Patent ID: 8412780
Filing Date: 2013-04-02
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving, from a client device, a request for a first email address of a first member of a social network included in a social network profile of the first member, responsive to the client device (a) detecting an input by a user of an entity identifier associated with the first member in a sending parameter of an email message intended to be sent to the first member and (b) detecting a triggering event comprising at least one event from a group consisting of: obtaining the first email address for the first member by parsing the entity identifier from the request and obtaining the first email address from profile information associated with the first member that is stored in a storage subsystem and associated with the entity identifier, the storage subsystem storing profile information of a plurality of members of the social network, the plurality of members connected in the social network via user established relationships; determining a degree of separation between the first member and the user, the degree of separation determined based at least in part on an inverse relationship between an association of the user with the first member and a weighting factor assigned for the association prior to determining the degree of separation, wherein a high weighting factor contributes less to the degree of separation than a low weighting factor; transmitting the first email address to the client device based at least in part on the degree of separation; comparing the first email address with a second email address of the first member in an electronic address book associated with the user; and replacing the second email address in the electronic address book with the first email address in response to determining that the first email address differs from the second email address in the electronic address book.