US 8,997,117 B1Granted

System and method for creating personal connection alerts

AssigneeLinkedIn Corporation

InventorsNisheeth Ranjan, Michael Leeds

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Abstract

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for providing personal connection alerts. The user desires to have a personal connection with a target person. An indicator for a target is provided by the user. The indicator is often the name of the target, but can also be a picture of the target, or other information. A record for the target is created based on the received indicator. The target record is stored. A variety of additional information regarding the target may be obtained from external or internal sources and also stored in the target record. Then the target record is periodically compared with the user's social sphere of influence, which comprises the user's primary and secondary connections. The comparison includes at least comparing the target with the user's secondary connections. When the target record matches at least one of the user's secondary connections, an alert is provided.

Claims30

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving one or more indicators for one or more targets associated with a user;
creating one or more records for the one or more targets based on the one or more indicators;
identifying a first set of one or more secondary connections of the user, wherein at least one of the secondary connections in the first set of one or more secondary connections is a primary connection of a particular primary connection of the user in a social network;
after identifying the first set of one or more secondary connections of the user, comparing each of the one or more records with each secondary connection in the first set of one or more secondary connections of the user;
automatically and not in response to input from the user:
identifying a second set of one or more secondary connections of the user,
wherein the second set is different than the first set;
after identifying the second set of one or more secondary connections of the user, comparing each of the one or more records with each secondary connection in the second set of one or more secondary connections of the user;
and
providing an alert when a record of the one or more records matches at least a particular secondary connection in the second set of one or more secondary connections of the user;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

8 more elements

A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of indicators for targets associated with a user;
creating a list that comprises records for targets based on the plurality of indicators;
identifying a first plurality of records in a social sphere of influence of the user, wherein the social sphere of influence includes one or more people with whom the user has had a two-way communication over a communication medium;
comparing each record in the list with each record in the first plurality of records in the social sphere of influence of the user;
automatically and not in response to input from the user:
identifying a second plurality of records in the social sphere of influence of the user, wherein the second plurality of records is different than the first plurality of records;
after identifying the second plurality of records, comparing each record in the list with each record in the second plurality of records;
and
providing an alert when one or more alert conditions are met, each of the one or more alert conditions comprising at least a first match condition, wherein at least one of the records in the list matches at least one record in the second plurality of records of the social sphere of influence of the user;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

7 more elements

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
and
memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:
receiving one or more indicators for one or more targets associated with a user;
creating one or more records for the one or more targets based on the one or more indicators;
identifying a first set of primary and secondary connections of the user, wherein at least one primary connection of the user is a person with whom the user has had a two-way communication over a communication medium;
comparing each of the one or more records with the first set of primary and secondary connections of the user;
automatically and not in response to input from the user:
identifying a second set of one or more primary and secondary connections of the user, wherein the second set of one or more primary and secondary connections of the user is different than the first set of primary and secondary connections of the user;
after identifying the second set of one or more primary and secondary connections of the user, comparing each of the one or more records with each connection in the second set of one or more primary and secondary connections of the user;
and
providing an alert when a record of the one or more records matches at least one connection in the second set of one or more primary and secondary connections of the user.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.