Geo-Filtered Social Contact List Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing social networking systems lack efficient methods to send targeted communications to users based on their geographical location, often resulting in irrelevant messages being sent to users who cannot attend events or participate in local activities.
Innovation Solution
A system that identifies a set of contacts associated with a social networking service by receiving a target geographical location, creating a contact list excluding those not within the vicinity, and sending communications only to relevant contacts, using geo-location services, social graphs, and databases to refine the list based on location and interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If communications are sent to all contacts in a social networking service, then the coverage of communications is maximized, but the relevance of communications to users' local activities deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the contact list into location-based groups by creating a geographic vicinity around the target location and identifying only those contacts within that vicinity. This segmentation allows communications to be targeted to specific geographic segments rather than sending to all contacts, thereby maintaining coverage of relevant users while improving relevance by excluding those who cannot participate in local activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by associating specific geographic locations with specific contacts. Each contact is evaluated based on their proximity to the target location, and communications are tailored to local contexts. This ensures that only contacts with local relevance receive communications about local events, maintaining information quality while reducing unnecessary transmissions.
2Loss of information
If geo-location filtering is applied to identify contacts within vicinity, then the relevance of communications is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating and storing geographic vicinities for target locations, and pre-identifying contacts within those vicinities before communications are sent. The system proactively builds and maintains location-based contact lists, so that when a communication needs to be sent, the filtering work has already been done. This reduces the complexity of real-time processing while maintaining high relevance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary geographic vicinity model that mediates between the target location and the contact list. Instead of directly comparing all contacts to all locations, the system creates a geographic buffer zone (vicinity) as an intermediary layer. This simplifies the matching process by providing a clear spatial boundary for filtering, reducing computational complexity while maintaining accurate location-based relevance.
Data Source
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AI summary
Sending communications to contacts on a social networking service includes receiving a target geographical location of a computing device, identifying a vicinity based on the target geographical location, using the vicinity to identify a set of contacts associated with an account on a social networking service, where the set of contacts are used to produce a contact list that excludes one or more contacts that are not associated with locations within the vicinity, and sending a communication to members of the contact list, where the communication relates to the target geographical location.