US 11,816,743 B1
Information enhancing method using software agents in a social networking system
Jeffrey Alan Rapaport, Ho Chi Minh (VN); Seymour Rapaport, Los Altos, CA (US); Kenneth Allen Smith, Fremont, CA (US); James Beattie, San Ramon, CA (US); and Gideon Gimlan, Los Gatos, CA (US)
Filed by Jeffrey Alan Rapaport, Ho Chi Minh (VN)
Filed on Nov. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/985,881.
Application 17/985,881 is a continuation of application No. 12/854,082, filed on Aug. 10, 2010, abandoned.
Int. Cl. G06F 3/14 (2006.01); G06Q 30/06 (2023.01); G06Q 50/00 (2012.01); G06Q 30/02 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 50/01 (2013.01) [G06Q 30/02 (2013.01)] 2 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An information enhancing method for use with a first social-topical networking system and with external platform systems that are external of the first social-topical networking system and provide social interaction services, where the first social-topical networking system maintains in a memory thereof, a communally-controlled topic space populated by spatially and/or hierarchically organized topic nodes each having respective topic defining data logically associated therewith, wherein the maintained topic space is communally-controlled due to automatically repeated updating thereof based on automatic uploads of current focus-indicating records for, and based on explicit and/or implicit votes of plural users of the first social-topical networking system, the updating being in terms of at least one of spatial and/or hierarchical organization of the topic nodes within the topic space and in terms of the topic defining data that is logically associated with respective ones of the topic nodes, the method comprising:
causing instantiation, within a machine system having processors, of a software agent that is structured to be able to search for, find and convey potentially new or different, and thus potentially informationally enhancing data signals to the first social-topical networking system for potential addition at least into a specified portion of the communally-controlled and automatically repeatedly updated topic space of the first social-topical networking system of corresponding data items represented by the potentially informationally enhancing data signals, where information represented by the potentially informationally enhancing data signals is potentially new or different relative to information represented by a current version of the topic defining data of at least one of the topic nodes of the automatically and repeatedly updated topic space;
causing the instantiated software agent to begin searching for and collecting from the one or more external platform systems that provide social networking services, potentially new or different, and thus potentially informationally enhancing data items found by the agent in the one or more external platform systems,
causing the instantiated software agent to begin conveying the collected potentially new or different, and thus potentially informationally enhancing data items by way of said potentially informationally enhancing data signals to the first social-topical networking system; and
causing initiation of a determination as to whether one or more of the conveyed and potentially informationally enhancing data items is new or different relative to information currently represented by the topic defining data of the at least one of the topic nodes of the communally-controlled and automatically repeatedly updated topic space.