Contact Information Aggregation

• US 20110004561A1
• Filed: 07/01/2009
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stovicek, Thomas, Bergler, Peter, Shen, Jennifer, Hudspeth, Ann M., Elliott, Paul A., Shahine, Omar H.
• Application Number:
  US12/496,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20110004561A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Techniques are described to aggregate contact information. In an implementation, contact information that is associated with a single user and that is obtained from a plurality of services via a network is aggregated. A least one of the services is configured as a social networking service. A user interface is configured to include at least a portion of the aggregated contact information such that the single user is represented above the portion of the aggregated contact information in the user interface.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

aggregating contact information that is associated with a single user and that is obtained from a plurality of services via a network, at least one of the services being configured as a social networking service; and

configuring a user interface to include at least a portion of the aggregated contact information such that the single user is represented above the portion of the aggregated contact information in the user interface.

2. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the single user is represented in a header at a top level of the user interface that includes a name of the user and an image selected by the user for use in a profile exposed on the social networking service.

3. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprising causing the aggregated contact information to be stored for access via a network to update a plurality of client devices associated with a particular user.

4. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 3, wherein the update is provided automatically and without user intervention in response to a change in the contact information at one or more of the plurality of services or the plurality of client devices.

5. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the plurality of services include a plurality of social networking services.

6. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein at least one of the services includes a social networking service and the aggregating further comprises obtaining contact information from an address book of a client device.

7. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the aggregating includes identifying duplicate said contact information and addressing the duplicate said contact information.

8. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 7, wherein the addressing includes outputting an option in the user interface to link the duplicate said contact information.

9. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 7, wherein the addressing includes merging the duplicate said contact information automatically and without user intervention based on one or more predefined rules.

10. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the aggregating includes identifying the contact information that has discrepancies, one to another, and addressing the discrepancies.

11. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 10, wherein the addressing includes outputting an option in the user interface to receive an input to correct the discrepancies.

12. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 10, wherein the addressing includes correcting the discrepancies automatically and without user intervention based on one or more predefined rules.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that are executable to:

configure a user interface to include contact information that is associated with a plurality of respective contacts of a user such that at least one said contact includes aggregated contact information from a plurality of sources; and

expose the configured user interface for local storage and display on a plurality of client devices associated with the user.

14. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 13, wherein the aggregated contact information is exposed by an authentication service.

15. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 13, wherein one or more of the sources include an address book maintained locally on at least one of the client devices.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 13, wherein one or more of the sources is a social network service.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 16, wherein the aggregated contact information includes a status update communicated via the social network service.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 13, wherein the aggregated contact information includes contact information that was obtained from the plurality of sources and processed to remove duplicates and discrepancies.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that are executable to expose a user interface for access via a network and display by a browser, the user interface including contact information aggregated from a plurality of social networking services associated with a user and an address book of a client device associated with the user.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media as described in claim 19, wherein the instructions are further configured to authenticate the user to access the contact information at the plurality of social networking services without user intervention.