Nextdoor neighborhood social network method, apparatus, and system

• US 8,863,245 B1
• Filed: 07/02/2014
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raj Abhyanker
• Original Assignee: Fatdoor Incorporated
• Inventors: Abhyanker, Raj
• Primary Examiner(s): ABYANEH, ALI S
• Application Number:
  US14/321,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20140317696A1
• Time in Patent Office: 104 Days
• Field of Search: 726/2, 726/4, 705/319
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/16 Real estate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and system an online neighborhood social network designed to create private websites to facilitate communication among neighbors and build stronger neighborhoods. The private websites are embodied in a website having a domain name of nextdoor.com. In one embodiment, a method verifies that a user lives at a residence associated with a residential address claimed by the user of an online neighborhood social network. The method restricts access to a particular neighborhood to the user and to neighboring users living within the neighborhood boundary of the residence. A social network page of the user is created once verified and access privileges are determined. A message is distributed to neighboring users that are verified to live within a neighborhood boundary of the residence. The method may designate the user (e.g., as a lead user) with an additional privilege based on a participation level of the user in the online community.

Claims

1. A system of a global neighborhood environment comprising:

a computer server of the global neighborhood environment;

the computer server including one or more computers having non-transitory instructions stored thereon that when executed cause the one or more computers;

to verify that a user lives at a residence associated with a geographic location claimed by the user of the global neighborhood environment using a processor and a memory,

to create a social network page of the user once verified,

to enable the user to constrain a communication to neighboring users within a geospatial vicinity of the residence of the user based on a neighborhood boundary,

to distribute a message in a distance away from the residence of the user based on the neighborhood boundary,

to provide an additional privilege to the user in the online community of the global neighborhood environment based on at least one of a participation level of the user in the online community and an activity level of the user associated with encouraging neighbors to participate in the online community,

to automatically determine a set of access permissions in the online community associated with each user of the online community by constraining access in private web sites of the online community to neighboring users based on each residence associated with each geographic location claimed by each user of the global neighborhood environment,

to generate a communication of the user, wherein the user is part of a neighborhood crime watch organization based on the constrained access in the private web sites of the online community between neighboring users, wherein the neighborhood crime watch organization is devoted to crime prevention within a neighborhood formed by users having constrained access in the private web sites, and

to alert neighboring users that are verified to live within the neighborhood boundary of the residence of the communication of the neighborhood crime watch organization.

2. The system of the global neighborhood environment of claim 1:

wherein the one or more computers to permit the user to set a privacy setting associated with a profile data of the user such that a certain information is marked as private and is therefore masked from being visible to neighboring users of the online community in the global neighborhood environment, and

wherein an advertisement is placed on a domain name of nextdoor having a generic top-level suffix of com that forms the global neighborhood environment using the computer server.

3. The system of the global neighborhood environment of claim 1:

wherein the computer server to permit the user generating the communication on behalf of the neighborhood crime watch organization to contact surrounding neighbors associated with the neighborhood.

4. The system of the global neighborhood environment of claim 1:

wherein the computer server to filter information to only display messages from a particular neighborhood associated with each verified user, and

wherein the computer server to permit private posts only in the particular neighborhood to verified users having verified addresses within the neighborhood.

5. The system of the global neighborhood environment of claim 1:

wherein the computer server to permit the user of the global neighborhood environment to mark certain information communicated to a particular neighboring user as private, such that privately shared information is shared only with the particular neighboring user and is designated as non-public to other neighboring users of the online community.

6. The system of the global neighborhood environment of claim 1 wherein the computer server to permit the user to provide at least one of a recommendation and an event suggestion to neighboring users based on the residence associated with the geographic location claimed by the user of the global neighborhood environment.

7. The method of claim 1:

wherein the online neighborhood social network is designed to create private websites to facilitate communication among neighbors and build neighborhoods.

8. A method comprising:

verifying that a user lives at a residence associated with a residential address claimed by the user of an online neighborhood social network using a processor and a memory;

creating a social network page of the user once verified in the online neighborhood social network;

distributing a message from the user to neighboring users that are verified to live within a neighborhood boundary of the residence;

designating the user as having an additional privilege in a private website of the online neighborhood social network confined by the neighborhood boundary based on at least one of a participation level of the user in the online neighborhood social network and an activity level of the user associated with encouraging neighboring users to participate in the online neighborhood social network;

automatically determining a set of access permissions in the private website of the online neighborhood social network associated with the user; and

restricting access to a particular neighborhood in the private website of the online neighborhood social network to the user and to neighboring users living within the neighborhood boundary of the residence,

wherein the neighboring users are determined based on each residence associated with each geographic location claimed by each neighboring user of the online neighborhood social network that is within the neighborhood boundary,

generating a communication of the user, wherein the user is part of a neighborhood watch group to alert neighboring users that are verified to live within the neighborhood boundary of the residence of criminal activity,

wherein the neighborhood watch group is devoted to crime prevention within a neighborhood defined by users having access to the private website, and

wherein the communication of the neighborhood watch group is generated by the user.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

permitting the user to set a privacy setting associated with a profile data such that a certain information is marked as private in the online neighborhood social network and is therefore masked from being visible to neighboring users of the online neighborhood social network.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

permitting the user of the online neighborhood social network to mark certain information communicated to a particular neighboring user as private; and

designating the certain information shared only with the particular neighboring user as non-public to other neighboring users of the online neighborhood social network.

11. The method of claim 8:

filtering information to only display messages from a particular neighborhood associated with each verified user; and

permitting private posts only in the particular neighborhood to verified users having verified addresses within the neighborhood boundary.

