Reservation System Social Network Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current online reservation systems and methods lack integration with social networking platforms, failing to utilize their features effectively, resulting in limited interaction and information sharing between users and their social connections regarding travel and event reservations.
Innovation Solution
A computerized online reservation system that receives user identification from social networking platforms, retrieves lists of associated users, and searches for overlapping reservations, displaying relevant information to users, enhancing the reservation process by highlighting friends' or contacts' reservations and locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If reservation systems integrate with social networking platforms to retrieve and display friends' reservations, then user interaction and information sharing improve, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses social networking platform identification (SNID) as an intermediary to bridge the reservation system and social networking data. The SNID serves as a common identifier that allows the reservation system to retrieve friends' lists and reservation information without direct integration complexity, resolving the contradiction by introducing a mediating element.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the complex integration task into separate functional modules: one module retrieves SNID from social networking platforms, another retrieves friends' lists based on SNID, and a third searches for overlapping reservations. This segmentation reduces system complexity while maintaining integration capability.
2Loss of information
If the system searches for overlapping reservations among social networking contacts, then user connectivity and information sharing improve, but information processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by first retrieving the user's friends' list from the social networking platform before searching for reservations. By having the friends' list ready in advance and using it to filter reservation searches, the system reduces the scope of data processing and minimizes information processing time while maximizing information sharing about friends' reservations.
3Ease of operation
If the system displays detailed reservation information of friends, then user engagement improves, but data privacy concerns increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by selectively displaying reservation information based on specific criteria rather than showing all friends' data. The system displays information locally - only for friends who have reservations with overlapping criteria (same flight, hotel, or event) - thereby maintaining user engagement while limiting privacy exposure to only relevant, consented information.
Data Source
AI summary
A reservation system for travel, accommodation, venue ticketing and other purposes may be accessed on-line, for example via a social networking website. A user enters their social networking identification into the reservation system. When a subsequent user makes a reservation, they also enter their social networking ID and the system retrieves a list of associated parties from the social networking website, which may be a friends or contacts list, and searches for reservations made by any of those parties which have an overlapping criterion, such as date and destination. The overlap may be used to identify parties who will be at the same destination at the same time as the subsequent user, and/or are travelling on the same flight or journey. On check-in, the system may use the list of associated parties to notify the party checking-in that one of their friends or contacts has also checked-in.