Patent Application
20070043688
1. Field of the Present System
The present system is directed to methods for annotating shared contacts within a social network with public tags and/or notes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Social networking via the Internet is emerging as a popular method of expanding and developing social and business relationships. A social network has been defined as a map of the relationships between individuals, showing how they are connected through various social ties ranging from casual acquaintance to close bonds. The term social network has also been used to refer to the network infrastructure for bringing people together and simplifying the way in which relationships may be mapped and developed. The idea behind social networking is that people can leverage their friends and acquaintances to meet other people of interest.
Social networks have been known in one form or another for thousands of years. However, with advent and proliferation of the Internet, large enterprise service providers, such as MSN®, Yahoo® and AOL® service providers, allow individuals access to a tremendous network of contacts, organized in a coherent structure and easily accessible with a network connection. Aside from size, organization and ease of access, another benefit to Internet social networks is the trust and reliability of the people within one's network. Even if a person does not know a friend of a friend, there is at least an inference of trust and reliability in that the first person can assume that his or her friend would not associate with a friend who was not reliable or trustworthy. At least, the immediate friend can be trusted to offer an honest assessment of the trustworthiness of the third party. Social networks are also often relied upon for opinion based information such as for example, movies, restaurants, travel locations and the like.
Despite all of these advantages, Internet social networks may fall victim to their own success. One's social network may easily become so large that there is no meaningful way to filter the network to identify useful potential contacts. At present, there are no satisfactorily structured methods to describe and filter the myriad relationships that may exist on one's social network.
The present system, roughly described, relates to a method for annotating shared contacts within a social network with public tags and/or notes. This allows users of a social network to gain useful information at a glance about others' contacts within that network, as well as providing a means for filtering contacts within that network by user-defined keywords. Such a system improves and simplifies the ability of a user to discover new potential friends and business contacts.
In accordance with aspects of the present system, an owner of stored contacts may annotate those contacts with notes and/or tags, so that when the owner's contacts are viewed by others in the social network, the owner's notes and tags for the owner's contacts are displayed to the user. The note and/or tag information may be added to an owner's contact when the contact is created or after the contact is created. Notes and tags may also be amended or deleted by the owner after they are created.
The note is intended to give information about the contact and/or the relationship between the contact and the owner creating the annotation. Thus, anyone accessing the owner's contacts may quickly learn useful information about the owner's contacts and/or the contact's relationship to the owner. The tags are intended to be keywords describing the contact and/or the relationship between the contact and the owner who created the tag. Once the tags for a contact are created and saved, users viewing their social network will be given the option to filter their social network by keywords searches. The keyword search returns all contacts which included that keyword as a tag. In this manner, a user may quickly narrow a pool of contacts to only those possessing a particular characteristic or relationship of interest.
Embodiments of the present system will now be described with reference to
A social network according to the present system may be implemented as part of a database for storing contact information on, for example, an enterprise service provider, such as MSN®, Yahoo®, AOL®, or other online service providers. It is understood that the database supporting the contact information of the present system may be stored on servers and processing devices other than for enterprise service providers in alternative embodiments.
System 100 is comprised of a plurality of computing devices maintained by an enterprise service provider. In one embodiment, it may consist, for example, of a message transfer agent (MTA) 120, a user information database server 110, user mail storage units 154, an email server 140, a POP/IMAP server 170, a messaging server 150 and a web integrated messaging server 160.
System 100 allows users operating processing devices 102a and 102b to access email, messenger, and other data, and forward outbound messages and messaging information to users within the domain of system 100 and domains accessible via the internet 50. Users may connect to the system 100 via any number of public or private networks including the Internet. The user database server 110 stores information allowing users to authenticate themselves to system 100 to access their email and internet messaging. In embodiments, the social network of contacts may be stored within database server 110. The server 110 may further include an annotation engine 115 as explained hereinafter for annotating stored contacts according to the present system. The database server 110 further allows other servers in the system to direct mail and messages within the system to storage locations on storage units 154.
Email server 140 may comprise a web server which provides an email interface to a web browser 108 which institutes a browser process 106 on the user computer 102a. Email server 140 can render email data from the data storage units to a user using computer 102a to access the email system 100. Likewise POP/IMAP server 170 can provide email data to a POP e-mail client 118 or an IMAP client 110 on user computer 102b. Messenger server 150 can provide information directly to a messenger client 112 or via a web internet messaging server 160 to web based messenger clients operating in a browser process 106 and web browser 104.
Inbound and outbound email messages from users on computers 102a and 102b are sent and received in system 100 via the MTA 120. Email MTA 120 generally uses SMTP to route mail via the internet 50 to users at other internet accessible domains. E-mail MTA 120 is a front-end server to which emails 190 transmitted via the internet to system 100 are directed and which forwarded messages from users of the messaging system 100 to other users on the internet 50. It should be understood that a web based enterprise service provider environment, a number of email MTAs 120 will be present.
