Computational systems and methods for identifying a communications partner

• US 10,523,618 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Davis, Marc E., Dyor, Matthew G., Gates, William, Huang, Xuedong, Hyde, Roderick A., Jung, Edward K. Y., Kare, Jordin T., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Lu, Qi, Malamud, Mark A., Myhrvold, Nathan P., Nadella, Satya, Reed, Daniel, Shum, Harry, Tegreene, Clarence T., Wood, Jr., Lowell L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhang, Shirley X
• Application Number:
  US13/374,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060866A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,937 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one email communication from at least one member of a network; disambiguating the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and presenting the sender profile in association with the at least one email communication.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network;

circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network;

circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term, including at least associating the at least one search term with one or more member profiles relating to one or more members of the electronic network;

circuitry configured for ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data, including at least;

circuitry configured for elevating at least one search result of at least one member profile at least partly based on the at least one location, the at least one location derived from at least some international mobile subscriber identity (“

IMSI”

) data of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data and indicating that the at least one user is present at the at least one location; and

circuitry configured for presenting, for display to the at least one user, one or more attributes of the one or more members of the electronic network at least partly based on the circuitry configured for ranking the one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on the at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the at least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term, the at least one location of the at least one device transmitting the at least one search term derived from at least one hardware-based position sensor of the at least one device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data comprises:

circuitry configured for ranking the one or more search results in association with at least some geo-locator data indicative of at least one location of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term as the at least one location obtained via the electronic network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, including at least accepting at least one device-identifier corresponding to at least one device transmitting the at least one search term via the electronic network, the device-identifier usable to obtain at least one location related to the device transmitting the at least one search term via the electronic network.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data comprises:

circuitry configured for ranking the one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one telephone number as the device-identifier data or at least one email address as the network-participation identifier data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the at least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for obtaining one or more geographic coordinates indicative of at least one location of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term via the electronic network, the one or more geographic coordinates derived from at least one triangulation of one or more signal strengths associated with one or more transmissions from the at least one device to one or more cellular towers operated by a telecommunications carrier.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for presenting, for display to the at least one user, one or more attributes of the one or more members of the electronic network at least partly based on the circuitry configured for ranking the one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on the at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term comprises:

circuitry configured for transmitting at least one indication of the one or more attributes of the one or more members of the electronic network, the at least one indication usable to display to the at least one user one or more search results responsive to the at least one search term.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for determining whether the at least one user has granted access to location data associated with the at least one user; and

circuitry configured for obtaining, at least partly based on one or more of the at least one telephone number or at least one email address associated with the at least one user, the at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for determining whether the at least one user has granted the access to the location data associated with the at least one user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein circuitry configured for determining whether the at least one user has granted access to location data associated with the at least one user comprises:

circuitry configured for determining that the at least one user has affirmatively opted-in to sharing the location data associated with the at least one user for use in providing one or more search results ranked at least partly based on the location data associated with the at least one user.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein circuitry configured for determining whether the at least one user has granted access to location data associated with the at least one user comprises:

circuitry configured for determining that the at least one user has not opted-out of sharing the location data associated with the at least one user for use in providing one or more search results ranked at least partly based on the location data associated with the at least one user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data comprises:

circuitry configured for ranking one or more search results by degree of direct connection to the at least one user, in association with the at least one location, and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the circuitry configured for disambiguating the at least one search term.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for elevating at least one search result of at least one member profile at least partly based on the at least one location, the at least one location derived from at least some international mobile subscriber identity (“

IMSI”

) data of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data and indicating that the at least one user is present at the at least one location comprises;

circuitry configured for elevating at least one search result of at least one member profile associated with at least one member associated with at least one particular country at least partly based on the at least one location, the at least one location at least partly based on at least one mobile country code (“

MCC”

) portion of at least some IMSI data unique to and stored by one or more of at least one subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data, the at least one MCC portion indicating that the at least one user also is associated with the at least one particular country.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including at least one IMSI of at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term as the primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for identifying at least one geographic region at least partly based on at least one IMSI of at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data, the at least one geographic region operable to elevate one or more search results in the ranking at least partly based on the elevated one or more search results having the same at least one geographic region as the at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for accessing, using at least one identifier of at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term, at least one billing database of at least one telecommunications carrier providing wireless service to the at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term, including at least obtaining, via the accessing, at least one billing address associated with the at least one mobile device to set the at least one location at least partly based on the at least one billing address.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for identifying at least one geographic region at least partly based on at least one telephone number area code of at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data, the at least one geographic region operable to elevate one or more search results in the ranking at least partly based on the elevated one or more search results having the same at least one geographic region as the at least one mobile device having transmitted the at least one search term.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including at least one internet protocol address of at least one device having transmitted the at least one search term as the primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the circuitry configured for accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network comprises:

circuitry configured for identifying at least one geographic region at least partly based on at least one internet protocol address of at least one device having transmitted the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data, the at least one geographic region operable to elevate one or more search results in the ranking at least partly based on the elevated one or more search results having the same at least one geographic region as the at least one device having transmitted the at least one search term.

19. A system, comprising:

a computing device; and

one or more instructions which, when executed on the computing device, configure the computing device to perform one or more operations including at least;

accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network;

obtaining least one location at least partly based on the accepting the at least one search term, the least one location obtained via the electronic network;

disambiguating the at least one search term, including at least associating the at least one search term with one or more member profiles relating to one or more members of the electronic network;

ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data, including at least;

elevating at least one search result of at least one member profile at least partly based on the at least one location, the at least one location derived from at least some international mobile subscriber identity (“

IMSI”

) data of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data and indicating that the at least one user is present at the at least one location; and

presenting, for display to the at least one user, one or more attributes of the one or more members of the electronic network at least partly based on the ranking the one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on the at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the disambiguating the at least one search term.

20. A method, comprising:

accepting at least one search term, the at least one search term received from at least one user via an electronic network, the at least one search term including primary query data corresponding to at least one member of the electronic network;

obtaining at least one location at least partly based on the accepting the at least one search term, the at least one location obtained via the electronic network;

disambiguating the at least one search term, including at least associating the at least one search term with one or more member profiles relating to one or more members of the electronic network;

ranking one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the disambiguating the at least one search term and corresponding to the primary query data, including at least;

elevating at least one search result of at least one member profile at least partly based on the at least one location, the at least one location derived from at least some international mobile subscriber identity (“

IMSI”

) data of at least one device transmitting the at least one search term accepted as the primary query data and indicating that the at least one user is present at the at least one location; and

presenting, for display to the at least one user, one or more attributes of the one or more members of the electronic network at least partly based on the ranking the one or more search results in association with the at least one location and at least partly based on the at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data corresponding to the one or more member profiles indicated by the disambiguating the at least one search term,

wherein at least one of the accepting, obtaining, disambiguating, ranking, or presenting is at least partly implemented using at least one processing device.