Direct mailing in a geo-spatial environment

• US 20090019122A1
• Filed: 07/12/2007
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fatdoor Incorporated
• Inventors: Abhyanker, Raj Vasant
• Application Number:
  US11/827,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20090019122A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and system of direct mailing in a geo-spatial environment are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes generating a community network of user profiles, each user profile associated with a specific geographic location and at least one contact address, associating a first user with a first user profile, selecting a mail mode, selecting a communication, generating a first display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network, at least a portion of the user profiles represented at a location in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of the first user profile, selecting a second user profile from the portion of the user profiles, and generating a mailing of the communication, in a format associated with the mail mode, between the first user profile and the contact address associated with the second user profile.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a community network of user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles associated with a specific geographic location and at least one contact address;

associating a first user with a first user profile of the user profiles;

selecting a mail mode;

selecting a communication;

generating a first display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by the community network, at least a portion of the user profiles represented at a location in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic location of the first user profile of the user profiles;

selecting a second user profile from the at least a portion of the user profiles; and

generating a mailing of the communication, in a format associated with the mail mode, between the first user profile of the user profiles and the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on the mail mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the mail mode comprises:

selecting at least one of a physical mail mode, a facsimile mode, an email mode, and an instant message mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact address is selected from a group comprising:

a physical mailing address associated with the specific geographic location of the user profile, a facsimile number, an email address, and an instant message user identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

selecting a physical mail mode; and

generating the mailing of the communication, in a physical format associated with the physical mail mode, between the first user profile of the user profiles and the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on a physical address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

selecting a facsimile mode; and

generating the mailing of the communication, in a facsimile format associated with the facsimile mode, between the first user profile of the user profiles and the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on the facsimile number associated with the second user profile of the user profiles.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

selecting an email mode; and

generating the mailing of the communication, in an email format associated with the email mode, between the first user profile of the user profiles and the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on the email address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

selecting an instant message mode; and

generating the mailing of the communication, in an instant message format associated with the instant message mode, between the first user profile of the user profiles and the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on the instant message user identifier associated with the second user profile of the user profiles.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the location in the three-dimensional map view from a group comprising;

a street address, a city, a county, a state, and a country.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

selecting a radius associated with the location in the three-dimensional map view; and

selecting the user profiles of the at least a portion of the user profiles having specific geographic locations included in the radius.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing demographics associated with the community network;

associating at least one of the demographics with each user profile of the user profiles;

selecting at least one demographic of the demographics; and

selecting the user profiles of the at least a portion of the user profiles having specific geographic locations included in the radius and having the at least one demographic of the demographics.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the demographics include an age, an age range, a gender, an occupation, an ethnicity, a location of a residence, a location of a business, a marital status, an ownership status, a language, mobility, income, a life cycle, a socioeconomic status, and a lifestyle.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an online commerce transaction associated with the mailing of the communication.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating the online commerce transaction comprises at least one of:

generating an online transaction associated with payment of postage; and

generating an online transaction associated with payment of services related to the mailing of the communication.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling the mailing of the communication.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the scheduling the mailing of the communication comprises:

determining a number of mailings;

determining a time period; and

generating the number of mailings within the time period.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating the communication.

17. The method of claim 1 in a form of a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the method of claim 1.

18. A system, comprising:

a geo-spatial environment;

a community network module of the geo-spatial environment, to include user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles to include a specific geographic location and a contact address;

a map module of the geo-spatial environment to include map data which serves as a basis to render a three-dimensional map view in the geo-spatial environment which identifies at least some residences, businesses, and civic structures having specific geographic locations;

a mail mode module of the geo-spatial environment to determine a mail mode;

a communication module of the geo-spatial environment to select a communication;

a display module of the geo-spatial environment to generate a first display view to include a three-dimensional map view embodied by a community network, at least a portion of the user profiles represented at locations in the three-dimensional map view associated with the specific geographic locations of the at least a portion of the user profiles;

a recipient module of the geo-spatial environment to select a user profile from the at least a portion of the user profiles; and

a mail communication module of the geo-spatial environment to generate a mailing of the communication, in a format associated with the mail mode, to a contact address associated with the user profile of the user profiles.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a commerce transaction module of the geo-spatial environment to generate a commerce transaction associated with the elements.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a postage module of the geo-spatial environment to generate an online transaction associated with payment of postage; and

a service payment module of the geo-spatial environment to generate an online transaction associated with payment of services related to mailing the communication.

21. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a location module to select the location, wherein the location is selected from a group comprising;

a street address, a city, a county, a state, and a country.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a radius module to determine a radius based on the location and to display the at least a portion of the user profiles having specific geographic locations included in the radius.

23. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a demographic module to provide demographics associated with the user profiles;

to select at least one demographic of the demographics, and to determine a group of user profiles of the at least a portion of the user profiles, wherein the at least one demographics is associated with each user profiles of the group of user profiles.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the demographic is selected from a group comprising an age, an age range, a gender, an occupation, an ethnicity, a location of a residence, a location of a business, a marital status, an ownership status, a language, mobility, income, a life cycle, a socioeconomic status, and a lifestyle.

25. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a scheduler module to schedule the mailing.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the schedule is based on a selected number of mailings per a predetermined time period.

27. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

a document creation module to enable creation of a document.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a letter creation module to enable creation of letters; and

a marketing brochure creation module to enable creation of marketing brochures.

29. The system of claim 18, wherein the mail mode is selected from a group comprising a physical mail mode, a facsimile mode, an email mode, and an instant message mode.

30. The system of claim 18, wherein the contact address is selected from a group comprising a physical mailing address associated with the specific geographic location of the user profile, a facsimile number, an email address, and an instant message user identifier.

34. The geo-spatial environment of claim 21, further comprising:

a seventh instruction set to enable creation of the communication.

31. A geo-spatial environment, comprising:

a first instruction set to enable a community network, to include a map database associated with map data and a user database associated with user profiles, each user profile of the user profiles associated with a specific geographic location identifiable in the map data and a contact address;

a second instruction set integrated with the first instruction set to display a three-dimensional map view, embodied by the community network, to include representations of at least a portion of the user profiles, wherein each representation of a user profile of the at least a portion of the user profiles is displayed at a location in the three-dimensional map view corresponding to the specific geographic location associated with the user profile;

a third instruction set integrated with the first instruction set and the second instruction set to determine a second user profile of the at least a portion of the user profiles, a communication, and a mail mode; and

a fourth instruction set integrated with the first instruction set and the second instruction set and the third instruction set to generate a mailing of the communication, in a format associated with the mail mode, to the contact address associated with the second user profile of the user profiles, wherein the contact address is based on the mail mode.

32. The geo-spatial environment of claim 31, further comprising:

a fifth instruction set to generate a commerce transaction associated with the mailing of the communication.

33. The geo-spatial environment of claim 31, further comprising:

a sixth instruction set to schedule the mailing of the communication.