Event scheduling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016014222-A1
Application number	US-201414325484-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 8, 2014
Priority date	Jul 8, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining other users that will attend an event with a user. One of the methods includes receiving, by a computer-implemented agent for a device, input from a user identifying an event, determining constraints for other users that will be invited to attend the event, determining one or more other users who meet the constraints, identifying, for each of the other users, other computer-implemented agents, each of the other agents for respective other devices, sending, to each of the other agents, a request to determine whether the respective other user of the other agent is interested in attending the event, receiving, from a first subset of the other agents, a response that indicates that the respective other user is interested in attending the event, and facilitating communication between the user and the respective other users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a computer-implemented agent for a device, input from a user identifying an event which the user plans to attend; determining, by the agent, constraints for other users that will be invited to attend the event; determining, by the agent, one or more other users who meet the constraints; identifying, by the agent and for each of the other users, other computer-implemented agents, each of the other agents for respective other devices; sending, by the agent and to each of the other agents, a request to determine whether the respective other user of the other agent is interested in attending the event; receiving, by the agent from a first subset of the other agents, a response that indicates that the respective other user is interested in attending the event; and facilitating, by the agent and with the first subset of the other agents, communication between the user and the respective other users.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising
identifying, by the agent, at least one of the first subset of other agents whose respective other user plans to attend the event; and scheduling, by the agent and the at least one of the first subset of other agents, a time slot for the event for the user and the other user.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein scheduling the time slot for the event for the user and the other user comprises:
determining a time and a location for the event without sharing any user's calendar information with any of the users.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein scheduling the time slot for the event for the user and the other user comprises:
determining a time and a location for the event; and reserving the time for the event in a calendar of the user.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein scheduling the time slot for the event for the user and the other user comprises:
prompting, by the agent, the user to determine whether the user plans to attend another event identified on the calendar of the user which conflicts with the time for the event; and receiving, by the agent, input indicating that the user will not attend the other event.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein facilitating communication between the user and the respective other users comprises:
determining respective privacy settings for the user and each of the respective other users; and providing only information identified by a corresponding user as information that can be disclosed in a communication between the agent and the first subset of the other agents according to the respective privacy settings for the user and each of the respective other users.

7 . The method of claim 6 , comprising:
determining, by the agent using the respective privacy settings for the user, that the agent may provide one of the other agents in the first subset additional information about the user in a subsequent communication that the agent could not provide in a first communication sent prior to the subsequent communication.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein determining that the agent may provide one of the other agents in the first subset additional information about the user in a subsequent communication that the agent could not provide in a first communication sent prior to the subsequent communication comprises receiving, by the agent, input from the user indicating that the agent may provide the additional information to the one of the other agents in the first subset.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein facilitating communication between the user and the respective other users comprises, for a particular other user from the other users until the user and the other user agree to attend the event together or not:
providing, by the agent, additional information about the user or the event to a particular other agent from the other agents that corresponds with the particular other user; and receiving, by the agent, other additional information about the other user or the event from the particular other agent.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the additional information comprises a job title for the user and the other additional information comprises another job title for the particular other user.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the additional information comprises a name of an employer of the user and the other additional information comprises another name of another employer for the particular other user.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the additional information comprises a name of a city in which the user works or lives and the other additional information comprises another name of another city in which the particular other user works or lives.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein facilitating communication between the user and the respective other users comprises facilitating communication about the event, the user, or the other users.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein facilitating communication between the user and the respective other users comprises facilitating, by the agent for each of the other agents in the first subset of the other agents, communication between only the agent and the respective other agent.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the constraints for the other users that will be invited to attend the event without receiving an identity for any of the other users from the user comprises:
prompting, by the agent, the user for the constraints; and receiving, by the agent, input from the user identifying the constraints.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the constraints for the other users that will be invited to attend the event without receiving an identity for any of the other users from the user comprises identifying a profile for the user that defines the constraints.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
determining, by the agent, constraints for other users that will be invited to attend the event comprises determining, by the agent, constraints for other users that will be invited to attend the event without receiving an identity for any of the other users from the user; and determining, by the agent, the one or more other users who meet the constraints comprises determining, by the agent, the one or more other users who meet the constraints without revealing an identity for any of the other users to the user.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the constraints are specific to the event, a type of the event, or all events for the user.

19 . A system, comprising:
a data processing apparatus; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a computer-implemented agent for a device, input from a user identifying an event which the user plans to attend;
determining, by the agent, constraints for other users that will be invited to attend the event;
determining, by the agent, one or more other users who meet the constraints;
identifying, by the agent and for each of the other users, other computer-implemented agents, each of the other agents for respective other devices;
sending, by the agent and to each of the other agents, a request to determine whether the respective other user of the other agent is interested in attending the event;
receiving, by the agent from a first subset of the other agents, a response that indicates t

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Chen Johnny
• Dean Thomas L
• Schine Gabriel
• Lau Peter
• Gandhe Sudeep

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

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

• G06Q10/1093 Primary

  Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups · CPC title

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title