The user database server 110 is a data store of user account and storage location information for each of the users having a user account or email address within system 100. As indicated, database server 110 further includes an annotation engine 115 for adding annotations to a social network of stored contacts. As explained in greater detail below, the annotation engine 115 receives annotations from an owner for one or more of their stored contacts and stores the information in tables within the database of database server 110. The annotation engine may also perform keyword searches of the database to find stored contacts that have been tagged with the keyword searched as explained hereinafter. It is understood that one or more aspects of the annotation engine may be performed on the client of an owner setting up the annotations instead of within service provider system 100.
Storage units 154 may essentially be large disk arrays storing user message information. The system may include additional components not shown here for the convenience in understanding the present system.
With the above service provider system, a stored contact from a social network may be accessible from and available to a user over any of a variety of application interfaces, such as for example an instant messaging application program, an email application program and/or a blog application program. A user may add a new contact to his or her social network when in one of the above-named application interfaces, or elsewhere, as is known in the art. In particular, when in an application program allowing the addition of a new contact, upon selecting the proper option as from a tool bar or drop down menu, the user may be presented with a window over the user's graphical user interface prompting the user to add information about the new contact. Such information may include name, address, company, telephone numbers, email addresses, website, the contact's screen name, etc.
In embodiments of a social network according to the present system, once a user adds a contact to his or her social network, a notification, or invitation, may be sent to the contact to determine whether the contact has added or would like to add that user to his or her contacts. If the invitation is accepted, there is said to be a two-way link, or a mutual friendship, between the contact and user, and each is part of the other's social network.
If the contact declines the invitation to add the user to the contact's social network, there is said to be a one-way link between the user and the contact, and the user may be referred to as a fan of the contact.
As shown in
A reverse listing table may also be stored for each contact in database server 110. When a user adds a contact to his or her social network, that user may be added to the contact's stored reverse listing. Thus, the contact can identify by accessing the reverse listing table everyone who has included that contact within their social network.
By way of example only, the social network page 200 shows “Tina's” contacts, and in particular only the first 18 of the 300 stored contacts that Tina has in this example. The page also displays one or more portions of Tina's contact information, such as name, address, telephone, email, etc. Of the contacts of Tina's shown, some of them are shown in silhouette only, such as contacts 202, indicating that these contacts have not accepted a two-way link with Tina. Other contacts, such as contacts 204, have graphical images such photographs or other representations indicating a mutual friendship between Tina and those contacts 204. Tina may be view as the “owner” of the stored contacts displayed on page 200, as distinguished from a user who is viewing the contacts but did not create them.
Additional stored contacts for Tina may be viewed by “clicking” (with a graphical pointer under the control of a mouse or other pointing device as is known in the art) on navigation buttons 206 so show the next page of contacts in Tina's stored contacts. Additionally, the contacts 204 may be live hyperlinks so that when one is clicked, the database server 110 provides the contacts of the selected contact 204. For example, if the user were to click on the contact 204a (screen name “Wonder Woman”), the user may be presented with a page similar to page 200 but showing Wonder Woman's contacts. In turn, a mutual friend shown on Wonder Woman's contacts may be clicked on to access that person's contacts, and so on.
The successive assessing of contacts of contacts may be viewed as accessing different contact levels. An indication of the different contact levels may be shown for example at a trail 208 on page 200. In this example, the user previously viewed “Bob's” contacts, where the user found and accessed “Batman's” contacts. From Batman's contacts, the user found and accessed Tina's contacts to generate the page 200 shown in
In embodiments, the silhouetted contacts 202 are not live hyperlinks, and the user would not be able to view the stored contacts on a contact 202's social network. This is because contacts 202 did not give permission to Tina for their contacts to be shared. Although contacts 202 did not give permission to Tina to share their contacts, a contact 202 may be a mutual friend to another contact in the user's social network, and their stored contacts may be accessed through that path.
As some contacts, such as Tina in the example of
In accordance with aspects of the present system, an owner, for example Tina in
The note and/or tag information may be added to an owner's contact when the contact is created or after the contact is created. As an example, an owner may select an option from a tool bar or drop down menu presenting a stored contact page, such as page 210 shown in
Referring first to the note box 214, in embodiments, the box 214 may accept up to 1000 characters (so that notes are kept relatively short), but more or less characters may be accepted in alternative embodiments. A formatting bar 216 may be included to allow an owner to format a note in different text styles and, in embodiments, to add different symbols or emoticons. In embodiments, the note box would not be configured to accept hypertext markup links, but could accept such links in alternative embodiments.
The note is intended to give information about the contact and/or the relationship between the contact and the owner creating the annotation. Thus, anyone accessing the owner's contacts may quickly learn useful information about the owner's contacts and/or the contact's relationship to the owner. However, there is no limitation in the type of information that may be included in a note.
