Patent Publication Number: US-2005120084-A1

Title: Method of and system for creating, maintaining, and utilizing an online universal address book

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE  
      The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for creating, maintaining, and utilizing an online social networking system, particularly to methods of and systems for creating, maintaining, and utilizing an online universal address book.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE  
      Social networking websites have been emerging as one of the recent hot spots of the internet business. The general idea of online social networking is to create an Internet system connecting all the users of the system, and then utilizing this network to facilitate communications between the users.  
      Conventionally, everyone has an address book, which contains contact information of persons he/she would like to contact in the future. The address book can be in different formats, for example, a paper address book, a digital version saved in computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), cell phone, or E-mail server. Some people have multiple address books in different forms. It is difficult and time consuming for a user to create and update or maintain these address books one by one for the following reasons:  
      Firstly, the conventional method of creating address books is time consuming. When the address book is created, the user has to manually input the address information into the address book, for example, inputting the address information into an address book saved in a computer. When a user creates a new address book, for example, in a new cell phone or PDA, the user has to input all the information again.  
      Secondly, it is very difficult for the user to keep all contact information up to date in all his/her address books. If the user doesn&#39;t update his/her address books frequently, he may lose some contact information.  
      Thirdly, the user&#39;s access to the conventional address books may be limited. For example, the user may lose or forget to bring his PDA or paper address book, and therefore, cannot get the needed information promptly.  
      Fourthly, it will be troublesome for a user (a person or a business entity) to keep all his/her friends or the related business entities informed of the user&#39;s new address when the user changes its address. For example, if the user has ten related business entities such as credit card companies, banks, cell phone providers etc., every time when the user moves to a new place, the user has to inform all these business entities of its new address.  
      Another traditional approach is to build an address book saved in a computer and synchronize other address books, for example, PDA or cell phone, with the address book saved in computer. But the user still needs to manually update this online address book frequently, because the contact information of the persons or the business entities whose address information is saved in this online address book may change.  
      The conventional address books waste resources such as storage space and update efforts, and cause redundant communication traffic. For instance, if there are n persons and each person stores the other (n−1) persons&#39; information in his address book, the total disk space used to store n address books will be n(n−1) rows of data. And if one person&#39;s address changes, he has to communicate with the other (n−1) persons, therefore, the total network communication for n address changes will also be n(n−1). The storage space and maintaining time are wasted with the conventional address books.  
      What is needed therefore is a universal address book, which can be created easily, maintained with less storage space and less time consumed. and accessed conveniently.  
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE  
      The present disclosure provides a method and a system for creating, maintaining, and utilizing an online social networking system, which, in a preferred embodiment, is in a format of an online universal address book.  
      The online social networking system according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a server and users, which communicate with the server over communication links, which may be any medium for transferring data between users and the server. The links may be secured or unsecured depending upon the requirements of a particular application.  
      In accordance with one preferred embodiment, a user, for example, User 1 , enters his own information which may include but not limited to contact information, photo, marital status, employment information, and etc., over the links, e.g. Internet, into the server. User 2  and User 3  may also, with or without User 1 &#39;s invitation, connect to the sever, and register on the server, entering their own contact information. Each registered user will have an ID, which can be chosen by the user or assigned by the server. The server automatically creates an address book for each registered user. A registered user (e.g. User 1 ) can invite other registered users (e.g. User 2  and User 3 ) to be his “friends”, and upon the acceptance of User 2  and User 3 , User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s ID will appear on User 1 &#39;s address book or “friend list”, and the IDs are preferably hyperlinked to the database where User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s registered information is stored. Then User 2  and User 3  are “directly connected” to User 1 . When User 1  opens his online universal address book, User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s addresses will be automatically pulled out by server. User 1 &#39;s information is also in User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s address books in the server. Whenever a registered user, for example User  3 , changes his contact information, such as changes a new phone or moves to a new place, he only needs to log into the server and update his own information. The new information of User 3  will be automatically reflected in other users&#39; address books, which are directly connected to User 3 , in the above described example, User 1 &#39;s address book. A user always can set up what information is visible to his directly connected “friends”, and what is invisible to the directly connected “friends”.  
