IP Library Granted Patent US 8,224,359
Granted Patent B2
US 8,224,359 · App. 11/615,920 · Granted Jul 17, 2012

Provisioning my status information to others in my social network

Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,224,359
App. No.
11/615,920
Granted
Jul 17, 2012
Kind
B2
Abstract

A device, system, and method are directed towards sending a status of a user in a social network to a recipient. In one embodiment, a status of the user is received over a channel. The channel may include an application protocol. The recipient is selected based on a membership in the social network, a preference of the recipient, or a media format of the status. Another channel is selected based on information about a mode of communication between the recipient and the user and/or another member related to the user in the social network. The status may be modified based on social network information, preferences of a recipient, receiving device information, channel information, or the like. The status is forwarded to the recipient over the other channel. Forwarding may comprise unicasting, multicasting, and/or delaying sending the status until the other channel is available.

Claims (62)

1. A method for managing a communication over a network, comprising:

receiving a status of a user in a social network over an application protocol;

selecting a recipient for the status based on a membership of the recipient in the social network;

partitioning the status into at least a first partition and a second partition based on a relationship between the user and the recipient in the social network, wherein at least a portion of the first partition is different from at least a portion of the second partition; and

forwarding at least the first partitioned status to the selected recipient over another application protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application protocol is different than the other application protocol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the status comprises a hierarchy of statuses, and wherein partitioning comprises providing another status from a level of the hierarchy of statuses based on the membership of the recipient in the social network.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a plurality of application protocols to be associated with a member in a social network based on information about the member in a plurality of address books of the user; and

selecting the other application protocol from the plurality of application protocols based on an availability of the other application protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein forwarding further comprises:

modifying, before forwarding, the status based on at least one of the other application protocol, the recipient's preference, and information about a device receiving the status over the other application protocol; and

sending the modified status based on a priority of the status.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving information about a plurality of social networks, wherein the user is in one of the plurality of social networks, and the recipient is in a different one of the plurality of social networks; and

using the information to combine the plurality of social networks into the social network.

7. A network device for managing a communication over a network, comprising:

a transceiver device to send and receive instructions and data over the network;

a non-transitory memory storage device that is operable to store instructions and data; and

a processor device that is operable to execute the stored instructions to enable actions, comprising:

subscribing a plurality of recipients to receive a status of a user in a social network;

receiving the status of the user over a channel;

selecting a portion of the plurality of recipients based on a relationship of each of the portion of the plurality of recipients in the social network with the user, and based on whether the plurality of recipients is indicated as allowed to receive the status;

partitioning the status into at least a first partition and a second partition based on a relationship between the user and the portion of the plurality of recipients, wherein at least a portion of the first partition is different from at least a portion of the second partition; and

sending at least the first partitioned status over a plurality of channels, wherein each channel is associated with a different one of the portion of the plurality of recipients, and wherein each of the plurality of channels is determined based on an application protocol, a receiving application type, and a receiving platform type.

8. The network device of claim 7 , wherein the actions further comprises:

modifying, before sending, the received status from a received media format to another media format based on a preference of at least one of the portion of the plurality of recipients, wherein the media formats includes at least one of a text message format, a voice message format, an image format, a video format, or a multimedia format.

9. The network device of claim 7 , wherein the actions further comprises:

forwarding a comment about the forwarded status to the portion of the plurality of recipients over each of the plurality of channels.

10. The network device of claim 7 , wherein selecting the portion of the plurality of recipients further comprises determining a member of the social network as one of the plurality of recipients based on a degree of separation between the member and the user in the social network.

11. The network device of claim 7 , wherein the status includes at least one of a mood, a time, a promotion, or a location of a mobile device of the user used to send the status.

12. A system for managing a communication over a network, comprising:

a client device, including:

a transceiver device to communicate data and instructions over the network;

a non-transitory memory storage device that is operable to store instructions and data; and

a processor device that is operable to execute the stored instructions to enable actions comprising:

receiving an input of a status of a user in a social network, wherein the user is associated with the client device;

enabling a selection of a community of the user in the social network; and

forwarding the status over a plurality of channels to a recipient in the community based on the community; and

a server device, including:

a transceiver device to communicate data and instructions over the network;

a non-transitory memory storage device that is operable to store instructions and data and

a processor device that is operable to execute the stored instructions to enable actions comprising:

intercepting the status of a user in a social network over one of the plurality of channels;

partitioning the status into at least a first partition and a second partition based on a relationship between the user and the recipient, wherein at least a portion of the first partition is different from at least a portion of the second partition; and

sending at least the first partitioned status over another one of the plurality of channels to the recipient.

13. The system claim 12 , wherein the client device further comprises:

a biometric detector in communication with the user, wherein the biometric detector is operable to receive information about the user and to transcode the received information into the input of the status.

14. The system claim 12 , wherein the plurality of channels further comprises at least one of a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a Short Message Service (SMS), or an instant messaging (IM) channel.

15. The system claim 12 , wherein sending comprises multicasting the status.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the server is further operable to perform actions comprising:

transcoding the status into a voice version of the status, before multicasting the voice version of the status.

17. The system claim 12 , wherein the recipient is determined based on a media format of the status and a history of other media formats of other statuses sent to the recipient.

18. A non-transitory processor readable medium having processor executable instructions for managing a communication over a network, the processor executable instructions configured to enable a processor to perform actions, comprising:

determining a plurality of channels to be associated with a recipient in a social network based on information about a mode of communication between the recipient and a user;

receiving a status of the user in the social network over a channel;

partitioning the status into at least a first partition and a second partition based on a relationship between the user and the recipient, wherein at least a portion of the first partition is different from at least a portion of the second partition;

selecting a send channel from the plurality of channels based on a preference of the recipient; and

delaying sending at least the first partitioned status over the send channel until the send channel is determined to be available.

19. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the actions further comprises:

determining the plurality of channels based on information about another mode of communication between the recipient and another member in the social network.

20. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the information about the mode of communication includes a history of a past channel used to communicate between the user and the member.

Assignments (5)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 19, 2021
From: VERIZON MEDIA INC.
To: VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.
Reel/Frame 057453/0431 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 26, 2020
From: OATH INC.
To: VERIZON MEDIA INC.
Reel/Frame 054258/0635 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 2, 2018
From: YAHOO HOLDINGS, INC.
To: OATH INC.
Reel/Frame 045240/0310 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 23, 2017
From: YAHOO! INC.
To: YAHOO HOLDINGS, INC.
Reel/Frame 042963/0211 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 29, 2006
From: MARLOW, CAMERON; SAMPLE, NEAL; KALABOUKIS, CHRIS
To: YAHOO! INC.
Reel/Frame 018694/0072 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20080155080A1 · Jun 26, 2008