Contact aggregator

• US 8,086,676 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2008
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bonev
• Original Assignee: Smooth Productions Inc.
• Inventors: Palahnuk, Samuel Louis, Bonev, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Avellino, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Aftab Nasir
• Application Number:
  US12/141,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,287 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/223, 709/224, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.X, 707/609, 707/677
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/963 Calendar or scheduling

Abstract

An integrated web-based communications service provides a content aggregator to simplify the task of managing personal, friends, family, and business contacts via a process of aggregation and consolidation into a central point. The content aggregator imports contacts from existing databases, harvests additional contact information, and maintain the contact information.

Claims

1. A method of automatically maintaining contact information for a contact of a user stored in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that an email was not delivered to the contact;

determining the contact has not received an email based on the received indication;

determining the contact information associated with the contact stored in the database;

generating a webpage requesting contact information from the contact or confirmation of the determined contact information associated with the contact; and

sending an email to the contact with a link to access the generated webpage; and

monitoring access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested contact information or the confirmation of contact information associated with the contact is provided;

receiving the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and updating the contact information in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided; and

taking further action to resolve the contact information when it is determined that information about the contact has not been provided within a predetermined period of time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein sending an email includes sending an email addressed to two or more email addresses stored in the database that are associated with the contact.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein

taking further action includes informing the user that the request regarding contact information is unresolved.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein

taking further action includes determining whether the database stores a phone number associated with the contact;

and

activating an automated phone system to dial the phone number and request information about the contact.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein

taking further action includes determining whether the database stores a phone number associated with the contact;

and

activating an automated phone system to dial the phone number and provide information about how to access the webpage.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an indication that an email was not delivered to the contact includes receiving an indication that the email has been returned or is undeliverable.

7. A method of automatically importing contact information into a contact database system of one or more contacts of a user, the method comprising:

providing an automated online questionnaire to the user;

receiving information in response to the questionnaire;

determining contact information from the received information;

storing the determined contact information;

determining one or more online accounts associated with the user from the received information;

automatically accessing the one or more online accounts;

importing contact information from the one or more online accounts;

merging the imported contact information and the determined contact information;

storing the merged contact information in the database by populating a number of predetermined data fields for each contact associated with the contact information;

determining one or more of the predetermined fields associated with a contact is missing information, incomplete, or empty;

generating a webpage requesting the contact provide information associated with the determined one or more of the predetermined fields; and

sending an email to the contact including a link to access the generated webpage; and

monitoring access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested information is provided;

receiving the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and updating the contact information in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided; and

taking further action to resolve the contact information when it is determined that information about the contact has not been provided within a predetermined period of time.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein merging includes removing duplicate information or contacts.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein sending an email includes sending an email addressed to two or more email addresses that are associated with the contact.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein

taking further action includes informing the user that the request regarding contact information is unresolved.

11. A method of automatically maintaining contact information in a database system of one or more contacts of a user, the method comprising:

storing one or more greeting events, indicating a temporal occasion for the user to engage in communication with the contact, in the data base system;

determining an occurrence associated with one of the greeting events;

automatically generating an email in response to the determined occurrence, the email including a greeting corresponding to the temporal occasion and a link with a request for verification of the accuracy of contact information of the contact;

generating a webpage requesting information from the contact or confirmation of information about the contact in response to activation of the link;

monitoring access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested information or the confirmation of information about the contact is provided; and

receiving the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and automatically updating the contact information in the database based on the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein automatically generating the email includes providing a link in the email configured to provide access to the webpage.

