Method and server for searching for nearby user in social networking services

1. A method for searching for nearby users in Social Networking Services (SNS) applied to a computer comprising a storage and a processor, which executes instructions stored in the storage to execute steps of:

receiving location information and a user Identification (ID) from a client terminal device of a user X; determining a grid Y, to which the location information belongs;

saving the user ID, the location information and reporting time of the user X in a list of the grid Y; wherein the grid Y is one of grids in a grid array obtained by dividing a surface of the earth into the grids and areas of the grids are the same;

searching for users in the grid Y and other girds; wherein the grid Y and the other grids form an N-grid and the grid Y is a center of the N-grid, N=n*n, n is an odd larger than or equal to 3;

ranking the users according to distances between the users and the user X and the reporting time of the user X; wherein the closer a distance between a user and the user X, the higher rank of the user is, and the shorter time between the reporting time of the user and a current time is, the higher the rank of the user is; and

sending the ranked user IDs of the users and the distances between the users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X,

wherein the ranked user IDs of the users are received by the user X and used by the user X to contact other users;

wherein ranking the users according to the distances between the users and the user X and the reporting time of the user X comprises:

computing a weight A i =a*D i +b*T i of a user i; wherein a and b are weighting coefficients, D i is a distance between the user i and the user X, T i is time between the current time and the reporting time of the user i; and

ranking the users in an ascending order of the weight.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein sending the ranked user IDs of the users and distances between the users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X comprises:

determining whether number of the users is less than or equal to M;

sending the ranked user IDs of the users and distances between the users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X if the number of the users is less than or equal to M; and

sending ranked user IDs of top M users and distances between the top M users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X if the number of the users is larger than M; wherein M is a positive integer larger than one.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein before receiving the location information of the user X, the method further comprises:

obtaining, by the client terminal device of the user X, the location information of the user X according to any of method one to method three; wherein method one is a Global Positioning System (GPS) function, method two is a Cell ID of an eNode B and method three is a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a connected Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) access point;

reporting, by the client terminal device of the user X, the location information of the user X if the location information of the user X is successfully obtained with one of the method one to method three; and

obtaining, by the client terminal device of the user X, the location information of the user X with another method of the method one to method three if the location information of the user X is not successfully obtained with the one of method one to method three.

4. A server, comprising: a processor and a storage;

wherein the storage comprises: a first processing module and a second processing module, wherein

the first processing module executed by the processor, to divide a surface of the earth into a grid array, in which an area of each grid is the same, and set a list for a grid;

the second processing module executed by the processor, when location information and a user Identification (ID) from a client terminal device of a user X is received, to determine a grid Y, to which the location information belongs, store the user ID, the location information and reporting time of the user X in a list of the grid Y, search for users in the grid Y and other girds, in which the grid Y and the other grids form an N-grid and the grid Y is a center of the N-grid,

N=n*n and n is an odd larger than or equal to 3, rank the users according to distances between the users and the user X and the reporting time of the user X and send the ranked user IDs of the users and distances between the users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X; wherein the closer a distance between a user and the user X is, the higher rank of the user is, and the shorter time between the reporting time of the user and a current time is, the higher the rank of the user is;

wherein the ranked user IDs of the users are received by the user X and used by the user X to contact other users;

wherein the second processing module is further executed by the processor to compute a weight A i =a*D i +b*T i of a user i; wherein a and b are weighting coefficients, D i is a distance between the user i and the user X, T i is time between the current time and the reporting time of the user i and rank the users in an ascending order of the weight.

5. The server according to claim 4 , wherein the second processing module is further executed by the processor to determine whether number of the users is less than or equal to M after the users are ranked, send the ranked user IDs of the users and distances between the users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X if the number of the users is less than or equal to M and send ranked user IDs of top M users and distances between the top M users and the user X to the client terminal device of the user X if the number of the users is larger than M; wherein M is a positive integer larger than one.