Crowdsourcing entity information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10009440-B2
Application number	US-201514725615-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2015
Priority date	May 29, 2015
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

Generally discussed herein are methods, systems, and apparatuses for crowdsourcing data. A method can include identifying a first entity has an auto-created profile on a social network site or has a profile page that has been abandoned by an administrator of the profile page, identifying a user of the site includes the first entity in their profile or includes a second entity in their profile where the second entity includes an industry identifier that matches an industry identifier of the first entity, prompting the user determined to be associated with the first entity to verify data about the first entity in the auto-created profile or provide new data about the first entity, and updating the auto-created profile of the first entity in response to the user confirming that the prior data is incorrect or providing new data about the first entity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations for crowdsourcing information about a first company of a social network site, the operations comprising:
determining whether the first company referenced in a profile of a user of users has a profile and in response to determining the first company does not have a profile, automatically producing the profile for the first company to create the auto-created profile;
identifying the first company has an auto-created profile on the social network site, the auto-created profile created in response to determining an entity identification number does not match any entries in a database of entity identification numbers and the auto-created profile including data gathered automatically from respective profiles of one or more users that include the first company in their profile;
identifying the users of the social network site associated with the first company based upon determining the users include the first company in their profile or include a second company in their profile where the second company includes an industry identifier that matches an industry identifier of the first company;
prompting the identified users determined to be associated with the first company to provide new data about the first company;
determining a most popular response from responses to the prompting from the users; and
updating the auto-created profile of the first company to include the determined most popular response from the users.

2. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining which user of the users is likely to respond to the prompting by determining a weighted sum of one or more attributes for each of the users and prompting only users with a weighted sum above a specified threshold.

3. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for determining the users of the social network site associated with the first company include instructions for determining the users include the first company in their profile.

4. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the determined users of the social network site are a former or current employee of the second company and the second company includes an industry identifier that is the same as an industry identifier of the first company.

5. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise, before prompting a user of the users associated with the first company to provide new data about the first company, verifying the user is or was associated with the first company by asking one or more other users of the social network site that are or were associated with the first company, according to their respective profile on the social network site, at the same time as the user, if they know the user.

6. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise prompting the user to verify data about the first company in the auto-created profile.

7. The medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the machine, configure the machine to prompt another user of the users to verify the new data provided by the user is accurate and wherein the instructions for updating the auto-created profile include instructions to update the data of the profile only if the another user verifies the data is accurate.

8. A method comprising operations performed using one or more hardware processors, the operations comprising:
determining if a first company referenced in a profile of a user of the users has a profile;
in response to determining the first company does not have a profile, automatically producing the profile for the first company to create the auto-created profile;
identifying the first company has an auto-created profile on the social network site, the auto-created profile created in response to determining an entity identification number does not match any entries in a database of entity identification numbers and the auto-created profile including data gathered automatically from respective profiles of one or more users that include the first company in their profile;
identifying users of the social network site associated with the first company based upon determining the users include the first company in their profile or include a second company in their profile where the second company includes an industry identifier that matches an industry identifier of the first company;
prompting the identified users determined to be associated with the first company to provide new data about the first company;
determining a most popular response from responses to the prompting from the users; and
updating the auto-created profile of the first company to include the determined most popular response from the users.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining which user of the users is likely to respond to the prompting by determining a weighted sum of one or more attributes for each of the users and prompting only users with a weighted sum above a specified threshold.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the users of the social network site associated with the first company includes determining the users include the first company in their profile.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the identified users of the social network site are a formerly or currently associated with the second company and the second entity includes an industry identifier that is the same as an industry identifier of the first company.

12. A system comprising:
one or more hardware processors;
one or more memories communicatively coupled to the one or more hardware processors, the one or more memories including stored thereon, the one or more memories further including instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for crowdsourcing company information, the operations comprising:
determining whether a first company referenced in a profile of a user of users has a profile and in response to determining the first company does not have a profile, automatically producing the profile for the first company to create the auto-created profile;
identifying the first company has an auto-created profile on the social network site, the auto-created profile created in response to determining an entity identification number does not match any entries in a database of entity identification numbers and the auto-created profile including data gathered automatically from respective profiles of one or more users that include the first company in their profile;
identifying users of the social network site associated with the first company based upon determining the users include the first company in their profile or include a second company in their profile where the second company includes an industry identifier that matches an industry identifier of the first company;
prompting the identified users determined to be associated with the first company to provide new data about the first company;
determining a most popular response from responses to the prompting from the users; and
updating the auto-created profile of the first company to include the determined most popular response from the users.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise, before prompting a user of the users associated with the first company to provide new data about the first company, verifying the user is or was associated with the first company by asking one or more other users of the social network site that are or were associated with the fi

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Deb Viman
• Feng Huining
• Pinkovezky Aviad

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04L67/306 Primary

  User profiles · CPC title

• G06Q50/01

  Physics · mapped topic