      The user may have several other address books stored in his computer, laptop, PDA or smart cell phone, and he can synchronize these address books with the online universal address book stored in the server. The user can also query the information in his address book in server through email, PDA, cell phone or desk phone.  
      In the embodiment according to the present disclosure, the user does not need to enter and update his “friends&#39;” information in his address book, but only needs to maintain his own contact information. His “friends&#39;” contact information will be maintained by themselves and any update of their contact information will be reflected in the user&#39;s address book. Thus in the social networking system, a user, e.g. User 1 , can always have his most up to date contact information reflected on other directly connected users&#39; address book, e.g. User 2 ′ and User 3 ′ address books, and vice versa, User 1  can always have User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s up to date contact information in User 1 &#39;s address book. The address book server takes the user&#39;s address input into the database, establishes the connection between users, and presents the physical address data to the internet user whenever his address book is opened.  
      According to one preferred embodiment, the universal address book includes two tables to hold the data needed by all network users, one is an address table, and the other is an intersection table. The address table stores the physical address data of each user, and intersection table stores the relationship between the user and his friends. The user&#39;s IDs are saved in a column called the Per_ID column, and the user&#39;s friends IDs are saved in another column called Con_ID column. The intersection table is linked to the address table through communication links. The user&#39;s address book is just a presentation layer, and the address data comes from the connections saved in column  503  between the two tables. Each person&#39;s address is stored as one row in the address table no matter how big his friend group is. If a user adds or deletes a friend in his address book, two entries (mutual adding and deleting) will be created or deleted in the intersection table. For example, if A and B are directly connected, B is in A&#39;s address book and A can see B&#39;s address by clicking B&#39;s Con_ID in A&#39;s address book, and B also can see A&#39;s address by clicking A&#39;s Con_ID in B&#39;s address book. If A and B are not directly connected, neither A nor B can see the other&#39;s address information. The visibility is controlled by the entry in the intersection table. When A creates his address book, he adds B, C and D in his address book with their approval, so six blocks are created in the intersection table. While A browses his address book, the system will first query the intersection table, locate the row with Per_ID=‘A’, find the corresponding Con_ID, which are B,C and D in this case, then join with the address table, and finally, B, C and D&#39;s address will be provided in A&#39;s address book. A can always get B, C and D&#39;s most up to date addresses since the address data in the address table are maintained by B, C, D themselves, and generally each person will update his own contact information when changes happened. In order to maintain n address books among n friends, the two physical tables can be used to store n+n(n−1)=n 2  rows of data, among which n rows store the actual physical address data in the address table, and the other n(n−1) rows store the relationship among the users in the intersection table. Since the intersection table only stores pointers, the storage space is negligible compared to that consumed by the actual physical address data. Whenever one person changes his address, only one row of address data will be changed in the address table. Therefore, n rows in address table will be updated if everyone changes the address. In the other embodiments, more tables can be used for other considerations such as functionality and performance. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIGS. 1A and 1B  illustrate architectures of traditional address books;  
       FIG. 1C  illustrates an architecture of an universal address book system according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a graph representation of the address book network;  
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of a routine that a user creates and edits his address book;  
       FIG. 4A  illustrates a flow diagram of the procedure that a user makes changes in his address book in the prior art;  
       FIG. 4B  illustrates a flow diagram of the procedure that a user makes changes in his address book according to the present disclosure;  
       FIG. 5A  shows a database schema of the prior art address books;  
       FIG. 5B  shows a database schema of the universal address book according to the present disclosure;  
       FIG. 6A  illustrates a graph representation of the communication and update efforts resulted by the address change in the prior art;  
       FIG. 6B  illustrates a graph representation of the communication and update efforts resulted by the address change in accordance with the present disclosure;  
       FIG. 7  shows the function modules of the universal address book system;  
       FIG. 8  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user registers on the universal address book website;  
       FIG. 9  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user invites his friend to join the network and gets connected with his friend in the network;  
       FIG. 10  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user queries his friend address from the universal address book system;  
       FIG. 11  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user queries the friend address via cell phone text message from the universal address book system;  
       FIG. 12  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user synchronizes his other address books with the online universal address book; and  
       FIG. 13  illustrates a flow diagram of how the user browses, exports, and prints out his online universal address book via Internet.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The present disclosure provides a method and a system for creating, maintaining, and utilizing an online social networking system, which, in a preferred embodiment, is in a format of an online universal address book.  
