Online location sharing through an internet service search engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9785711-B2
Application number	US-201213425716-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2012
Priority date	Aug 17, 2010
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

Online location sharing through an internet service search engine includes: receiving in a server a query from a first user, the query identifying a second user; querying multiple internet services with the server over a network for real-time information regarding the second user; and providing a consolidated view of responses received from the plurality of internet services to the first user with the server, the server being authorized by the second user to receive all information relevant to the second user contained in the responses; wherein the consolidated view of responses indicates an online location of the second user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of online location sharing through an internet service search engine, the method comprising:
receiving in a server a query from a first user, said query identifying a second user;
querying a plurality of internet services with said server over a network for real-time information relevant to said second user, the plurality of internet services comprising a number of applications whose functionality is provided over an internet; and
providing a consolidated view of responses received from said plurality of internet services to said first user with said server, said server being authorized by said second user to receive all information relevant to said second user contained in said responses;
in which said consolidated view of responses indicates an online location of said second user as defined by access of a number of said plurality of internet services by said second user, the online location comprising one of the plurality of internet services most recently known to have been interacted with by said second user.

2. The method of claim 1 , in which querying said plurality of internet services comprises querying each said internet services using a standardized application programming interface (API).

3. The method of claim 1 , in which each said response comprises information relevant to said second user only to an extent permitted by a privacy policy set by said second user.

4. The method of claim 3 , in which said privacy policy set by said second user is at least partially based on an identity of said first user.

5. The method of claim 4 , in which said query comprises said identity of said first user.

6. The method of claim 1 , in which at least one of said plurality of internet services comprises a social network service.

7. The method of claim 1 , in which said online location of said second user further comprises an identity of the one of the plurality of internet services most recently known to have been used by said second user.

8. The method of claim 1 , in which said online location of said second user further comprises an identity of one of the plurality of internet services to which said second user is currently logged in.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying said online location of said second user by:
identifying a most recent time stamp associated with information posted by said second user to each of the plurality of internet services, said information and said time stamp being present in said responses received from said plurality of internet services; and
determining said online location to be one of the plurality of internet services to which said second user posted said information associated with said most recent time stamp.

10. The method of claim 1 , in which said consolidated view of responses comprises a current online activity of said second user.

11. The method of claim 1 , in which said consolidated view of responses comprises a most recent status update by said second user to a one of the plurality of internet services.

12. The method of claim 1 , in which said consolidated view of responses comprises a file recently posted by said second user to a one of the plurality of internet services.

13. A method of online location sharing through an internet service search engine, the method comprising:
receiving in a server from a first user a query identifying a second user;
querying each of a plurality of individual internet services with said server using a standardized application programming interface (API) call to request real-time information stored individually by each of said internet services that is relevant to said second user;
receiving in said server a plurality of responses from said internet services, said server being authorized by said second user to receive all information relevant to said second user contained in said responses;
determining an online location of said second user with said server from said received responses, the online location being defined by access of a number of said plurality of internet services by said second user; and
providing said online location of said second user to said first user with said server.

14. The method of claim 13 , in which each said response comprises information relevant to said second user only to an extent permitted by a privacy policy set by said second user.

15. The method of claim 13 , in which said online location of said second user comprises an identity of the one of the plurality of internet services most recently known to have been used by said second user.

16. The method of claim 13 , in which said online location of said second user comprises an identity of the one of the plurality of internet services to which said second user is currently logged in.

17. The method of claim 13 , in which determining said online location of said second user with said server from said plurality of responses received from said client modules comprises:
identifying a most recent time stamp associated with information posted by said second user to each of the plurality of internet services, said information and said time stamp being present in said responses received from said plurality of internet services; and
determining said online location to be the one of the plurality of internet services to which said second user posted said information associated with said most recent time stamp.

18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining a most recent activity of said second user with said server from said plurality of responses; and
providing said most recent activity of said second user to said first user with said server.

19. The method of claim 1 , in which querying the plurality of internet services with said server over the network for real-time information relevant to said second use comprises concurrently querying the plurality of internet services.

20. The method of claim 14 , in which said privacy policy set by said second user is at least partially based on an identity of said first user.

Assignees

• Callanan Sean
• Lyle Ruthie D
• O'Sullivan Patrick Joseph
• Raguillat Fred
• Zimmet Carol Sue
• IBM

Inventors

• Callanan Sean
• Lyle Ruthie D
• O'Sullivan Patrick Joseph
• Raguillat Fred
• Zimmet Carol Sue

Classifications

• G06F21/6227

  where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries · CPC title

• G06F17/30864 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/951 Primary

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/9536 Primary

  Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering · CPC title