WO2013007084A1

WO2013007084A1 - Contact path search method, system, and search server

Info

Publication number: WO2013007084A1
Application number: PCT/CN2011/083798
Authority: WO
Inventors: 卢艳; 陈军; 丁欣; 杨振华; 郦志新
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2011-07-08
Filing date: 2011-12-12
Publication date: 2013-01-17
Also published as: CN102868716A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a contact path search method, a system, and a search server. The method comprises: a search server receiving a contact path query request sent by a terminal, the request carrying information of a first user and information of a second user searched for by the first user; the search server searching a contact address book for a contact path between the first user and the second user according to the information of the first user and the information of the second user; the search server determining whether a contact path meeting preset conditions is found, and if the contact path meeting the preset conditions is found, returning the contact path or information of an intermediate node contact to the terminal. The contact path search method, system, and search server of the present invention provide a solution to the contact between any contacts.

Description

Contact path finding method, system and search server

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a contact path finding method, a system, and a search server for use on a social network.

Background technique

The Internet is not only an important tool for people to obtain information, but also provides a platform for people to communicate and communicate. The development of Internet technology has made it possible to create a network address book. With the convenience of network storage, the address books of different social networks can also be integrated. In the Internet age, the world will become smaller and smaller. Imagine if everyone put their contact information on the network, then in theory there must be a certain connection path between every two people in the world. To record someone as AO, AO can contact Al through some kind of contact. A1 is then connected to A2..., Αη-1 contacts An, then AO contacts An through n steps. The problem now is that for a specific two people A and B, A can be reached in at least a few steps. An?

Regarding the connection between people, there is a mathematical field conjecture called Six Degrees of Separation. Chinese translation includes the following: Six-degree division theory or small world theory. The theory points out that you and any stranger are no more than six people separated, that is, you can know any stranger with a maximum of six people. So the question is, how do you find these 6 people? This problem is a valuable issue for people who value interpersonal relationships. The present invention proposes a method of finding any two contact paths.

Summary of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a contact path searching method, system and search server for solving the problem that any contact cannot be contacted.

In order to solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a contact path searching method, including: a search server receiving a contact path query request sent by a terminal, the contact path query request carrying first user information, and the first user is to search Information of the second user; The search server searches for a contact path between the first user and the second user in the contact address book according to the first user information and the information of the second user;

The search server determines whether a contact path meeting the preset condition is found, and if the contact path meeting the preset condition is found, the contact path or the intermediate node contact information is returned to the terminal.

The above method can also have the following characteristics:

The step of the search server searching for a contact path between the first user and the second user includes:

(a) determining whether the first user and the second user have the same nth level contact, and if so, the first user to the nth level contact of the first user to the The second user is the contact path, the process ends, and if not, step (b) is performed;

(b) determining whether the first user and the second user have an nth level contact that is a contact with each other; if yes, determining the first user to their corresponding nth level contact and the The nth level contact corresponding to the second user is the contact path to the second user, and the process ends; if not, let n=n+l, and return to step (a);

Where n has an initial value of 1.

The above method can also have the following characteristics:

(a) searching, according to the second user information, from the first-level contact of the first user, whether the second user is in the contact address book, until the last node contact is found or the end condition is reached. The last node contact refers to the contact of the second user in the contact address book thereof;

(b) if the last node contact is found, determining the previous level intermediate node contact layer by layer according to the last node contact, until the root node contact, the root node contact refers to the first user contact Person

The contact path includes the root node contact, each intermediate node contact, and a last node contact.

The above method can also have the following characteristics: The search server is a search server serving one or more social networks, and the contact address book is a contact address book of the corresponding one or more social networks.

The above method can also have the following characteristics:

The preset condition includes one or more of the following: return contact path or middleman information setting, step size of the contact path, number of contact paths, preferred conditions of the contact path, and the number of social networks involved.

The invention also provides a search server, comprising:

a query request receiving unit, configured to: receive a contact path query request sent by the terminal, where the contact path query request carries the first user information and the information of the second user that the first user is to find;

a contact path searching unit, configured to: search, in the database, between the first user and the second user according to the first user information in the contact path query request and the information of the second user Contact path; and

The search request feedback unit is configured to: determine whether a contact path meeting the preset condition is found, and when the contact path meeting the preset condition is found, return the contact path or the intermediate node contact information to the terminal.

The above search server can also have the following characteristics:

The contact path searching unit includes:

Contact address book, which is set to: save contact information of each user;

The contact address book search module is configured to: according to the second user information, search for the second user in the contact address book layer by layer from the first level contact of the first user, until the second user is found a last node contact or an end condition, the last node contact being a contact of the second user in the contact address book thereof;

a contact path determining module, configured to: if the contact address book search module finds the last node contact, determine the previous level intermediate node contact layer by layer according to the last node contact, until the root node contact, The root node contact refers to the contact of the first user;

The contact path includes the root node contact, each intermediate node contact, and a last node contact. The above search server can also have the following characteristics:

The search server is a contact search server serving one or more social networks, and the contact address book is a contact address book of the corresponding one or more social networks.