       FIG. 1A  illustrates traditional formats of a user&#39;s (represented by “Tom”) address books, such as address books saved in desktop computer, laptop computer, PDA, and cell phone. Although all the address books may store the same information, they are separated from each other and need to be manually created and maintained one by one.  FIG. 1B  illustrates a presentation of another prior art information system, which includes a web server. The user (Tom) can save contact information of other people or business entities on the web server and use the web server to synchronize his other digital tools, such as desktop computer, laptop computer, PDA, and cell phone. Similar to the system shown in  FIG. 1A , the user still has to be informed of any changes of the contact information and then manually updates the user&#39;s address book in the web server.  
       FIG. 1C  shows a diagram of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present disclosure. Referring to  FIG. 1C , the social networking system according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a server  101  and users which communicate with the server  101  over links  102 , which may be any medium for transferring data between users and the server. In the present embodiment in  FIG. 1C , the links  102  may be connections provided by one or more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and users may be configured with generic Internet web browsers or server-client structure. The links  102  may be secured or unsecured depending upon the requirements of a particular application.  
      In accordance with one preferred embodiment, a user, for example, User 1 , enters his own information which may include but not limited to contact information, photo, marital status, employment information, and etc., over the links  102 , e.g. Internet, into the server  101 . User 2  and User 3  may also, with or without User 1 &#39;s invitation, connect to the sever  101  and register on the server, entering their own contact information. Each registered user will have an ID, which can be chosen by the user or assigned by the server. The server automatically creates an address book for each registered user. A registered user (e.g. User 1 ) can invite other registered users (e.g. User 2  and User 3 ) to be his “friends”, and upon the acceptance of User 2  and User 3 , User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s ID will appear on User 1 &#39;s address book or “friend list”, and the IDs are preferably hyperlinked to the database where User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s registered information is stored. Then User 2  and User 3  are “directly connected” to User 1 . When User 1  opens his online universal address book, User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s addresses will be automatically pulled out by server  101 . User 1 &#39;s information is also in User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s address books in the server. Whenever a registered user, for example User  3 , changes his contact information, such as changes a new phone or moves to a new place, he only needs to log into the server and update his own information. The new information of User 3  will be automatically reflected in other users&#39; address books, which are directly connected to User 3 , in the above described example, User 1 &#39;s address book. A user always can set up what information is visible to his directly connected “friends”, and what is invisible to the directly connected “friends”.  
      The user may have several other address books stored in his computer, laptop, PDA or smart cell phone, and he can synchronize these address books with the online universal address book stored in the server  101 . The user can also query the information in his address book in server  101  through email, PDA, cell phone or desk phone.  
       FIG. 2  is a graphic representation of the social network system. In  FIG. 2 , each node, for example Node A, represents a person or a business entity, and the solid line between two nodes represents that the two entities are directly connected and are in each other&#39;s address book. Dotted line means that the two entities, for example, A and E, are directly connected, but not in each other&#39;s address book,. Only directly connected friends are the candidates in a user&#39;s address book, for example, only B, C, D, E and F can be in A&#39;s address book since they are directly connected. G and H are two degrees apart from A, and I is three degrees away, so they are not in A&#39;s address book. In the embodiment according to the present disclosure, if they are in each other&#39;s address book, the user does not need to enter and update his “friends&#39;” information in his address book, but only needs to maintain his own contact information. His “friends&#39;” contact information will be maintained by themselves and any update of their contact information will be reflected in the user&#39;s address book. Thus in the social networking system, a user, e.g. User 1 , can always have his most up to date contact information reflected on other directly connected users&#39; address book, e.g. User 2 ′ and User 3 ′ address books, and vice versa, User 1  can always have User 2 &#39;s and User 3 &#39;s up to date contact information in User 1 &#39;s address book. The address book server  101  is the brain of the system. It will take the user&#39;s address input into the database, establish the connection between users, and present the physical address data to the internet user whenever his address book is opened. Furthermore, server  101  will also process the address query and synchronization request from the user. After the user and his “friends” sign up and get connected, from individual point of view, his personal network has been established, however, from system point of view, because generally one user can always be connected to another user through a number of degrees, a huge social network has been built, in which everyone will be directly or indirectly connected to each other eventually.