In embodiments, the tag box 212 may accept up to fifteen tags for each contact, of up to twenty characters for each tag. More or less tags and characters per tag may be accepted in alternative embodiments. Each separate tag may be entered separated by spaces, although other methods for indicating the end of one tag and the beginning of another are possible. Tags more than one word long may be indicated by quotes around the tag. In embodiments, the tag box would not be configured to accept hypertext markup links, but could accept such links in alternative embodiments.
The tags are intended to be keywords describing the contact and/or the relationship between the contact and the owner making the tag annotation. Once the tags for a contact are created and saved to database 110 by annotation engine 115, users viewing their social network will be given the option to filter their social networks by keywords searches. For example, referring again to
As indicated above, once an owner is satisfied with the text they have included as a note and/or tag for a given contact, the owner may complete the action by engine 115 saving the information to the database server 110. In embodiments, the owner may enter both a note and a tag for a contact, or simply one or the other. After a note and/or tags are created and saved for a stored contact, the note and/or tags may be amended or deleted. The owner may again pull up the page for the stored contact. The existing note and/or tag may appear in the text boxes 212, 214. The owner may thereafter amend or delete the note and/or tag as desired and then save the new data to database 110 as explained above.
Similarly, page 222 may present a text box 230 for adding, amending or deleting a note for the contact. If a note was currently saved for that contact, the note could appear in box 230 when page 222 is presented to the owner. Once the additions, alterations and/or deletions to the contact's tags and/or note are finished, the action may be completed by saving the new tags and/or note to database server 110. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the note and the tag may be added, amended and/or deleted, and thereafter saved to a database, by a wide variety of user interfaces other than the page 210 shown in
In order to improve the efficiency of entering tags for an owner's contacts, the owner may be given the option through a tool bar or drop down menu to add a given tag to a plurality of contacts at the same time. Such an option is shown for example on page 232 on
In embodiments, the note and tag window 242 for Pamela may be shown whenever Pamela's contact information is displayed. The same would be true for any other contact having a note and/or tag. Alternatively, the note and tag window 242 for Pamela may be shown only when Pamela's contact image is traversed by the graphical pointer. As a further alternative, an icon or symbol may be placed next to each contact having a note or tag. A single icon/symbol may be presented indicating the presence of a note and/or tag. Alternatively, different icons/symbols may be presented, one for a note and one for a tag. In such an embodiment, the existence of a note and/or tag for Pamela may be indicated by the icon/symbol and the window 242 shown only when Pamela's contact image is traversed by the graphical pointer, or when the icon/symbol is clicked on using the graphical pointer and pointing device. The window 242 may be closed by the user after viewing the note and tags. It is understood that a note or tag may be displayed for any other displayed contact in the same manner.
The window 242 in
While the above-described embodiments have referred to notes and tags being annotated to a stored contact, it is understood that a wide variety of other data may be annotated to a stored contact to describe the contact, indicate a relationship with an owner, or provide other information. For example, an owner may annotate a stored contact with a photograph, picture or other graphical image. For example, in
A user may view all notes, tags and other data created by different owners for their own contacts across the various contact levels of the user's social network. However, in embodiments, the user would not have the ability to add to, alter or delete a note, tag or other data associated with a stored contact unless the data was for a user's own contacts. Thus, as an example, only Tina would have the ability to add to, alter or delete Pamela's note or tags. However, a user may get in touch with an owner for the contact to update his or her contacts' data. Moreover, in an alternative embodiment, a user may have limited or full authority and ability to add to, alter and/or delete a note, tag or other data created by another owner for that owner's contacts. That authority may be freely available in embodiments. Alternatively, that authority may be selectively granted to the user as desired by the owner who created the note, tags and/or data in further embodiments.
In embodiments, an owner may annotate one of their stored contacts regardless of whether the owner is a mutual friend of the stored contact or only a fan of the stored contact. In alternative embodiments, an owner may be prevented from annotating a stored contact unless a two-way link exists between the owner and the stored contact.
The inventive system is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing systems, environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the inventive system include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, laptop and palm computers, hand held devices, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
With reference to
Computer 310 may include a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 310 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile discs (DVD) or other optical disc storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disc storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computer 310. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above are also included within the scope of computer readable media.
The system memory 330 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 331 and random access memory (RAM) 332. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 333, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 310, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 331. RAM 332 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 320. By way of example, and not limitation,
The computer 310 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile discs, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disc drive 341 is typically connected to the system bus 321 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 340, magnetic disc drive 351 and optical media reading device 355 are typically connected to the system bus 321 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 350.
The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in
The computer 310 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 380. The remote computer 380 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 310, although only a memory storage device 381 has been illustrated in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 310 is connected to the LAN 371 through a network interface or adapter 370. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 310 typically includes a modem 372 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 373, such as the Internet. The modem 372, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 321 via the user input interface 360, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 310, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,
The foregoing detailed description of the inventive system has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the inventive system to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The described embodiments were chosen in order to best explain the principles of the inventive system and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the inventive system in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the inventive system be defined by the claims appended hereto.
