Aggregate provider for social activity feeds and contact information

An electronic computing device comprising:

• a processing unit;
• and
• system memory, the system memory including instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the electronic computing device to:
• receive a request to display social networking information for a user;
• determine via the email application whether an account for a social network associated with the user is available to the user of an email application running on the electronic computing device;
• and
• when a determination is made via the email application that the account for the social network is available to the user:
• request the third party social networking information for the user from a server computer, the server computer being different than a third party computer associated with the social network;
• receive third party social networking information from the server computer, the third party social networking information received from the server computer comprising contact information for the user from social networks and formatting instructions for formatting the third party social networking information to be compatible with a user interface of an email application;
• aggregate the third party social networking information with other contact information of the email application;
• use the formatting instructions for formatting the aggregated third party social networking information to be displayed in the user interface of the email application;
• and
• display the other contact information and formatted third party social networking information, having been aggregated together, via the user interface of the email application on the electronic computing device.

A computer readable storage device, not including a propagated signal, comprising instructions that, when executed by an electronic computing device, cause the electronic computing device to:

• receive a request to display social networking information for a user on an email application running on the electronic computing device, the request comprising determining that an activation event has been detected at the electronic computing device, the activation event comprising a selection or an identification of the user on the electronic computing device;
• determine via the email application whether an account for a social network associated with the user is available to the user of the email application, the determination as to whether the account for the social network associated with the user is available to the user of the email application comprising determining whether a user ID and a password for accessing the third party computer has been entered for the user in the email application;
• when a determination is made via the email application that the account for the social network is available for the user:
• obtain from a server computer instructions for obtaining the third party social networking information from a third party computer, the instructions including one or more application programming interface commands for connecting to the third party computer, the server computer being different than the third party computer;
• obtain from the server computer a list of available social networks;
• obtain from the server computer formatting instructions for formatting the third party social networking information on the electronic computing device, the formatting instructions including one or more rules for transforming the third party social networking information into a format compatible with a user interface of the email application of the electronic computing device, the formatting instructions being in the form of a style sheet or script;
• use the instructions from the server computer for obtaining the third party social networking from the third party computer, the third party social networking information including activity feed data for the user;
• use the instructions from the server computer for obtaining the third party social networking information and activity feed information from one or more additional third party computers;
• after obtaining the formatting instructions for formatting the third party social networking information, identify the third party social networking information and activity feed data from each of the one or more third party computers via an icon displayed with the third party social networking information and activity feed data, the icon and the third party social networking information and activity feed data displayed on the user interface of the email application, the icon representing a social network corresponding to one of the third party computers;
• and
• aggregate the third party social networking information with other contact information of the email application;
• after obtaining the formatting instructions for formatting the third party social networking information, format the obtained third party social networking information to be displayed in the user interface of the email application;
• and
• display the other contact information and formatted third party social networking information, having been aggregated together, via the user interface of the email application on the electronic computing device.