Patent ID: 8260553

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining data describing a first user's location timeline, wherein the location timeline comprises a location at which the first user will be located in the future; receiving a request for the first user's current location; estimating, by a processor, the first user's current location based at least in part upon the maintained data; and causing the first user's current location to be provided; wherein the first user's current location defines the first user's location at a current time, and wherein estimating the first user's current location comprises: determining, based at least in part upon the maintained data, a previous location for the first user and a next location for the first user, wherein the previous location is that associated with a known location previous to the time of the request, and wherein the next location defines the next known future location for the first user relative to the time of the request; estimating the first user's current location based at least in part upon the previous location and the next location, and wherein estimating the first user's current location based at least in part upon the previous location and the next location comprises estimating the first user's current location to be one of the previous location and the next location based at least in part upon a determination of which of the previous location and the next location has an associated time closest to the time of the request, wherein the time of the request is between the time associated with the previous location and the time associated with the next location.