according to the contact information;

obtaining a profile picture of the calling party; and

presenting the group membership information and the profile picture of the calling party at the display.

19. The first device of claim 18, wherein the telecommunication session is a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication session.

20. The first device of claim 18, wherein the identification information for the called party comprises a phone number without a name of the called party.