Selecting Friends In A Network Of Friends Loosely Coupled To A Subscription Service

Abstract

A server and method are provided for suggesting a friend in a network of friends. In general, a user profile of a user of a user device is compared to user profiles of other users of a plurality of user devices that are also subscribers of subscription media services. A media collection of the user of the user device is compared to media collections of the other users that are also subscribers of subscription media services. One of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices having a user profile that has a high correlation to the user profile of the user of the first user device and a media collection that has a low correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device is selected as the new friend for the user of the user device

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a server to suggest a friend in a network of friends comprising:
 comparing a user profile of a user of a first user device to user profiles of users of other ones of a plurality of user devices that are also subscribers of at least one of a number of subscription media services;   comparing a media collection of the user of the first user device to media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices that are also subscribers of at least one of the number of subscription media services; and   selecting one of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices having a user profile that has a high correlation to the user profile of the user of the first user device and a media collection that has a low correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device as the new friend for the user of the first user device   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein one of the plurality of user devices is associated with the new friend and provides media recommendations to the first device as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the one of the plurality of user devices. 
     
     
         3 . A server for suggesting a friend in a network of friends comprising:
 a communication interface adapted to communicatively couple the central server to a plurality of user devices via a network;   at least one processor; and   memory storing executable software executable by the at least one processor whereby the server is operative to:
 compare a user profile of a user of a first user device to user profiles of users of other ones of a plurality of user devices that are also subscribers of at least one of a number of subscription media services; 
 compare a media collection of the user of the first user device to media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices that are also subscribers of at least one of the number of subscription media services; and 
 select one of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices having a user profile that has a high correlation to the user profile of the user of the first user device and a media collection that has a low correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device as the new friend for the user of the first user device 
   
     
     
         4 . The server of  claim 3  wherein the one of the plurality of user devices associated with the new friend provides media recommendations to the first user device as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the one of the plurality of user devices. 
     
     
         5 . The server of  claim 3  wherein if the user of the first user device is a non-subscriber of the number of subscription media services, the server is further operative to select the new friend for the user of the first user device from users of other ones of the plurality of user devices that are also non-subscribers of the number of subscription media services. 
     
     
         6 . The server of  claim 3  wherein to compare the media collection of the user of the first user device to the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices, the server is operative to, for each one of the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices:
 determine a number of media presentations that the one of the media collections and the media collection of the user of the first device have in common; 
 wherein, if the number of media presentations that the one of the media collections and the media collection of the user of the first user device have in common is less than a threshold number of media presentations, the one of the media collections has a low correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         7 . The server of  claim 6  wherein the threshold number of media presentations is a static threshold. 
     
     
         8 . The server of  claim 6  wherein the threshold number of media presentations is a dynamic threshold. 
     
     
         9 . The server of  claim 3  wherein to compare the media collection of the user of the first device to the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices, the sever is operative to, for each one of the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices:
 determine a percentage of media presentations in the media collection of the user of the first user device that are also in the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices; 
 wherein, if the percentage of media presentations is less than a threshold percentage of media presentations, the one of the media collections has a low correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         10 . The server of  claim 3  wherein the user profile of the user comprises statistical information including one or more of a group consisting of: a genre distribution, an artist distribution, and a release year distribution for the media collection of the user of the first user device, and the user profiles of the other ones of the plurality of devices comprise statistical information including one or more of a group consisting of: a genre distribution, an artist distribution, and a release year distribution for the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices. 
     
     
         11 . The server of  claim 10  wherein to compare the user profile of the user of the first user device to the user profiles of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices, the server is operative to, for each one of the user profiles of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices:
 determine whether the statistical information from the one of the user profiles is substantially similar to the statistical information from the user profile of the user of the first user device; 
 wherein, if the one of the user profiles is substantially similar to the statistical information from the user profile of the user of the first user device, the one of the user profiles has a high correlation to the user profile of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         12 . The server of  claim 11  wherein to determine whether the statistical information from the one of the user profiles is substantially similar to the statistical information from the user profile of the user of the first user device, the server is operative to:
 generate a score indicative of a similarity of the statistical information from the one of the user profiles and the statistical information from the user profile of the user of the first user device; and 
 compare the score to a threshold to determine whether the statistical information from the one of the user profiles is substantially similar to the statistical information from the user profile of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         13 . The server of  claim 3  wherein the server is further operative to: if the user of the first user device is a non-subscriber of the number of subscription media services, select the new friend for the user of the first user device from users of other ones of the plurality of user devices that are also non-subscribers of the number of subscription media services. 
     
     
         14 . The server of  claim 13  wherein if the user of the first user device is a non-subscriber, to select the new friend, the server is operative to:
 compare a media collection of the user of the first user device to media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices that are also non-subscribers; and 
 select one of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices having a media collection that has a high correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device as the new friend for the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         15 . The server of  claim 14  wherein to compare the media collection of the user of the first user device to the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices, the server is operative to, for each one of the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices:
 determine a number of media presentations that the one of the media collections and the media collection of the user of the first user device have in common; 
 wherein, if the number of media presentations that the one of the media collections and the media collection of the user of the first user device have in common is greater than a threshold number of media presentations, the one of the media collections has a high correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         16 . The server of  claim 15  wherein the threshold number of media presentations is a static threshold. 
     
     
         17 . The server of  claim 15  wherein the threshold number of media presentations is a dynamic threshold. 
     
     
         18 . The server of  claim 14  wherein to compare the media collection of the user of the first user device to the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices, the server is operative to, for each one of the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices:
 determine a percentage of media presentations in the media collection of the user of the first user device that are also in the media collections of the users of the other ones of the plurality of user devices; 
 wherein, if the percentage of media presentations is greater than a threshold percentage of media presentations, the one of the media collections has a high correlation to the media collection of the user of the first user device. 
 
     
     
         19 . The server of  claim 3  wherein the server is further operative to add the new friend to a friends list of the user of the first user device, wherein the friends list defines a recommendation group of the user of the first user device. 
     
     
         20 . The server of  claim 3  wherein the number of subscription media services is at least one subscription media service.