Patent ID: 8352574
Filing Date: 2013-01-08
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method that utilizes a processor to connect users in a network, the method comprising: maintaining a first database, the first database containing profiles of a plurality of users in a network; maintaining a second database, the second database containing a relationship index between some of the users wherein the relationship index is determined based, at least in part, upon a degree of a correspondence relationship between two users, the degree of the correspondence relationship having been set by at least one of the two users; forming a social network, the network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links between at least some of the nodes, in association with the relationship index stored in the second database, wherein at least some of the nodes are the users and each of the links is a virtual connection path between two users who have the correspondence relationship; upon receipt of a request from a first user, searching, using the processor, for at least one route connecting the first user to a second user in the social network based, at least in part, upon said existing links and the relationship index of the links; and evaluating each of the searched routes based, at least in part, upon the relationship indexes of the links which form said respective searched routes, wherein evaluating comprises calculating cost of the searched routes in accordance with total weights of the links which form each route and upon selection of a route among the evaluated routes by the first user, charging the cost of the selected route to the first user's account, wherein the weight is inversely proportional to the relationship index of the respective link between two nodes having the correspondence relationship, and wherein the cost of the selected route comprises an amount paid to a third user when the first user sends an invitation message for a new relationship to the second user via a third user having correspondence relationships with both the first user and the second user.