System And Method For Facilitating Network Connectivity Based On User Characteristics

• US 20080097822A1
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ShareThis, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ShareThis, Inc.
• Inventors: Goldberg, David, Schigel, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,408 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.33
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A computer system for facilitating user connectivity in a computer network includes an attention manager, an identity manager, and an introduction manager. The attention manager generates data indicative of the current interests of the user. The identity manager manages data indicative of the interests of the user. The introduction manager provides a proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendation for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user, and may also provide bilaterally secure introductions with other users.

Claims

1. A computer system for facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

an attention manager configured to monitor actions exhibited by a user in the computer network and to generate attention data that is indicative of current user attention, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user;

an identity manager configured to generate and evaluate user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data and generate user profile data for the user based on the user preference data and the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests, and further configured to adaptively update the user preference data in response to changes in user interests; and

an introduction manager configured to receive the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users and evaluate the user profile data of the user and the user profile data related to other users and provide a bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users based on the evaluation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the attention data comprises mask data configured to mask select portions of the user preference data, the select portions based on the current user attention.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mask data comprises weighted data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the attention manager comprises:

a recent history monitor configured to monitor user actions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion, the user actions including click interactions and uniform resource locator (URL) interactions; and

a natural language monitor configured to monitor natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion;

wherein the attention manager generates the attention data based on the click interactions, URL interactions, and the natural language data input.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is a predefined time period.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is an interaction session.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the identity manager comprises:

a user profiler configured to receive the user preference data indicative of user interests and further configured to receive adaptive definition data defining adaptive preferences and source definition data defining adaptive preference sources; and

a preference adapter configured to modify the user preference data of the adaptive preferences based on a monitoring of the adaptive preference sources to adaptively update the user preference data in response to changes in user interests.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user profiler is further configured to receive public definition data defining public user profile data, and wherein the public user profile data are accessible by third parties.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users received by the introduction manager comprises public user profile data.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein adaptive preference sources comprise data stored on a client computer associated with the user.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the introduction manager comprises:

a match engine configured to receive user profile data defined as public user profile data and to evaluate the public user profile data of the user and the public user profile data related to other users; and

a bilateral introduction manager configured to provide the bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the bilaterally secure introduction comprises a bilaterally secure product offer.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profile data comprises a consumer chromosome data structure, and wherein the introduction manager utilizes a genetic algorithm to evaluate the user profile data of the user and the user profile data related to other users and provide a bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data is further indicative of user behavior.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user behavior comprises a behavior based on click interactions.

16. A computer implemented method of facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network;

generating attention data based on the monitored actions, the attention data indicative of current user attention;

evaluating user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data;

generating user profile data for the user based on the user preference data and the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests;

adaptively updating the user preference data in response to changes in user interests;

evaluating the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users; and

providing a bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users based on the evaluation of the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating attention data based on the monitored behavior that is indicative of current user attention comprises generating mask data configured to mask select portions of the user preference data, the select portions based on the current user attention.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the mask data comprises weighted data.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network comprises:

monitoring user interactions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion; and

monitoring natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein monitoring user interactions comprising monitoring click interactions and uniform resource locator (URL) interactions.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is a predefined time period.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein adaptively updating the user preference data in response to changes in user interests comprises:

defining adaptive preferences;

defining adaptive preference sources; and

modifying the user preference data of the adaptive preferences based on a monitoring of the adaptive preference sources.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

defining public user profile data accessible by third parties;

wherein evaluating the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users comprises evaluating the public user profile data of the user and the public user profile data related to other users.

24. A computer system for facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

means for monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network;

means for generating attention data based on the monitored actions, the attention data indicative of current user attention;

means for evaluating user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data;

means for generating user profile data for the user based on the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests;

means for adaptively updating the user preference data in response to changes in user interests;

means for evaluating the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users; and

means for providing a bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users based on the evaluation of the user profile data of the user and user profile data related to other users.

