Patent ID: 8886224

Claim:
A method for facilitating personal contacts among a plurality of subscribers to a location-based person contact service provided by a service provider having a database that comprises a personal profile of each subscriber and filter criteria for accepting the personal profiles of the other subscribers, said method comprising: receiving, by the service provider, a first message from a first wireless device possessed by a first subscriber of the plurality of subscribers, wherein the first message includes data from which a region may be determined by the service provider, and wherein the message further includes a request for the first wireless device to receive those personal profiles of all subscribers whose wireless devices are determined to be within the region satisfying filter criteria specified by the first subscriber; extracting from the database, by the service provider, said those personal profiles; transmitting, by the service provider to the first wireless device after said receiving the first message, said those personal profiles; receiving, by the service provider after said transmitting, a second message from the first wireless device, wherein the second message instructs the service provider to forward the personal profile of the first subscriber to a second wireless device possessed by a second subscriber of said all subscribers whose wireless devices are determined to be within the region who satisfy the filter criteria specified by the first subscriber; and sending, by the service provider to the second wireless device after said receiving the second message, the personal profile of the first subscriber.