Searching people, content and documents from another person's social perspective

A computer program product embodied in a computer readable storage medium for performing a search from another individual's perspective, the computer program product comprising the programming instructions for:

• receiving a portion of a name of an individual known by a user who works at a different organization than said user;
• generating directory search results comprising a listing of names based on said received portion of said name of said known individual;
• receiving a selection of a name from said listing of names from said directory search results by said user, wherein said selected name corresponds to said known individual;
• receiving a selection to perform a content search from a social perspective of said known individual selected by said user, wherein said content search is a search for textual, visual and aural content posted on the Internet and/or stored in a database, wherein said content search is performed based on a social network of said known individual;
• presenting an option to said user as to which users, if any, would be allowed to select said user to have a search be conducted from a social perspective of said user;
• receiving one or more search terms to conduct said content search from said known individual's social perspective, wherein said one or more search terms are provided by said user via a field of a graphical user interface object, wherein said one or more search terms comprise a portion of a name of an individual who is unidentifiable by said user but is a member of said social network of said known individual;
• performing said content search based on said known individual's social perspective using said received one or more search terms, wherein said user is looking for a document pertaining to a topic that said individual has acted upon but does not have knowledge as to where said document is stored, wherein said known individual has access to said document since said known individual held a meeting pertaining to said topic and/or discussed said document acted upon by said individual;
• and
• generating said content search results using said received one or more search terms from said known individual's social perspective thereby increasing the likelihood of generating correct search results for said user in a more efficient manner, wherein said content search results comprise said document pertaining to said topic that said individual acted upon.

A system, comprising:

• a memory unit for storing a computer program for performing a search from another individual's perspective;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processor is configured to execute the program instructions of the computer program comprising:
• receiving a portion of a name of an individual known by a user who works at a different organization than said user;
• generating directory search results comprising a listing of names based on said received portion of said name of said known individual;
• receiving a selection of a name from said listing of names from said directory search results by said user, wherein said selected name corresponds to said known individual;
• receiving a selection to perform a content search from a social perspective of said known individual selected by said user, wherein said content search is a search for textual, visual and aural content posted on the Internet and/or stored in a database, wherein said content search is performed based on a social network of said known individual;
• presenting an option to said user as to which users, if any, would be allowed to select said user to have a search be conducted from a social perspective of said user;
• receiving one or more search terms to conduct said content search from said known individual's social perspective, wherein said one or more search terms are provided by said user via a field of a graphical user interface object, wherein said one or more search terms comprise a portion of a name of an individual who is unidentifiable by said user but is a member of said social network of said known individual;
• performing said content search based on said known individual's social perspective using said received one or more search terms, wherein said user is looking for a document pertaining to a topic that said individual has acted upon but does not have knowledge as to where said document is stored, wherein said known individual has access to said document since said known individual held a meeting pertaining to said topic and/or discussed said document acted upon by said individual;
• and
• generating said content search results using said received one or more search terms from said known individual's social perspective thereby increasing the likelihood of generating correct search results for said user in a more efficient manner, wherein said content search results comprise said document pertaining to said topic that said individual acted upon.