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a flow diagram of how a user creates and edits his address book. In step  301 , a user registers and enters his information into the server  101  (the social networking system), and the system creates an online universal address book for the user. Step  302  is used to facilitate the creation of the data in the user&#39;s address book. Based on certain criterion, the system will automatically add the direct friends of the user into the user&#39;s address book. For example, the user may want to by default add good friends in, but selectively add new friends. The selection criterion is set by the system designer or can be selected by the user. For example, a user may want to set the selection criterion to be having the same interest and living in the same town. In step  302 , if the selection criterion is satisfied, the system continues at step  303 , else it goes directly to step  304 . In step  303 , the selected friends&#39; IDs are automatically added in the user&#39;s address book. In step  304 , if the user wants to manually add friends in his address book, the process continues at step  305 , otherwise, it goes to step  308 . In step  305 , the user sends a request to a friend he wants to add to his address book. In step  306 , if the friend accepts the request, the process continues at step  307 , else the friend is not added in the user&#39;s address book, in another word, the friend&#39;s contact information is still invisible to the user, and the process goes to step  308 . In step  307 , since the friend accepts the request, both of them are added in each other&#39;s address book. In step  308 , if the user wants to delete a friend from his address book, the process continues at step  309 , else it goes to step  310 . In step  309  the user can delete the friend from his address book without the friend&#39;s permission. In the mean time, the user&#39;s ID or name also will be deleted from this friend&#39;s address book, and his friend&#39;s ID will be deleted from his address book too. Therefore, if the user does not want a specific friend to get his address information, he can delete this friend&#39;s ID or name from the user&#39;s address book. In step  310 , the user can perform other operations, for example, he might want to set some specific address information (e.g. cell phone number) invisible to in his address book, or set specific information invisible only to particular persons.  
       FIG. 4A  is a flow diagram of how the user updates his contact information with the traditional approach. In step  401 , the user&#39;s contact information changes. In step  402 , the user informs his (n−1) friends of the new contact information. In step  403 , his (n−1) friends get the new contact information and update the user&#39;s contact information in their own address books. The physical data change responsive to the change of the user&#39;s contact information will happen in (n−1) address tables in the (n−1) friends&#39; address books.  FIG. 4B  is a flow diagram of how the user updates his contact information according to the present disclosure. In step  404 , the user&#39;s contact information changes. In step  405 , the user logs into the universal address book website and changes his contact information in his address book. In step  406 , the physical data change in response to the change of the user&#39;s contact information only happens in one place (in the user&#39;s address book), but the user&#39;s new contact information will be reflected in all (n−1) address books of his (n−1) friends. With the present disclosure, time and storage space are saved for all registered users to update their address books.  
       FIG. 5A  is an instance of the traditional address books. In the traditional approach, each person&#39;s address book is stored in a separate physical table. Therefore, duplicate information is saved in different address books. For example, A, B, C and D&#39;s information are stored three times in four address books. Whenever there is a change in one person&#39;s contact information, for example, A&#39;s contact information, the change has to be physically made in three address books, in this case, B&#39;s, C&#39;s, and D&#39;s address books. If there are n persons in the friend group and everyone has the other (n−1) persons in his address book, n address books (physical tables) will be used to store n(n−1) rows of physical data. Whenever one person changes his contact information (e.g. address), totally (n−1) rows of address data need to be updated to keep all address books up to date. Therefore, if everyone changes his own contact information, all the n(n−1) rows of address data will be changed, in other words, all address data in all address books need to be updated.  FIG. 5B  is an instance of the universal address book table according to the present disclosure. As seen in  FIG. 5B , only two tables are used to hold the data needed by all network users. In  FIG. 5B , address table  502  stores the physical address data of each user, and Person-Contact intersection table  501  stores the relationship between the user and his friends. The user&#39;s IDs are saved in the Per_ID column, and the user&#39;s friends IDs are saved in Con_ID column. Rel_ID is the series number. Table  501  is linked to table  502  through links  503 . In the exemplary implementation shown in  FIG. 5B , the user&#39;s address book is just a presentation layer, and the address data comes from the connection between table  501  and  502 . Therefore, each person&#39;s address is stored as one row in table  502  no matter how big his friend group is. If a user adds or deletes a friend in his address book, two entries (mutual adding and deleting) will be created or deleted in table  501 . For