System and method for social browsing using aggregated profiles

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing social crowd data for a number of social locations. In one embodiment, a social browsing system processes social crowd requests using social locations collected for users over time. In one embodiment, upon receiving a social crowd request, for each of one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request, the social browsing system identifies a social crowd for the social location. Optionally, the social crowds may be filtered. Social crowd data is generated for the social locations based on user profiles of the users in the corresponding social crowds. In one embodiment, the social crowd data is returned to a user device of a requesting user. In another embodiment, the social browsing system visualizes the social crowd data and returns the visualized social crowd data to the user device of the requesting user for presentation to the requesting user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving a social crowd request from a user device of a requesting user;   identifying a social crowd for each social location of one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request;   for each social location of the one or more social locations, obtaining social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location; and   returning the social crowd data for the one or more social locations to the user device of the requesting user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein identifying the social crowd for each social location comprises, for each social location of the one or more social locations, identifying a plurality of users currently at the social location as the social crowd for the social location. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein identifying the social crowd for each social location comprises, for each social location of the one or more social locations, identifying a plurality of users previously at the social location during one or more defined historical periods of time as the social crowd for the social location. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein identifying the social crowd for each social location comprises, for each social location of the one or more social locations, identifying a plurality of users currently at the social location and a plurality of users previously at the social location during one or more defined historical periods of time as the social crowd for the social location. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each social location of the one or more social locations is a service or application in which users participate. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the service or application is a social networking service or application. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the service or application is a service or application having a social networking feature. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location comprises an affinity between the requesting user and the social crowd. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location comprises a number of users in the social crowd. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location comprises an affinity between the requesting user and the social crowd and a number of users in the social crowd. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, obtaining the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location comprises:
 obtaining an aggregate profile for the social crowd; and 
 determining an affinity between the requesting user and the social crowd based on a comparison of a user profile of the requesting user and the aggregate profile of the social crowd. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, obtaining the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location comprises determining an affinity between the requesting user and the social crowd based on a comparison of a user profile of the requesting user and user profiles of a plurality of users in the social crowd. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 collecting social locations of a plurality of users over time; 
 wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request, the social crowd identified for the social location comprises a subset of the plurality of users identified for the social location based on the social locations collected for the subset of the plurality of users. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising for each social location of the one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request, filtering the social crowd identified for the social location based on one or more filtering criteria prior to obtaining the social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the one or more filtering criteria comprises a criterion based on online status. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the one or more filtering criteria comprises a maximum degree of separation from the requesting user in a social network. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14  wherein filtering the social crowd comprises removing users from the social crowd that are physically located outside of a desired geographic area defined by at least one of the one or more filtering criteria. 
     
     
         18 . A server comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the server to a network; and   a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 receive a social crowd request from a user device of a requesting user; 
 identify a social crowd for each social location of one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request; 
 for each social location of the one or more social locations, obtain social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location; and 
 return the social crowd data for the one or more social locations to the user device of the requesting user. 
   
     
     
         19 . A computer readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:
 receive a social crowd request from a user device of a requesting user;   identify a social crowd for each social location of one or more social locations identified for the social crowd request;   for each social location of the one or more social locations, obtain social crowd data for the social crowd for the social location; and   return the social crowd data for the one or more social locations to the user device of the requesting user.   
     
     
         20 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 obtaining social crowd data for one or more social crowds identified for one or more social locations, each social crowd of the one or more social crowds identified for a social location of the one or more social locations; and   for each social location of at least a subset of the one or more social locations, presenting a representation representative of the social location to a user via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) such that one or more visual characteristics of the representation are controlled based on the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location comprises an affinity between the user and the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein, for each social location of the at least a subset of the one or more social locations, presenting the representation representative of the social location comprises presenting the representation representative of the social location to the user via the GUI such that a visual characteristic of the representation is controlled to be indicative of the affinity between the user and the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 20  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location comprises a number of users in the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  wherein, for each social location of the at least a subset of the one or more social locations, presenting the representation representative of the social location comprises presenting the representation representative of the social location to the user via the GUI such that a visual characteristic of the representation is controlled to be indicative of the number of users in the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 20  wherein, for each social location of the one or more social locations, the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location comprises an affinity between the user and the social crowd identified for the social location and a number of users in the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein, for each social location of the at least a subset of the one or more social locations, presenting the representation representative of the social location comprises presenting the representation representative of the social location to the user via the GUI such that a first visual characteristic of the representation is controlled to be indicative of the affinity between the user and the social crowd identified for the social location and a second visual characteristic of the representation is controlled to be indicative of the number of users in the social crowd identified for the social location. 
     
     
         27 . A user device comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the user device to a remote system via a network; and   a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 obtain social crowd data for one or more social crowds identified for one or more social locations from the remote system, each social crowd of the one or more social crowds identified for a social location of the one or more social locations; and 
 for each social location of at least a subset of the one or more social locations, present a representation representative of the social location to a user via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) such that one or more visual characteristics of the representation are controlled based on the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location. 
   
     
     
         28 . A computer readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:
 obtain social crowd data for one or more social crowds identified for one or more social locations, each social crowd of the one or more social crowds identified for a social location of the one or more social locations; and   for each social location of at least a subset of the one or more social locations, present a representation representative of the social location to a user via a Graphical User Interface (GUI) such that one or more visual characteristics of the representation are controlled based on the social crowd data for the social crowd identified for the social location.