COLLECTIONS OF LINKED DATABASES

• US 20080228745A1
• Filed: 03/15/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3degrees LLC
• Original Assignee: 3degrees LLC
• Inventors: Smith, Brian N., Markus, Michael J., McGuire, Heather A., Kionga-Kamau, Peter M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,521 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

This invention is generally directed to one or more methods or systems relating to collections of linked databases. This invention is further directed to methods and systems for conducting social-network analysis. Still further, this invention is generally directed to one or more systems or methods relating to personal communication networks and the analysis of personal-communication-network data.

Claims

1. A method for searching a database and establishing a social-network path from one person to another, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a search initiator that enters a search term for conducting a search;

conducting the search for the search term with an internet or intranet search engine;

retrieving results of the search for the search term;

establishing a social-network path from the search initiator to a second person associated with an intranet or internet document listed among the retrieved search results;

displaying a full social-network path from the search initiator to the person identified in the website in combination with a link that leads directly to the document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the person is associated with the document by being identified in the document or is the author of the document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the internet or intranet document is an internet website outside of any database stored on the social network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying members of the initiator'"'"'s personal communication network;

wherein the search is limited to searching internet or intranet documents that are related to the members of the initiator'"'"'s personal communication network.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of filtering the search results to filter out results that do not identify a member of the social network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the search encompasses all documents available for searching by the search engine.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of searching a social-network map for a node that represents the person associated with the document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the social-network map is a product of an invitation-and-acceptance process.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting the link directly to the document from the retrieved search results and viewing the entire document.

10. A method for searching a database and establishing a social-network path from one person to another, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a search initiator to enter a search term for conducting a search;

providing a search term;

providing an anchor database from the social network;

conducting a search for the search term;

retrieving search results;

filtering the search results using the anchor database, whereby filtered search results are obtained that include an electronic document related to both the anchor database and the search term;

displaying the filtered search results by showing a full social-network path from the search initiator to the person identified in the website in combination with a link that leads directly to the document.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic document is related to the anchor database by being linked to the anchor database or linked to members of a personal communication network of the anchor database, or, alternatively through a similarity correlation.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of filtering the search results comprises filtering out the retrieved search results that do not contain the anchor database or information relating to the anchor database.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the information relating to the anchor database includes first degree contacts of the anchor database;

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of displaying a link that leads directly to the document in combination with the full social-network path from the search initiator to the person identified in the website.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the anchor database is a member of the social network.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of selecting a website, and filtering the search results to return results that are associated with the website and other electronic documents or websites linked to the website.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the search is initiated from an electronic window that displays a social-network-node profile, wherein the search uses a search term that has at least a portion of the name of the person represented by the social-network node.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the internet or intranet document is an internet website outside of any database stored on the social network.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the filtered search results are displayed by using a first portion of a visual display screen that shows the results of a social-network-map data search;

and using a second portion of the visual display screen that shows the results of a website search.

20. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of making a record that the search term and the anchor database were used in combination to perform the search.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of using the record to qualify a database that is part of the social network,

wherein the qualified database is qualified as an opinion leader, as a database that is most likely to have information on a topic relative to other databases in a collection of linked databases, or as a database that is more likely than not to have information on a topic relative to other databases in a collection of linked databases.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein the social-network map is a product of an invitation-and-acceptance process.