Location-based social software for mobile devices
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsDennis P. Crowley, Alexander M. Rainert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of establishing connection between users of mobile devices includes receiving at a computer a location of a first user from a first mobile device, receiving from a second mobile device a location of a second user having an acquaintance relationship to the first user, and sending a message to the first mobile device based on the proximity of the first user to the second user.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- receiving, at a computer, a location of a first user who is associated with a first mobile device;
- receiving a location of a second user who is associated with a second mobile device, and who is identified as a friend of the first user;
- sending a first message to the first mobile device based on the proximity of the first user to the second user, wherein the first message identifies the location of the second user;
- and
- sending a second message to the second mobile device based on the proximity of the second user to the first user, wherein the second message identifies the location of the first user.
A system for providing information about acquaintances, comprising:
- an interface to receive messages from users of the system providing information associated with their location;
- a location engine configured to correlate the received location information to a location identifier that may be compared to other location identifiers;
- an acquaintance identifier configured to identify acquaintances of users who provide location information to the system;
- and
- a message generator to prepare messages to users regarding the locations of their acquaintances if those locations are proximate to the users, wherein the message generator is configured to prepare a first message for a first user about the location of a second user who is identified as a friend of the first user, and to prepare a message for the second user about the location of the first user.
A system for providing information about acquaintances, comprising:
- an interface to receive a message from a first user of the system;
- means for identifying a set of users of a particular relationship to the first user within a particular proximity of the first user;
- and
- a message generator to prepare messages for the set of users, including information about the location of the first user, in response to the message from the first user, wherein the message generator is configured to prepare a first message for a first user about the location of a second user who is identified as a friend of the first user, and to prepare a message for the second user about the location of the first user.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, perform actions comprising:
- receiving, at a computer, a location of a first user who is associated with a first mobile device;
- receiving a location of a second user who is associated with a second mobile device, and who is identified as a friend of the first user;
- sending to the first mobile device a message containing the location of the second mobile device, based on the proximity of the first user to the second user;
- and
- sending to the second mobile device a message containing the location of the first mobile device, based on the proximity of the second user to the first user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.