25. A computer system for facilitating the providing of content to one or more users in a computer network, comprising:

an identity manager configured to monitor actions indicative of user interests exhibited by a plurality of users in the computer network and to generate corresponding user profiles for the plurality of users based on the evaluation of the monitored actions, the user profiles indicative of user interests for the plurality of users, and further configured to evaluate the user profiles to identify highly correlated interests among the plurality of users; and

an introduction manager configured to receive a user profile of a user and evaluate the user profile against the identified highly correlated interests among the plurality of users and generate a proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendation for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user based on the evaluation.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a content server configured to receive the proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendation and provide the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user in response to the contact, content, or commerce data recommendation.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

an attention manager configured to monitor actions exhibited by a user in the computer network and to generate attention data that is indicative of current user attention, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user;

wherein the identity manager is further configured to modify the corresponding user profile of the user based on the attention data.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the attention data comprises mask data configured to mask select portions of the corresponding user profile of the user, the select portions based on the current user attention.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the attention manager comprises:

a recent history monitor configured to monitor user interactions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion, the user interactions including click interactions and uniform resource locator (URL) interactions; and

a natural language monitor configured to monitor natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion;

wherein the attention manager generates the attention data based on the click interactions, URL interactions, and the natural language data input.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is an interaction session.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the identity manager comprises:

a user profiler configured to receive user preference data indicative of user interests and further configured to receive adaptive definition data defining adaptive preferences and source definition data defining adaptive preference sources and generate a corresponding user profile based on the user preference data and the adaptive preference sources; and

a preference adapter configured to modify the user preference data of the adaptive preferences based on a monitoring of the adaptive preference sources to adaptively update the user preference data in response to changes in user interests.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the user profiler is further configured to receive public definition data defining public user profile data, and wherein the user profile received by the introduction manager comprises the public user profile data.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the user profiles comprise consumer chromosome data structures, and wherein the introduction manager utilizes a genetic algorithm to identify highly correlated interests among the plurality of users.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein adaptive preference sources comprise data stored on a client computer associated with the user.

35. The system of claim 25, wherein the proactive content data comprises a web page proactively generated based on the profile data.

36. The system of claim 25, wherein the proactive commerce data comprises a product Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

37. The system of claim 25, wherein the profile data is further indicative of user behavior.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the user behavior comprises a behavior based on click interactions.

39. A computer-implemented method for facilitating the providing of contact, content, or commerce data to one or more users in a computer network, comprising:

monitoring actions indicative of user interests exhibited by a plurality of users in the computer network;

generating corresponding user profiles for the plurality of users based on the monitored actions;

evaluating the user profiles to identify highly correlated interests among the plurality of users;

evaluating the user profile of a user against the identified highly correlated interests among the plurality of users; and

generating a proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendation for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user based on the evaluation.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

providing the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user in response to the contact, content, or commerce data recommendation.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

monitoring actions exhibited by the user in the computer network;

generating attention data that is indicative of current user attention of the user, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user; and

modifying the corresponding user profile of the user based on the attention data.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the attention data comprises mask data configured to mask select portions of the corresponding user profile of the user, the select portions based on the current user attention.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network comprises:

monitoring user interactions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion; and

monitoring natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is an interaction session.

45. The method of claim 39, further comprising adaptively updating the user profiles in response to changes in users'"'"' interests.

46. The method of claim 39, wherein generating corresponding user profiles for the plurality of users based on the evaluation of the monitored interests comprises generating a plurality of consumer chromosomes.

47. A computer-implemented system for facilitating the providing of contact, content, or commerce data to one or more users in a computer network, comprising:

means for monitoring actions indicative of user interests exhibited by a plurality of users in the computer network;

means for generating corresponding user profiles for the plurality of users based on the evaluation of the monitored actions;

means for evaluating the user profiles to identify highly correlated interests among the plurality of users;

means for evaluating the user profile of a user against the identified highly correlated interests among the plurality of users; and

means for generating a proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendation for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user based on the evaluation.

48. A computer system for facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

an attention manager configured to monitor actions exhibited by a user in the computer network and to generate attention data that is indicative of current user attention, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user;

an identity manager configured to evaluate user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data and generate user profile data for the user based on the user preference data and the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests, and further configured to adaptively update the user preference data in response to changes in user interests; and

;

a plurality of interest space managers, each interest space manager configured to receive the user profile data for a plurality of users and access interest subsets of the user profile data, the access to the interest subsets for each interest space manager based on a predefined interest associated with the interest space manager.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the predefined interests comprise one of a business interest, consumer interest, or personal interest.