13. A system to automatically maintain digital contact information in a database of one or more contacts of a user, the system comprising:

an input configured to receive an indication that an email addressed to a contact of the user did not reach its intended destination;

a processing device configured to determine from the indication that the contact did not receive the email;

determine contact information associated with the contact and stored in the database, generate a webpage requesting information from the contact or confirmation of the accuracy of contact information associated with the contact, and

generate an email addressed to the contact including a link configured to provide access to the generated webpage; and

an output configured to send the generated email to the contact, wherein

the processing device is further configured to monitor access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested information or the confirmation of information associated with the contact is provided;

receive the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and update the contact information in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided; and

taking further action to resolve the contact information when it is determined that information about the contact has not been provided within a predetermined period of time.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the generated email is addressed to two or more email addresses stored in the database that are associated with the contact.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the processing device is further configured to inform a user that the request for contact information has not been resolved after expiration of the predetermined period of time.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the indication that the email has not been received includes one of a returned email and an indication the email is undeliverable.

17. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

an automated phone system configured to dial a phone number associated with a contact and request contact information, wherein the processing device is further configured to determine that the database stores a phone number associated with the contact and to activate the automated phone system to dial the phone number associated with the contact to request the contact information after expiration of the predetermined period of time.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the request for contact information includes providing information configured to provide access to the webpage.

19. A system to automatically import digital contact information into a contact database of one or more contacts of a user, the system comprising:

an input configured to receive information from the user in response to an automated online questionnaire; and

a processing device configured to conduct the questionnaire, to determine contact information from the received information, to store the determined contact information;

to determine one or more online accounts associated with the received information, to access the one or more online accounts using the received information, to import contact information stored by the online accounts;

to merge the imported contact information and the determined contact information;

store the merged contact information in the database by populating a number of predetermined data fields for each contact associated with the contact information;

to determine one or more of the predetermined fields associated with a contact is missing information, incomplete, or empty;

to generate a webpage requesting the contact provide information associated with the determined one or more of the predetermined fields; and

to generate an email addressed to the contact including a link configured to provide access the generated webpage, wherein the processing device is further configured to monitor access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested information is provided;

receive the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and update the contact information in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided; and

taking further action to resolve the contact information when it is determined that information about the contact has not been provided within a predetermined period of time.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein merging includes removing duplicate information or contacts.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the input is configured to receive information in response to the generated webpage, and the processing device is configured to update the one or more predetermined fields in the database with the received information.

22. A database system to automatically maintain digital contact information of one or more contacts of a user, the system comprising:

a storage device configured to store one or more greeting events indicating a temporal occasion for the user to engage in communication with a contact;

a processor configured to determine an occurrence associated with one of the greeting events and automatically generate an email in response to the determined occurrence that includes a greeting corresponding to the temporal occasion and a link with a request for verification of the accuracy of contact information of the contact;

an output configured to send the generated email to the contact, wherein

the processing device is further configured to generate a webpage requesting information from the contact or confirmation of information about the contact in response to activation of the link;

monitor access of the generated webpage to determine whether any information about the contact including the requested information or the confirmation of information about the contact is provided;

receive the information about the contact provided via the generated webpage and update the contact information in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact is provided.

23. A system to automatically maintain digital contact information of one or more contacts of a user, the system comprising:

a database configured to store contact information; and

a content aggregator including;

a contact importer configured to receive contact information associated with the one or more contacts of a user from the user and store the received contact information in the database;

a contact harvester configured to generate a webpage, based on the stored contact information, configured to provide authentication of the stored contact information or solicitation of additional contact information from contacts of the user, and generate an email addressed to a contact identified by the stored contact information including information configured to provide access to the webpage; and

a contact maintainer configured to maintain the stored contact information by invoking the contact harvester in response to one of determining the contact information is incomplete, determining an email addressed to the contact was not received, and an occurrence of a greeting event, wherein

the contact harvester is further configured to monitor access of any generated webpage to determine whether any information about a contact associated with the generated webpage including the authentication of the stored contact information or solicitation of additional contact information is provided;

receive the information about the contact associated with the generated webpage provided via the generated webpage and update the contact information of the contact associated with the generated webpage in the database system with the received information when it is determined that information about the contact associated with the generated webpage is provided; and

taking further action to resolve the contact information of the contact associated with the generated webpage when it is determined that information about the contact has not been provided within a predetermined period of time.