Patent ID: 8413060

Claim:
A method for electronically displaying attribute associations between a first user and a second user of a messaging service, comprising: retrieving a second attribute from a first plurality of attributes that are associated with the second user; comparing the second attribute to a first attribute of the first user; designating a common attribute when the comparison reveals that the first attribute is similar to the second attribute; accessing a rank defined by the first user for the common attribute, wherein the rank indicates a degree of importance of the commonality of the first attribute and the second attribute relative to other commonalities existing between attributes associated with the first user and the second user; and visually distinguishing the common attribute of the second user within a display viewable by the first user to the exclusion of the other commonalities existing between attributes associated with the first user and the second user, based on the rank of the common attribute being higher than the rank of the other commonalities.