example, if A and B are directly connected, B is in A&#39;s address book and A can see B&#39;s address by clicking B&#39;s Con_ID in A&#39;s address book, and B also can see A&#39;s address by clicking A&#39;s Con_ID in B&#39;s address book. If A and B are not directly connected, neither A nor B can see the other&#39;s address information. The visibility is controlled by the entry in table  501 . When A creates his address book, he adds B, C and D in his address book, so six blocks are created in table  501 . While A browses his address book, the system will first query table  501 , locate the row with Per_ID=‘A’, find the corresponding Con_ID, which are B,C and D in this case, then join with table  502 , and finally, B, C and D&#39;s address will be provided in A&#39;s address book. A can always get B,C and D&#39;s most up to date addresses since the address data in table  502  are maintained by B, C, D themselves, and generally each person will update his own contact information when changes happened. In order to maintain n address books among n friends, the two physical tables  501  and  502  can be used to store n+n(n−1)=n 2  rows of data, among which n rows store the actual physical address data in table  502 , and the other n(n−1) rows store the relationship among the users in table  501 . Since table  501  only stores pointers, the storage space is negligible compared to that consumed by the actual physical address data. Whenever one person changes his address, only one row of address data will be changed in table  502 . Therefore, n rows in address table will be updated if everyone changes the address. In the other embodiments, more tables can be used for other considerations such as functionality and performance. And different adding or deleting mechanism can be used. For example, one-way adding or deleting.  
       FIGS. 6A and 6B  represent the communication and update efforts resulted by the change of the contact information of a user in the traditional address books and in the universal address book according to one preferred form of the present disclosure. The outgoing arrow represents that the user informs his friends of the change of his contact information, and the incoming arrow represents that the user accepts his friend&#39;s information and updates the information in his address book.  FIG. 6A  shows the communication and update efforts resulted by the change of the user&#39;s contact information with the traditional approach. As shown in  FIG. 6A , in the traditional approach, if the user changes his address, he has to inform all his (n−1) friends, and if all (n−1) friends change their addresses, the user has to be informed, and make (n−1) updates in his address book to reflect the changes. If n people all have new addresses and need to keep their friends&#39; address books up to date, n(n−1) communication and updates will be conducted.  FIG. 6B  shows the communication and update efforts resulted by the address change with the present invention. Every time, when the user has his new address, he only needs to update his address profile in the universal address book in the server, and the new address will be automatically reflected in his friends&#39; address books. Therefore, if n people all change their addresses, only n times of communication and update between the user and address server are needed. According to the present disclosure, if the user changes his address, he only needs to update the his address profile in the server and his address change will be reflected on his friends&#39; address book, and vice versa, if a friend changes his own addresses, the friend will update his own address profile in the network and the change will reflect on the user&#39;s address book. Therefore, the present invention converts the complexity of the address book from O(n 2 ) to O(n), in terms of storage space, update efforts and communication traffics.  
       FIG. 7  shows the functional modules of the universal address book system. Module  701  provides the function of registration. Module  702  enables the user to edit his profile including his name, ID, address, and other registration information. Module  703  is used to invite and connect friends. The user can either invite his friends to join or connect the existing users. Module  704  provides the function to edit the address book. The user can add a contact in his friend group into his address book, or delete a contact from his address book. This function will help the user to control that who has the access to his address information. Module  705  is used to query a contacts&#39; address from the sever of the online universal address book system. The query can be done through email, PDA, cell phone, or regular phone. Module  706  is used to synchronize address books stored in other places with the universal address book. Module  707  is used to export the universal address book into different format of files such as Microsoft outlook, Palm desktop, Yahoo! CSV, and etc., so that the address book can be later imported into the other applications. Module  708  provides the function to print out the universal address book. Module  705  and  706  can be used by mobile users  709  so that the address book can be accessed by wireless means.  
       FIG. 8  illustrates a process of how the system handles a user&#39;s registration through the Internet. The system receives the user&#39;s registration, which include the user&#39;s information, such as address and phone numbers etc., and create an address profile for the user. After the registration, address server  801  will automatically send the user a confirmation email, which includes an activation code or password. The activation code is used for security reason since someone else might use the user&#39;s email to register. The user can sign in into the system using an ID (e.g., the user&#39;s email address) and the password, and then change information in his account.  
