Techniques for presenting a contextual contact list

US11436566B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Sammy Shreibati · Menlo Park, US
• Vivian Mak Urata · San Francisco, US
• Mark Hull · San Jose, US
• Haiyang Liu · Norman, US
• Birjodh Tiwana · Dublin, US
• Siva Visakan Sooriyan · San Francisco, US
• Jesse Jyh-Cherng Hsia · Santa Clara, US
• Michael Joshua Aft · Redwood City, US
• Kinjal Basu · Stanford, US
• Shaunak Chatterjee · Sunnyvale, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 28, 2017
• Grant date: Sep 6, 2022
• Expiry date: Sep 29, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q50/01
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Described herein is a contextual contact recommendation or suggestion service and system. The service, which, in some embodiments, is integrated with a social networking service and/or an instant messaging service, takes as input a first parameter that identifies a member of the social networking service, and a second parameter that defines a context (e.g., a web page that is being viewed by the member. The service, based in part on the context, computes a ranked list of members to populate a contextual contact list, thereby recommending or suggesting contacts, with whom the member might be interested in initiating, or continuing, a conversation, based on the context of the member's current web browsing session. Optionally, the service may take as input a third parameter, defining a use case, such that the recommendation algorithm can be customized by use case.