Patent ID: 8539046

Claim:
One or more computer storage media devices storing computer-usable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform a method for delegated pre-configuration, the method comprising: receiving an identification of a user of an online service of a plurality of online services from multiple different service providers, wherein the online service is a social networking service allowing one or more social network users to, via a network, post new messages and receive responses to posted messages in an online forum, and further wherein receiving the identification of the user comprises receiving instructions from a delegate to create an account for the user of the online service; receiving pre-configuration instructions from the delegate that is a second user different from the user, the delegate having received permission from the user to provide the pre-configuration instructions, wherein the pre-configuration instructions include specific settings that are applied to the social networking service of the user upon creation of the account and generic settings that are applied across the plurality of online services of the user; processing online service settings in accordance with the pre-configuration instructions received from the delegate, wherein processing the online service settings in accordance with the pre-configuration instructions comprises: creating a user profile associating the user with the pre-configuration instructions and storing the user profile, wherein the user profile includes a catalogue of the specific and the generic settings, and pre-configuring the social networking service with the specific settings and the generic settings retrieved from the user profile, wherein the generic settings are pre-configured for each of the plurality of online services for which an account associated with the user is established; and presenting the online service to the user according to the online service settings.