50. The system of claim 48, wherein each interest space manager comprises an interest mask that defines the subset of the user profile data accessible by the interest space manager.

51. The system of claim 48, wherein each interest space manager comprises a content server.

52. The system of claim 48, wherein the interest space manager is further configured to evaluate the accessed interest subsets of the user profile data to identify potential common interests between two or more users.

53. The system of claim 48, wherein each interest space manager comprises an introduction manager configured to receive the interest subset of the user profile data for a user and evaluate the interest subset against highly correlated interests indicia for a plurality of other users and provide a bilaterally secure introduction with one or more other users based on the evaluation.

54. The system of claim 48, wherein each interest space manager comprises an introduction manager configured to receive the interest subset of the user profile data for a user and evaluate the interest subset against highly correlated interests indicia for a plurality of other users and generate proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendations for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user based on the evaluation.

55. The system of claim 48, wherein the attention data comprises mask data configured to mask select portions of the user preference data, the select portions based on the current user attention.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein the mask data comprises weighted data.

57. The system of claim 48, wherein the attention manager comprises:

a recent history monitor configured to monitor user interactions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion, the user interactions including click interactions and uniform resource locator (URL) interactions; and

a natural language monitor configured to monitor natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion;

wherein the attention manager generates the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user based on the click interactions, URL interactions, and the natural language data input.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the predefined measurement criterion is a predefined time period.

59. The system of claim 48, wherein the identity manager comprises:

a user profiler configured to receive the user preference data indicative of user interests and further configured to receive adaptive definition data defining adaptive preferences and source definition data defining adaptive preference sources; and

a preference adapter configured to modify the user preference data of the adaptive preferences based on a monitoring of the adaptive preference sources to adaptively update the user preference data in response to changes in user interests.

60. A computer-implemented method of facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network;

generating attention data that is indicative of current user attention, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user;

evaluating user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data;

generating user profile data indicative of user interests of the user based on the user preference data and the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests;

adaptively updating the user preference data in response to changes in user interests;

defining a plurality of interest spaces;

associating a corresponding predefined interest with each interest space; and

associating interest subsets of the user profile data with each corresponding interest space based on the corresponding predefined interests.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the predefined interests comprise one of a business interest, consumer interest, or personal interest.

62. The method of claim 60, further comprising limiting access of each interest space to the corresponding interest subset of the user profile data.

63. The method of claim 60, further comprising evaluating the interest subsets of the user profile data to identify potential common interests between two or more users.

64. The method of claim 60, further comprising:

evaluating the interest subset of user profile data against highly correlated interests indicia for a plurality of other users; and

providing a bilaterally secure introduction between two or more other users based on the evaluation.

65. The method of claim 60, further comprising:

evaluating the interest subset of user profile data against highly correlated interests indicia for a plurality of other users; and

generating proactive contact, content, or commerce data recommendations for the dynamic introduction of contact, content, or commerce data to the user based on the evaluation.

66. The method of claim 60, wherein monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network comprises:

monitoring user interactions in the computer network over a predefined measurement criterion; and

monitoring natural language data input by the user over the predefined measurement criterion.

67. The method of claim 65, wherein the measurement criterion is a browser interaction session.

68. A system for facilitating user connectivity in a computer network, comprising:

means for monitoring actions exhibited by a user in the computer network;

means for generating attention data that is indicative of current user attention, the attention data based on the monitored actions exhibited by the user;

means for evaluating user preference data indicative of user interests and the attention data;

means for generating user profile data indicative of user interests of the user based on user preference data and the attention data, the user profile data indicative of user interests;

means for adaptively updating the user preference data in response to changes in user interests;

means for defining a plurality of interest spaces;

means for associating a corresponding predefined interest with each interest space; and

means for associating interest subsets of the user profile data with each corresponding interest space based on the corresponding predefined interests.