Contextual Contact List Segmentation for IM Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Instant messaging applications often fail to facilitate real-time conversations during specific activities or when users are viewing certain web pages, as the contact list becomes cumbersome due to its large size and lack of context-based organization, making it difficult for users to identify and connect with relevant contacts.
Innovation Solution
A contextual contact recommendation system that integrates with social networking services, providing a personalized and algorithmically-driven contact list based on the context of the web page being viewed, such as a company profile or job posting, to suggest relevant contacts for communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the contact list includes all direct connections from social networking service, then the contact list is comprehensive, but it becomes extremely difficult to identify and find the appropriate contact within the long list
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large contact list into smaller contextual groups based on the web page content being viewed. When a user views a company profile page, the contact list is segmented to show only contacts associated with that company, making it easier to identify relevant contacts without being overwhelmed by the entire contact database.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by dynamically adjusting the composition of the contact list based on the specific context (web page) being viewed. Each context receives a customized contact list with contacts that have relevant associations to that particular page, rather than presenting the same universal contact list for all situations.
2Productivity
If the instant messaging application interface is not available during other activities, then users can focus on their primary task, but users cannot initiate conversations as part of their activity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the instant messaging contact list functionality with the web browsing interface. The contact list is integrated directly into the web page context, allowing users to initiate conversations without leaving their current activity or task, thus maintaining both productivity and communication capability simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the web page interface multi-functional by enabling it to serve both as an information display medium and as a communication initiation platform. The same interface that displays company profiles or job postings also provides contact initiation capabilities, eliminating the need for a separate messaging application window.
3Ease of operation
If users manually self-organize contacts into categories or groups, then contacts can be organized by status or theme, but it requires additional user effort and time to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by automatically organizing contacts based on their associations with the web page content being viewed. The system automatically queries contact information, determines relevant associations with the current context, and presents the organized contact list without requiring any manual user intervention for categorization or maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-establishing associations between contacts and web page content in the background. The system proactively identifies and tags contacts with relevant contextual information before the user needs to view them, so that when a user views a company profile, the relevant contacts are already prepared and organized for immediate display.
Data Source
AI summary
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.