Determining strength of association between user contacts

• US 9,571,427 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2013
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tomkins, Andrew, Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram, Agarwal, Shalini, Yang, MyLinh, Pang, Bo, Li, Mark Yinan
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pant, Ranjan
• Application Number:
  US14/145,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20150188851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,141 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Methods and apparatus related to identifying one or more messages sent by a user, identifying two or more contacts that are associated with one or more of the messages, determining a strength of relationship score between identified contacts, and utilizing the strength of relationship scores to provide additional information related to the contacts. A strength of relationship score between a contact and one or more other contacts may be determined based on one or more properties of one or more of the messages. In some implementations, contacts groups may be determined based on the strength of relationship scores. In some implementations, contacts groups may be utilized to disambiguate references to contacts in messages. In some implementations, contacts group may be utilized to provide suggestions to the user of additional contacts of a contacts group that includes the indicated recipient contact of a message.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of messages associated with a user, each of the messages being sent or received by the user and being sent or received by a corresponding one or more of a plurality of contacts of the user;

determining a count of the messages in which a first contact of the plurality of contacts and a second contact of the plurality of contacts co-occur;

determining a strength of relationship score between the first contact and the second contact based on the count of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur;

determining, based on the strength of relationship score satisfying a threshold, a contacts group that includes the first contact and the second contact;

determining a contacts group property for the contacts group based on one or more terms, wherein the one or more terms are utilized in determining the contacts group property based on their occurrence in a plurality of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur;

associating the contacts group property with the contacts group in one or more computer readable media;

identifying an indication a designation of the first contact as a recipient of a new message being created via a computing device of the user, wherein the indication is provided while the user is creating the new message, and is provided by the user via a user interface input device of the computing device being utilized by the user to create the new message; and

determining to provide an interface for presentation to the user via the computing device, wherein the interface identifies the second contact and is selectable by the user via the computing device to include the second contact as an additional recipient of the new message, wherein determining to provide the interface is based on;

identifying the designation of the first contact, identifying that the second contact is included in the contacts group with the first contact, and determining that a new term of the new message corresponds to the contacts group property associated with the contacts group, the new term being included in a subject or body of the new message; and

providing the interface for presentation to the user via the computing device a property of the second contact to the user, wherein the property is provided in response to the indication, and wherein the property is provided based on the strength of relationship score and based on the strength of relationship score being between the first contact of the indication and the second contact, and wherein the property is provided so that selection of the property by the user via the computing device includes the property in the new message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a third contact of the plurality of contacts;

determining a new strength of relationship score between the third contact and the contacts group; and

associating the third contact with the contacts group if the new strength of relationship score satisfies a threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the new strength of relationship score is based on an additional count of the messages in which the first contact, the second contact, and the third contact co-occur.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the contacts group property is a relationship type, wherein the relationship type is indicative of a relationship between the user and the contacts of the contacts group.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the contacts group property includes determining, from one or more entity databases, one or more entities associated with the one or more terms in one or more of the messages of the group.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the strength of relationship score is based on comparison of the count of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur to an additional count of the messages.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the additional count includes one or more of the messages in which either the first contact or the second contact occur, but the first contact and the second contact do not co-occur.

8. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of messages associated with a user, each of the messages being sent or received by the user and being sent or received by a corresponding one or more of a plurality of contacts of the user, wherein each of the messages includes one or more properties;

determining a count of the messages in which a first contact of the plurality of contacts and at least one additional contact of the plurality of contacts co-occur;

determining a strength of relationship score between the first contact and the at least one additional contact, wherein the strength of relationship score is based on the count of the messages in which the first contact co-occurs with the at least one additional contact, and is based on at least one of the properties of one or more of the messages in which the first contact co-occurs with the at least one additional contact;

determining a contacts group that includes the first contact and the at least one additional contact based on the strength of relationship score between the first contact and the at least one additional contact satisfying a threshold;

determining a contacts group property for the contacts group based on one or more of the properties that occur in subjects or bodies of a plurality of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur;

associating, in one or more databases, the contacts group with the user and the contacts group property with the contacts group in one or more databases;

identifying a recipient of a new message of a user, the recipient being identified based on user interface input of a computing device being utilized by the user to create the new message;

identifying the recipient is a member of the contacts group associated with the user in the one or more databases;

determining that a new property of the new message corresponds to the contacts group property associated with the contacts group; and

based on identifying the recipient is a member of the contacts group and that the new property of the new message corresponds to the contacts group property associated with the contacts group, providing interface output to the user that, when selected by the user via the computing device, includes one or more additional members of the contacts group in the new message.

9. A system including memory and one or more processors operable to execute instructions stored in the memory, comprising instructions to:

identify a plurality of messages associated with a user, each of the messages being sent or received by the user and being sent or received by a corresponding one or more of a plurality of contacts of the user;

determine a count of the messages in which a first contact of the plurality of contacts and a second contact of the plurality of contacts co-occur;

determine a strength of relationship score between the first contact and the second contact based on the count of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur;

determine, based on the strength of relationship score satisfying a threshold, a contacts group that includes the first contact and the second contact;

determine a contacts group property for the contacts group based on one or more terms, wherein the one or more terms are utilized in determining the contacts group property based on their occurrence in a plurality of the messages in which the first contact and the second contact co-occur;

associate the contacts group property with the contacts group in one or more computer readable media;

identify an indication a designation of the first contact as a recipient of a new message being created via a computing device of the user, wherein the indication is provided while the user is creating the new message, and is provided by the user via a user interface input device of the computing device being utilized by the user to create the new message; and

determine to provide an interface for presentation to the user via the computing device, wherein the interface identifies the second contact and is selectable by the user via the computing device to include the second contact as an additional recipient of the new message, wherein the instructions to determine to provide the interface include instructions to;

identify the designation of the first contact, identify that the second contact is included in the contacts group with the first contact, and determine that a new term of the new message corresponds to the contacts group property associated with the contacts group, the new term being included in a subject or body of the new message; and

provide the interface for presentation to the user via the computing device a property of the second contact to the user, wherein the property is provided in response to the indication, and wherein the property is provided based on the strength of relationship score and based on the strength of relationship score being between the first contact of the indication and the second contact, and wherein the property is provided so that selection of the property by the user via the computing device includes the property in the new message.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further include instructions to:

identify a third contact of the plurality of contacts;

determine a new strength of relationship score between the third contact and the contacts group; and

associate the third contact with the contacts group if the new strength of relationship score satisfies a threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the new strength of relationship score is based on an additional count of the messages in which the first contact, the second contact, and the third contact co-occur.