Granted Patent B2

US 9,953,073 · App. 14/715,012 · Granted Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

Claims (45)

1. A method comprising the steps of:

creating, by a computing device, a plurality of aggregate contacts using contact data collected by a network;

storing the aggregate contacts in a data repository;

receiving a new user edit related to one of the aggregate contacts;

automatically updating an electronic edit document to include the new user edit, the electronic edit document comprising a plurality of anchor points, each anchor point pointing to one of the plurality of aggregate contacts, and each anchor point comprising a weight;

determining a rank for each of the plurality of aggregate contacts, wherein the rank indicates a strength of a relationship to the respective aggregate contact;

determining, by the computing device, based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points at the time of receiving the new user edit, that the electronic edit document corresponds to a first aggregate contact,

wherein the plurality of anchor points comprises a first anchor point that points to the first aggregate contact, the first aggregate contact has a first rank, and the weight of the first anchor point is based on the first rank,

wherein the first aggregate contact is associated with a first person, and the first rank is based on usage of contact data of the first aggregate contact by friends in a social network of the first person, and

wherein the determining based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points further comprises comparing a sum of weights for anchor points in the electronic edit document that point to the first aggregate contact to a sum of weights for all anchor points in the electronic edit document;

applying the electronic edit document to update the first aggregate contact, the applying comprising updating contact data of the first aggregate contact using the new user edit; and

storing the updated first aggregate contact in the data repository.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic edit document further comprises a plurality of prior user edits applied to the first aggregate contact prior to receiving the new user edit.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first rank is further based on prior messages sent to the first person by a user.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the weights for at least one of the anchor points after applying the electronic edit document.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded with computer-executable instructions, that when executed by a processor associated with a computing device, performs a method comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a new edit related to one of a plurality of aggregate objects;

automatically updating an electronic edit file to include the new edit, the electronic edit file comprising a plurality of anchor points, each anchor point pointing to one of the plurality of aggregate objects, and each anchor point comprising a weight;

determining a rank for each of the plurality of aggregate objects, wherein the rank indicates a strength of a relationship to the respective aggregate object;

determining, by the computing device, based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points at the time of receiving the new edit, that the electronic edit file corresponds to a first aggregate object,

wherein the plurality of anchor points comprises a first anchor point that points to the first aggregate object, the first aggregate object has a first rank, and the weight of the first anchor point is based on the first rank,

wherein the first aggregate object is associated with a first person, and the first rank is based on usage of contact data of the first aggregate object by friends in a social network of the first person, and

wherein the determining based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points further comprises comparing the first anchor point with at least one other anchor point in the electronic edit file that points to a different aggregate object; and

applying the electronic edit file to update the first aggregate object based on the new edit.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the electronic edit file further comprises a plurality of prior edits applied to the first aggregate object prior to receiving the new edit.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises determining a score for each of a plurality of endpoints of the first aggregate object including a first score for a first endpoint, wherein the first anchor point points to the first endpoint, and wherein the weight of the first anchor point is further based on the first score.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the score of a second endpoint of the endpoints is based on social data of the first person.

9. A system comprising:

a data repository to store a plurality of aggregate contacts;

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising:

creation logic executed by the processor for creating the plurality of aggregate contacts;

communication logic executed by the processor for receiving, over a network, a new user edit related to one of the plurality of aggregate contacts;

updating logic executed by the processor for automatically updating an electronic edit document to include the new user edit, the electronic edit document comprising a plurality of anchor points, each anchor point pointing to one of the plurality of aggregate contacts, and each anchor point comprising a weight;

ranking logic executed by the processor for determining a rank for each of the plurality of aggregate contacts, wherein the rank indicates a strength of a relationship to the respective aggregate contact;

resolution logic executed by the processor for determining, based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points at the time of receiving the new user edit, that the electronic edit document corresponds to a first aggregate contact,

wherein the plurality of anchor points comprises a first anchor point that points to the first aggregate contact, the first aggregate contact has a first rank, and the weight of the first anchor point is based on the first rank,

wherein the first aggregate contact is associated with a first person, and the first rank is based on usage of contact data of the first aggregate contact by friends in a social network of the first person, and

wherein the determining based on the weights of the plurality of anchor points further comprises comparing the first anchor point with at least one other anchor point in the electronic edit document that points to a different aggregate contact; and

editing logic executed by the processor for applying the electronic edit document to the first aggregate contact.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the resolution logic further determines that the first aggregate contact is pointed to by a highest number of the anchor points.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the resolution logic further determines that the first aggregate contact is pointed to by the one of the anchor points having a highest weight.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first anchor point points to an email address of the first aggregate contact.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the new user edit is a request to change the email address to a new email address, and the editing logic updates the first aggregate contact to include the new email address.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the program logic further comprises ranking logic executed by the processor for determining a score for each of a plurality of endpoints used by the plurality of aggregate contacts, each anchor point points to one of the endpoints, and each anchor point comprises a weight based on the score of the endpoint pointed to by the anchor point.

Assignments (6)