Patent ID: 8095551

Claim:
A method of providing a social network, the method comprising the steps of: (a) storing a contact on a central database, the contact created by an owner of the contact, and the contact accessible by a plurality of users other than the owner who have subscribed to have access to contacts on the central database, and who have the owner's permission to view the owner's contacts; (b) receiving data for an annotation to the stored contact, the data generated by the owner of the stored contact, the annotation at least describing a relationship between the stored contact and the owner, the data relating to a note to be annotated to the stored contact or to a keyword tag to be annotated to the stored contact, the note entered in a first field allowing freeform, owner-originated text relating to any notes the owner desires to add regarding the stored contact, and the data relating to a searchable keyword tag entered in a second field allowing freeform, owner-originated text relating to any keyword tag the owner desires to add regarding the stored contact; and (c) storing the data for the annotation, the stored data being accessible along with the contact to the plurality of users who have subscribed to have access to the contacts on the central database.