Automatically providing a communication based on location information for a user of a social networking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9338125-B2
Application number	US-201514629193-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2005
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members are provided. According to one embodiment, contact content including an associated GPS identifier and status for web-based social network members located at or near the same location automatically appears on a GPS-enabled device. A further exemplary system includes a GPS-enabled device configured to receive a GPS identifier and a status representing a location and a current state for a web-based social network member, a processing module that associates the received GPS-identifier and the received status, and a communications module that sends the associated GPS-identifier and status to a server comprising a web-based social network database. Contact content in a web-based social network database record in the web-based social network database is updated to include the associated GPS identifier and status for the web-based social network member.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a social networking system, location information for a device associated with a first user of the social networking system;
associating the location information with the first user in a user profile associated with the first user of the social networking system; and
sending, from the social networking system to a second user, a communication generated based at least in part on the location information, the communication providing information about a place at a geographic location represented by the location information.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the second user has a social networking connection to the first user over the social networking system.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein associating the location information comprises storing the location information in the user profile associated with the first user.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information is a story providing information about the first user based at least in part on the location information.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein sending the communication generated based at least in part on the location information to the second user comprises:
determining a physical address based at least in part on the location information; and
sending at least the physical address to the second user.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes a video associated with the location information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes audio associated with the location information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes a photograph associated with the location information.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information provides information about a place at a geographic location represented by the location information.

10. A computer system, comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing modules that include:
a communication module configured to:
receive location information for a device associated with a first user of a social networking system, and
send, to a second user, a communication generated based at least in part on the location information, the communication providing information about a place at a geographic location represented by the location information; and
a database module configured to associate the location information with the first user in a user profile associated with the first user of the social networking system; and
a processor to execute the modules.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the second user has a social networking connection to the first user over the social networking system.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information is a story providing information about the first user based at least in part on the location information.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communication module is configured to:
determine a physical address based at least in part on the location information; and
send at least the physical address to the second user.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes a video associated with the location information.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes audio associated with the location information.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information includes a photograph associated with the location information.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computer processor, the instructions comprising:
instructions for receiving, by a social networking system, location information for a device associated with a first user of the social networking system;
instructions for associating the location information with the first user in a user profile associated with the first user of the social networking system; and
instructions for sending, from the social networking system to a second user, a communication generated based at least in part on the location information, the communication providing information about a place at a geographic location represented by the location information.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the second user has a social networking connection to the first user over the social networking system.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein associating the location information comprises storing the location information in the user profile associated with the first user.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the communication generated based at least in part on the location information is a story providing information about the first user based at least in part on the location information.

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Stremel Jed
• Ramakrishnan Thyagarajapuram S
• Slee Mark

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

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

• H04W4/185

  by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title