12. The method of claim 8:

distributing a recommendation of the user to neighboring users based on the residence associated with the geographic location claimed by the user of the online neighborhood social network; and

publishing an event listing posted by the user to neighboring users based on the residence associated with the geographic location claimed by the user of the online neighborhood social network.

13. The method of claim 8:

wherein the online neighborhood social network is designed to create private websites to facilitate communication among neighbors and build safer neighborhoods, and

wherein an advertisement is placed on a domain name of nextdoor that forms the online neighborhood social network using the computer server.

14. A computer server having a processor and a memory when executed cause the computer server:

to verify that a user lives at a residence associated with a geographic location claimed by the user of an online neighborhood social network using the processor and the memory,

to create a social network page of the user once verified in the online neighborhood social network,

to enable the user to constrain communications to neighboring users in a geospatial vicinity of the residence of the user based on a neighborhood boundary of the online neighborhood social network,

wherein the user is provided an additional privilege in the online neighborhood social network based on at least one of a participation level of the user in the online neighborhood social network and an activity level of the user associated with encouraging neighbors to participate in the online neighborhood social network,

to automatically determine a set of privileges in the online neighborhood social network associated with the neighborhood boundary of the online neighborhood social network by constraining access in a private web site in the online neighborhood social network to the user and to neighboring users of the user based on each residence associated with each geographic location claimed by each user of the online neighborhood social network verified to live within the neighborhood boundary,

to generate a communication of the user, wherein the user is a member of a neighborhood crime watch organization based on the constrained access in the private web sites of the online community between neighboring users, wherein the neighborhood crime watch organization is devoted to crime prevention within a neighborhood formed by users having constrained access in the private web sites,

to alert neighboring users that are verified to live within the neighborhood boundary of the residence of the communication of the neighborhood crime watch organization, and

wherein the computer server to permit the user generating the communication on behalf of the neighborhood crime watch organization to contact surrounding neighbors through the private website.

15. The computer server of claim 14:

wherein the computer server to permit the user to set a privacy setting associated with a profile data such that a certain information is marked as private in the online neighborhood social network and is therefore masked from being visible to neighboring users of the online neighborhood social network.

16. The computer server of claim 14:

wherein the computer server to permit the user of the online neighborhood social network to mark certain information communicated to a particular neighboring user as private, such that privately shared information is shared only with the particular neighboring user and is designated as non-public to other neighboring users of the online neighborhood social network.

17. The computer server of claim 14:

wherein the computer server to filter information to only display messages from a particular neighborhood associated with each verified user, and

wherein the computer server to permit private posts only in the particular neighborhood to verified users having verified addresses within a particular neighborhood boundary associated with the particular neighborhood.

18. The computer server of claim 14:

wherein the computer server utilizes a postcard method through which the computer server generates a physical postcard that is postal mailed to neighboring users living within the neighborhood boundary of the online neighborhood social network, and

wherein an advertisement is placed on a domain name of nextdoor that forms the online neighborhood social network using the computer server.

19. The computer server of claim 14:

wherein the computer server to permit the user to provide a recommendation to neighboring users based on the residence associated with the geographic location claimed by the user of the online neighborhood social network.

20. A method comprising:

verifying that a user lives at a location that is associated with a current address where the user is living using a processor and a memory;

creating a social network page of the user once verified in an online neighborhood social network;

distributing a message in a specified range of a distance away from the user to a geographic vicinity around the user originating the message;

designating the user as a trusted party in a neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network based on a level of information the user contributes in attaining higher status in the neighborhood in the online neighborhood social network;

automatically determining at least one permission of access in the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network associated with the user;

segregating access such that only a verified individual is able to view information in the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network; and

permitting a creation of a neighborhood crime watch group wherein the neighborhood crime watch group to alert neighboring users that are verified to live within the neighborhood of the residence of possible criminal activity in a neighborhood based on a communication of the neighborhood crime watch group,

wherein access to the communication of the neighborhood crime watch group is provided to users of the online neighborhood social network that are verified to live within the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network,

wherein the neighborhood crime watch group is devoted to at least one of crime and vandalism prevention within the neighborhood formed by users having permission to access the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network, and

wherein the neighboring users are determined based on each neighboring property surrounding each geographic location claimed by each neighboring user of the online neighborhood social network that is within the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

permitting the user to submit a delisting request associated with a profile data such that a certain information is masked in the online neighborhood social network and is therefore hidden from other users of the online neighborhood social network, and

wherein a global neighborhood environment forms the online neighborhood social network.

22. The method of claim 20:

generating information to only distribute a message to the neighborhood associated with the user originating the message; and

permitting a private section shared only in the neighborhood to verified users having verified addresses within the neighborhood.

23. The method of claim 22:

permitting the user of the online neighborhood social network to segregate certain information communicated to a particular neighboring user in the private section of the online neighborhood social network; and

separating the private section with the certain information shared only with the particular neighboring user as shared with only neighbors having verified addresses in the online neighborhood social network.

24. The method of claim 20:

wherein the online neighborhood social network is designed to enable users to know their neighbors in the neighborhood associated with the current address where the user is living.

25. The method of claim 20:

wherein the online neighborhood social network has a domain name of nextdoor having a generic top-top level suffix of com.

26. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

offering a civic information of the user designated as the trusted party in the neighborhood to neighboring users based on the residence associated with the geographic location claimed by the user of the online neighborhood social network.

27. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

displaying an event organized by neighbors to the user and to neighboring users in the neighborhood of the online neighborhood social network; and

notifying users of at least one of the event, an advertisement, and a promotion in their area based on radius for notification.