Methods and systems for providing current email addresses and contact information for members within a social network

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a client device, a request for contact information included in a social network profile of a first member of a social network, responsive to the client device detecting a triggering event initiated by a user, the triggering event comprising at least one event from a group consisting of:
• using a send button, using a function key, using a function short key, exiting from a sending parameter, and expiration of time, wherein the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with the user;
• responsive to receiving the request from the client device, determining an association and a degree of separation between the first member and the user using profile information stored in a storage subsystem and included in the social network profile of the first member, the degree of separation determined based at least in part on an inverse relationship between an association of the user with the first member and a weighting factor assigned for the association prior to determining the degree of separation, wherein a high weightin factor contributes less to the degree of separation than a low weighting factor,
• wherein the storage subsystem storing profile information of a plurality of members of the social network, the plurality of members connected in the social network via user established relationships;
• determining based at least in part on the determined association and the degree of separation whether the user is authorized to receive the contact information;
• transmitting at least some of the contact information to the client device, responsive to determining the user is authorized to receive at least some of the contact information;
• comparing the transmitted contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the user;
• and
• replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with corresponding transmitted contact information.

A method comprising:

• receiving, from a client device, a request for contact information included in a social network profile of a first member of a social network, responsive to the client device (a) detecting a user accessing a contact name associated with the first member in an electronic address directory and (b) detecting a triggering event comprising at least one event from a group consisting of:
• using a send button, using a function key, using a function short key, exiting a field of the directory, and expiration of time, wherein the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with the user;
• responsive to receiving the request from the client device, determining an association and a degree of separation between the first member and the user using profile information stored in a storage subsystem and included in the social network profile of the first member, the degree of separation determined based at least in part on an inverse relationship between an association of the user with the first member and a weighting factor assigned for the association prior to determining the degree of separation, wherein a high weighting factor contributes less to the degree of separation than a low weighting factor,
• wherein the storage subsystem storing profile information of a plurality of members of the social network, the plurality of members connected in the social network via user established relationships;
• determining based at least in part on the determined association, the degree of separation and the profile information associated with the first member whether the user is authorized to receive the contact information;
• transmitting at least some of the contact information to the client device, responsive to determining the user is authorized to receive at least some of contact information;
• comparing the transmitted contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the user;
• and replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with corresponding transmitted contact information.

A system comprising:

• a computer processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the computer processor are configured to:
• receive from a client device, a request for contact information included in a social network profile of a first member of a social network, responsive to the client device detecting a triggering event initiated by a user, the triggering event comprising at least one event from a group consisting of:
• using a send button, using a function key, using a function short key, exiting from a sending parameter, and expiration of time, wherein the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with the user;
• determine an association and a degree of separation between the first member and the user using profile information stored in a storage subsystem and included in the social network profile of the first member responsive to receiving the request, the degree of separation determined based at least in part on an inverse relationship between an association of the user with the first member and a weighting factor assigned for the association prior to determining the degree of separation, wherein a high weighting factor contributes less to the degree of separation than a low weighting factor,
• wherein the storage subsystem storing profile information of a plurality of members of the social network, the plurality of members connected in the social network via user established relationships;
• determine based at least in part on the determined association, and the degree of separation whether the user is authorized to receive the contact information;
• transmit at least some of the contact information to the client device, responsive to the user being authorized to receive at least some of the contact information;
• compare the transmitted contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the user;
• and
• replace differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with corresponding transmitted contact information.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which is encoded program code comprising:

• program code for receiving from a client device, a request for contact information included in a social network profile of a first member of a social network, responsive to the client device detecting a triggering event initiated by a user, the triggering event comprising at least one event from a group consisting of:
• using a send button, using a function key, using a function short key, exiting from a sending parameter, and expiration of time, wherein the request comprising a first entity identifier associated with the first member and a second entity identifier associated with the user;
• program code for responsive to receiving the request from the client device, determining an association and a degree of separation between the first member and the user using profile information stored in a storage subsystem and included in the social network profile of the first member responsive to receiving the request from the client device, the degree of separation determined based at least in part on an inverse relationship between an association of the user with the first member and a weighting factor assigned for the association prior to determining the degree of separation, wherein a high weighting factor contributes less to the degree of separation than a low weighting factor,
• wherein the storage subsystem storing profile information of a plurality of members of the social network, the plurality of members connected in the social network via user established relationships;
• program code for determining based at least in part on the determined association and the degree of separation whether the user is authorized to receive the contact information;
• and
• program code for transmitting at least some of the contact information to the client device, responsive to determining the user is authorized to receive at least some of the contact information;
• program code for comparing the transmitted contact information with contact information for the first member in an electronic address book associated with the user;
• and
• program code for replacing differing contact information associated with the first member in the electronic address book with corresponding transmitted contact information.