Updating contact information for mobile traffic

Abstract

A system for managing contact information between mobile devices. A notification is received any time a mobile device initiates or terminates a communication. The receiving mobile device is prompted to obtain the contact information of the caller. Based on permissions set by the caller, the receiving mobile device may obtain the caller's public contact information, private contact information, none of the caller's contact information or some combination of the caller's public and private contact information. In one embodiment, a subset of the caller's contact information is displayed in the screen of a receiving mobile device coincidentally while receiving the phone call to provide a caller-identification feature.

1 . A method of providing caller identification associated with a first person to a mobile device of a second person, comprising:
 (a) receiving notification that the first person initiated a phone call to the mobile device of the second person;   (b) identifying contact information associated with the first person stored in a network address book;   (c) determining a subset of contact information stored in the network address book that the first person has chosen to expose to the second person based on a permission level set by the first person;   (d) retrieving the subset of contact information the first person has chosen to expose to the second person from the network address book;   (e) transmitting the subset of contact information retrieved in step (d) to the mobile device of the second person; and   (f) displaying the subset of the contact information transmitted in step (e) in a screen of the mobile device.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein step (d) of identifying contact information associated with the first person stored in the network address book comprises identifying at least one of the following: a name, an address, a phone number, an email address, a website, an image, a nickname, and a social community identity. 
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein step (e) of transmitting the contact information comprises transmitting the contact information retrieved in step (d) to the second person's mobile device prior to the mobile device receiving the phone call from the first person. 
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein step (e) of transmitting the contact information comprises transmitting the contact information retrieved in step (d) to the second person's mobile device during the phone call. 
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein step (e) of transmitting the contact information comprises transmitting the contact information retrieved in step (d) to the second person's mobile device after the phone call is completed. 
     
     
         6 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein step (b) of identifying the contact information associated with the first person comprises:
 receiving identification data associated with the device used by the first person to initiate the phone call to the second person's mobile device; and   identifying the contact information associated with the first person based on the identification data associated with the device used by the first person to initiate the phone call to the second person's mobile device.   
     
     
         7 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 storing the contact information transmitted in step (e) in the second person's mobile device.   
     
     
         8 . A method of providing caller identification associated with a first person from a network address book to a mobile device of a second person, comprising:
 (a) receiving a request from the mobile device of the second person to obtain the contact information associated with the first person who has originated a call to the mobile device of the second person;   (b) in response to the request received in step (a), identifying the contact information associated with the first person in the network address book;   (c) identifying a subset of the contact information in the network address book associated with the first person that the second person is authorized to obtain according to a permission level, said permission level determines what contact information in the network address book associated with the first person is to be shared and who has the permission to view the shared contact information;   (d) retrieving the subset of contact information identified in step (c) from the network address book; and   (e) transmitting the subset of contact information retrieved in step (d) to the mobile device of the second person.   
     
     
         9 . The method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein step (e) of transmitting the contact information retrieved in step (d) to the mobile device of the second person comprises transmitting a virtual card associated with the first person to the second person's mobile device. 
     
     
         10 . The method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein step (e) of transmitting the authorized contact retrieved in step (d) to the mobile device of the second person comprises transmitting the contact information associated with the first person to the second person's mobile device via a short message service. 
     
     
         11 . The method as recited in  claim 8 , wherein step (c) of identifying the contact information in the network address book associated with the first person comprises identifying the contact information in the network address book associated with the first person based on at least one of the following items associated with the first person: name, address, phone number, email address, website, image, nickname, and social community identity.