Reverse Matching Service for Social Network Contact Discovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing social networking platforms face challenges in identifying members who know a user through their contact lists, leading to missed opportunities for both users and the platform, due to non-exhaustive search methods that often require specific identifiers like names or phone numbers.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a reverse search method that allows users to provide an identifier, such as a phone number or email address, to automatically search for matches within members' contact lists, even for non-members, using a Reverse Matching Service that integrates with social networking sites to provide information on connected members.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a non-exhaustive search method is used requiring specific identifiers like names or phone numbers, then the ease of operation is improved, but the completeness of search results deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of searching forward from the user's contact list to find matches, the system performs a reverse search by checking which existing members have the user's identifier in their contact lists. This inversion allows the system to find all members who know the user without requiring the user to remember or provide specific identifiers about their contacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the social networking site's existing member database and their contact list information as an intermediary to perform the search. Rather than directly searching through user contacts, the system leverages the platform's existing data infrastructure to identify members who have the user's identifier, thereby completing the search exhaustively while maintaining ease of operation.
2Ease of operation
If users provide incomplete contact information, then the ease of operation is improved, but the accuracy of matching deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The reverse search approach allows the system to work with whatever identifier the user provides (even if incomplete) by searching backwards through member contact lists. The system doesn't need complete information about the user's contacts because it's checking which members have the user's identifier, not the other way around.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages the existing members' contact lists as pre-collected data to perform the matching. The members have already provided their contact information voluntarily when joining the platform, so the system uses this self-provided information to accurately match users without requiring additional input from them.
3Loss of information
If exhaustive search through all contact lists is performed, then the completeness of results is improved, but the processing time deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining an up-to-date database of member contact lists before the search is needed. When a user wants to find members, the system already has the contact information pre-collected and organized, allowing for rapid reverse matching without time-consuming real-time searches through all contacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the platform's member database as an intermediary structure that pre-organizes contact information. This intermediary data structure enables efficient reverse searching by allowing the system to quickly check which members have the user's identifier without performing exhaustive real-time searches through all contact lists.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile device, system, and method are directed towards managing social networking information by employing a reverse matching search to identify those members of the social network that may have another person's identifier in their contact lists. The person may initially visit the social network site and provide an identifier either automatically or through a directed action by the person. A reverse search may be performed on members' contact lists to determine which contact lists include the identifier. If a match is found in a member's contact list, selected information about that member may be provided to the person. The reverse matching search may also be performed at various subsequent times to provide members information about new members to the social network.