Methods and systems for providing current email addresses and contact information for members within a social network

• US 20060224675A1
• Filed: 03/30/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hess, Duane Scott, Fox, Kevin David
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,780 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4523 using lightweight directory access protocol [LDAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4555 Directories for electronic mail or instant messaging
• 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

Methods and systems for providing current email addresses or contact information to members within a social network are described. In one described method, an email program application requests an email address for a member within a social network. Using profile information associated with the member, the email address is provided to the email program application which sent the request. The email address is then entered into the send-to parameter field of an email message. In another described method, contact information associated with a first member of a social can be provided to a second member of the social network. The contact information is provided if the relationship between the first and second members is an authorized relationship. The contact information associated with the first member can be used to update the contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the second member.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request for an email address of a first member of a social network, the request comprising an entity identifier associated with the first member;

determining an email address for the first member using profile information associated with the first member in the social network; and

outputting the email address in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining an email address for the first member further comprises:

parsing the entity identifier from the request; and

obtaining the corresponding email address from the profile information associated with the entity identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the request is from a second member of the social network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the entity identifier is selected from the group consisting of a name, first name and last name, nickname, partial name, first initial with a last name, entity, email address, emailing group name, and a group name.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the request for the email address is in response to a triggering event.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the triggering event is selected from the group consisting of using a send button, using a function key, using function short keys, exiting from a send-to parameter field, and expiration of time.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising inserting the email address into a sending parameter of an email message.

8. A method comprising:

receiving a request for contact information associated with a first member of a social network, the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with a sender of the request;

determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information; and

outputting at least some of the contact information if the sender is authorized to receive at least some of the contact information.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the sender is a member in the social network.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information further comprises:

determining the relationship between the first member and the sender using profile information associated with the first member; and

determining if the relationship is an authorized relationship using the profile information associated with the first member.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the request to update the contact information is sent in response to a triggering event.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

comparing the sent contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the sender; and

replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with the corresponding sent contact information.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the request for contact information is a request for an email address associated with the first member.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a request for contact information associated with a first member of a social network in response to accessing a contact name in an electronic address directory, the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with a sender of the request;

determining the relationship between the first member and the sender using profile information associated with the first member;

determining if the relationship is an authorized relationship using the profile information associated with the first member; and

outputting at least some of the contact information if the sender is authorized to receive at least some of contact information.

15. A system comprising:

means for receiving a request for contact information associated with a first member of a social network, the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with a sender of the request;

means for determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information; and

means for outputting at least some of the contact information if the sender is authorized to receive at least some of the contact information.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the sender is a member in the social network.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the means for determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information further comprises:

means for determining the relationship between the first member and the sender using profile information associated with the first member; and

means for determining if the relationship is an authorized relationship using the profile information associated with the first member.

18. The system of claim 15 further comprising:

means for comparing the sent contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the sender; and

means for replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with the corresponding sent contact information.

19. A computer-readable medium on which is encoded program code comprising:

program code for receiving a request for contact information associated with a first member of a social network, the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with a sender of the request;

program code for determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information; and

program code for outputting at least some of the contact information if the sender is authorized to receive at least some of the contact information.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the sender is a member in the social network.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the program code for determining if the sender is authorized to receive the contact information further comprises:

program code for determining the relationship between the first member and the sender using profile information associated with the first member; and

program code for determining if the relationship is an authorized relationship using the profile information associated with the first member.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 further comprising:

program code for comparing the sent contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the sender; and

program code for replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with the corresponding sent contact information.