Automatically generating and maintaining an address book

• US 7,634,463 B1
• Filed: 12/29/2005
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Bret Steven, Katragadda, Lalitesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ortiz; Belix M
• Application Number:
  US11/324,736
• Time in Patent Office: 1,447 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for automatically generating and maintaining personal data, such as an address book, a financial portfolio, a discussion groups or blogs book, or other types of personal data stores, based on a person'"'"'s structured search data and/or usage data (e.g., browsing) and/or other sources of personal data (e.g., emails the user receives). Related metadata can also be used in the generating and/or maintaining of the personal data. Dynamic personal data ranking and/or autocomplete functions are also provided, which can be used in conjunction with the automatic generation and maintenance of the user'"'"'s personal data, to further ease the user'"'"'s burden in managing and/or handling such data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically generating a user'"'"'s address book, the method executed by a computer and comprising:

receiving a user search request for geographic data in a web application that is independent from the address book, the user search request including structured data and metadata;

extracting a geographic location from the structured data included in the user search request;

creating a new entry in the user'"'"'s address book based at least in part on the extracted geographic location, the new entry including a street address associated with the extracted geographic information;

assigning a label to the new entry that indicates a name of a location where the user is currently accessing the new entry or has previously accessed the new entry; and

generating with the web application, search results associated with the user search request.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

assigning a label to the extracted geographic location, including at least one of a name of a person or business associated with the extracted geographic location.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

assigning one or more ranking signals to the extracted geographic location based on the metadata associated with the user search request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a rank to the extracted geographic location based upon at least one of a current geographic location associated with the user and a current time.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

assigning one or more ranking signals to the extracted geographic location based on user browsing activity.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

estimating the user'"'"'s current geographic location based on at least one of the metadata included in the user search request, and previous searches performed by the user.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on an IP address associated with the user'"'"'s current geographic location.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on address information entered by the user into a mapping system interface.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

compacting the extracted geographic location, along with at least one of a label, a person or business name, an entry ID, one or more ranking signals, user location data, and associated metadata into a single entry associated with the extracted geographic location.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

adding the single entry to an address book data store from which the user'"'"'s address book can be updated.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

updating the single entry responsive to at least one request being received that is associated with the extracted geographic location.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein updating the single entry comprises updating at least one of metadata statistics associated with the extracted geographic location, one or more ranking signals of the extracted geographic location, and user localities associated with the use of the extracted geographic location.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic data search is for at least one of driving directions, a map, and a local search.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing a directory of address listings; and

matching the extracted geographic location to one of the listings to identify at least one of a corresponding name for the extracted geographic location and missing components of the extracted geographic location.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

autocompleting entry of the extracted geographic location from the user'"'"'s address book into a user interface of a web application independent of the address book.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein autocompleting entry of the extracted geographic location from the user'"'"'s address book includes:

displaying one or more geographic locations from the user'"'"'s address book, thereby allowing the user to select one of the one or more geographic locations; and

entering the selected geographic location into the user interface of the web application.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein displaying one or more geographic locations from the user'"'"'s address book is carried out before the user enters geographic location data into the user interface.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the one or more geographic locations from the user'"'"'s address book are selected based on at least one of a current geographic location of the user, current time, and context.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the one or more geographic locations from the user'"'"'s address book are selected based on user browsing activity.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the new entry in the user'"'"'s address book based at least in part on the extracted geographic location is performed locally on a client device storing the address book.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein creating the new entry in the user'"'"'s address book based at least in part on the extracted geographic location is performed on a remote device, the method further comprising:

sending to an address book on the remote device at least one entry from a client device storing an address book associated with the client device.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

harvesting a geographic location associated with the user'"'"'s browsing activity; and

updating the user'"'"'s address book with the harvested geographic location.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the name of a location where the user is currently accessing the new entry or has previously accessed the new entry is received from the user.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the name of a location where the user is currently accessing the new entry or has previously accessed the new entry is based at least in part on the user'"'"'s current locality.

23. A machine-readable medium encoded with instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out a process for automatically generating a user'"'"'s address book, the process comprising:

receiving a user search request for geographic data in a web application that is independent from the address book, the user search request including structured data and metadata;

extracting a geographic location from the structured data included in the user search request;

creating a new entry in the user'"'"'s address book based at least in part on the extracted geographic location, the new entry including a street address associated with the extracted geographic information;

assigning a label to the new entry that indicates a name of a location where the user is currently accessing the new entry or has previously accessed the new entry; and

generating with the web application, search results associated with the user search request.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 23, the process further comprising:

assigning one or more ranking signals to the extracted geographic location based on the metadata associated with the user search request.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 23, the process further comprising:

assigning a rank to the extracted geographic location based upon at least one of a current geographic location associated with the user and a current time.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 23, the process further comprising:

assigning one or more ranking signals to the extracted geographic location based on user browsing activity.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 23, the process further comprising:

estimating the user'"'"'s current geographic location based on at least one of the metadata included in the user search request, and previous searches performed by the user.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 27 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on an IP address associated with the user'"'"'s current geographic location.

29. The machine-readable medium of claim 27 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on geographic location information entered by the user into a mapping system interface.

30. A computer system for automatically generating a user'"'"'s address book, comprising:

a server computer system for receiving a user search request for geographic data in a web application that is independent from the address book, the user search request including structured data and metadata and generating with the web application, search results associated with the user search request;

a personal data generator module operatively coupled to the server computer system, for extracting a geographic location from the structured data included in the user search request, and creating a new entry in the user'"'"'s address book based at least in part on the extracted geographic location, the new entry including a street address associated with the extracted geographic information; and

an aggregator module operatively coupled to the server computer system for assigning a label to the new entry that indicates a name of a location where the user is currently accessing the new entry or has previously accessed the new entry.

31. The system of claim 30, the process further comprising:

a ranking module for assigning a rank to the extracted geographic location based on one or more ranking signals.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the assigned rank is adjusted based on at least one of a current geographic location of the user, current time, and context.

33. The system of claim 30, the process further comprising:

a location estimation module for estimating the user'"'"'s current geographic location based on at least one of the metadata included in the user search request, and previous searches performed by the user.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on an IP address associated with the user'"'"'s current geographic location.

35. The system of claim 33 wherein the user'"'"'s current geographic location is estimated based on a geographic location entered by the user into a mapping system interface.

36. The system of claim 30 wherein the system includes a server-side and a client-side, and each of the server system and the personal data generator module are located on the client-side.

37. The system of claim 30 wherein the system includes a server-side and a client-side, and each of the server system and the personal data generator module are located on the server-side, and the server-side is further configured for sending the updated address book to the client-side at least one of incrementally by entry or in batch.