       FIG. 9  illustrates a process of how the system creates connections between users. Upon a user&#39;s request for direct connection with another user, for example User 1  requesting to be directly connected to User 2 , the system will send an invitation associated with User 1 &#39;s ID to User 2 , and upon User 2 &#39;s acceptance, the system will create a direct link between User 1  and User 2 , as described above and shown in  FIG. 5B . The system may also send out invitations to addresses specified by a registered user. For example, registered User 1  sends out email invitation through the social networking system to a non-registered friend, Non-User 4 . After receiving the invitation, Non-User 4  may register on the social networking system, and specify that User 1  invites him to enter a directly connected relationship. Upon receiving Non-User 4 &#39;s application, the system may create a direct connection between User 1  and Non-User 4  (Non-User 4  becomes a registered user now). The social networking system may also provide a circumstance that allows a user to search information of other users, and invite other users to be his directly connected friend. In one preferred form, the system provides links between users under directly connected relationship, so that they can view each other&#39;s address profile, which has been classified by the user to be visible, and users who are not under directly connected relationship cannot view each other&#39;s address profile. In an alternative form, the system may provide a circumstance allowing users who are less than n degrees apart (n could be more than 1) to have the authority to view each other&#39;s address profile.  
       FIG. 10  illustrates a process of how the social networking system handles the user&#39;s queries, for example, a friend&#39;s contact information, in his address book. After the system (the server  801 ) receives the user&#39;s request and verifies the user&#39;s authentication, the system searches and finds the information the user needs in the database, and sends the information to the user. If the search result is multiple or zero, the system may send a list of the multiple results (e.g. a list of founded friends&#39; names or IDs) or a “not found” message to the user. Then the user may choose one ID and sends the friend&#39;s ID back or sends a correct ID or friend&#39;s name back to the system. After the system receives the second query, the system will repeat the same verification procedure and finally return the needed contact information to the user. The query process can be done via desk phone, desk computer, or other channels, for example, wireless means.  
       FIG. 11  illustrates a process of how the social networking system handles the user&#39;s queries of his friend&#39;s address via mobile short text message. In one preferred embodiment, the system includes a server  801  and a Short Message Service (SMS) gateway  901 . After the system receives the text message request from the user, the search request is routed to the address server  801  via Short Message Service (SMS) gateway  901 . After the server  801  verifies the user and his contact information, the system will send back the query result via gateway  901 . If only one result is found, the system will send the search result to the user. If multiple results are found associated with the search query, the system will send a result list, which could be a list of IDs or names, and after the user selects one from the list and sends the query to the system again, the system will repeat the process described above. If there is no result, the system will send to the user a “not found” error message.  
       FIG. 12  illustrates a process of how the social networking system synchronizes a user&#39;s other address books with the online universal address book. In one preferred embodiment, after the system receives the user&#39;s synchronization request to the address server  801 , the server  801  verifies the user&#39;s authentication, and generates synchronized data, and then send the synchronized data to the user. The user then can use the returned data to synchronize his other address books, such as address books saved in cell phone, PDA, computer, and etc.  
       FIG. 13  illustrates a process of how the user browses, exports, or prints out his online universal address book via Internet. First, the user logs into the universal address book website through his internet browser. Then the server  801  verifies the user&#39;s authentication. When the user opens his address book, the server  801  will retrieve all his contacts&#39; address information from the database and present them in the address book. Now the user can browse his address book, export all or part of his friends&#39; contact information to a specific text format, or print it out.  
      The above description describes the exemplary embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure. Person skilled in the art should understand that the social networking system according to the present disclosure should not be limited to be used among “friends”, it also can be used in business relationships, and the social networking system should not be limited to communication of any particular information such as address, and contact information as described in the exemplary embodiments, the system should be applicable to any information.  
      The present disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms and embodiments without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The exemplary embodiments shown in the present specification are, therefore, to be considered in all respects illustrative and not restrictive, of the scope of the present disclosure, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the exemplary embodiments are therefore intended to be embraced within the present disclosure.