The above search server can also have the following characteristics:

The preset condition includes one or more of the following: a step size of the contact path, a number of contact paths, a preferred condition of the contact path, and a number of social networks involved.

The present invention further provides a contact path finding system, comprising: a terminal and the search server according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the terminal comprises:

a query request sending module, configured to: send the contact path query request to the search server;

The query result receiving module is configured to: receive the contact path or intermediate node contact information sent by the search server.

The above solution is used by the search server of the social network to find a middleman contact path between the two users in the contact address book according to the contact path query request sent by the terminal, thereby providing a practical social path for the social network user.

BRIEF abstract

1 is a schematic diagram of a contact address book according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a schematic diagram of a contact path searching method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic diagram of a contact path searching method according to an application example 1 of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of a process of searching for a search server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a module of a search server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Preferred embodiment of the invention

The contact path searching method, the system and the search server of the embodiment of the present invention can implement the contact path query request sent by the terminal by the search server of the social network, and find the intermediary path between the two users in the contact address book, thereby Provide a practical for social network users Social approach.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a fused network address book can be established in the network, and the user records his own contact information in the network address book, and the manner in which the address book saves the user information can be as shown in the figure.

1 is shown. In this address book, each user has a "personal contact card" of his own, on which the contact information of all contacts of the user is indicated. The invention is also referred to as a contact address book. In general, there are multiple social networks on the network. Each social network can establish its own contact address book, that is, a proprietary network address book. It is also possible to share a contact address book with multiple social networks, that is, in multiple social networks. A converged network address book is created in the network, in which information of each social network user is recorded. In the address book, under the name of each user, all the contact information of the user is recorded. The solution proposed by the present invention is applicable to the above two cases.

As shown in FIG. 2, the contact path searching method of the embodiment of the present invention includes:

Step 201: The search server receives a contact path query request sent by the terminal, where the first user information and the information of the second user to be searched by the first user are carried.

The search server may be a search server serving a certain social network, or may be a search search server serving a plurality of social networks.

Step 202: The search server searches for a contact path between the first user and the second user in the contact address book according to the first user information and the second user information.

In this step, in the case of multiple social networks, if multiple social networks share a common converged address book, and each has an independent private network address book, the search server needs to use the proprietary network address book information before performing the search operation. The merged address book information is merged.

Step 203: The search server determines whether a contact path that meets the preset condition is found. If a contact path that meets the preset condition is found, the contact path or the intermediate node contact information is returned to the terminal.

The return information can take many forms, one is to give the middleman information in a fuzzy way, and does not return the specific path information of the middleman. The other is to return specific path information. For example, user A searches for user Α, and obtains the following contact path, A->B->C->D->A. The search server can also set the way to return information, that is, return fuzzy information, return only the intermediary information, and do not return the specific path. Or return to the specific path. In the case of returning a specific path, it is also possible to determine more detailed return information by a preset condition, including the step size of the contact path (eg, the step size is set to 3), the return contact path or the intermediary information setting, and the contact path. The number of bars, the preferred condition of the contact path (the shortest contact path among the multiple contact paths to be found is the final contact path) or the number of social networks involved (limited to 3 social networks)

The method for the search server to find the contact path between the first user and the second user may have the following two solutions:

Option One:

(al) searching, according to the second user information, from the first-level contact of the first user, whether the second user is found in the contact address book, until the last node contact is found or the end condition is reached. The last node contact refers to the contact of the second user in the contact address book thereof;

(bl) if the last node contact is found, determining the previous level intermediate node contact layer by layer according to the last node contact, until the root node contact, the root node contact refers to the first user contact Person

The level of the search can be determined according to the preset step size or degree. For example, the step size is set to 3, which means that it needs to go through three layers of traversal. If it can be found, it will return. If it is not found, it will fail. Specifically, if the second user (the first layer traversal) is not found in the contact of the first user, and then the second user (the second layer traversal) is searched for in the contact of each contact of the first user, to This class pushes to the third layer traversal.

For the convenience of the user, each contact in the contact path can be listed in order.

Understandably, when the first user and the second user can establish contact by only one user, the root node contact, the last node contact, and the intermediate node contact may be considered to coincide, when the first user and the second user pass When two users establish contact, the intermediate node contact may be considered to be in conjunction with the root node contact or with the last node contact. Option II:

The step of the search server searching the network address book for the connection path between the first user and the second user includes:

(a2) determining whether the first user and the second user have the same nth level contact, and if so, the first user to the first user's nth level contact to the second The user is the contact path, the process ends, otherwise step (b) is performed;

(b2) determining whether the first user and the second user have an nth level contact that is a contact with each other; if yes, determining the first user to their corresponding nth level contact and the second user Corresponding nth level contact to the second user is a contact path, and the process ends; otherwise, n=n+l, returning to step (a);

Understandably, n is 1 in the initial step in the second scheme.

Generally, if there is already a second user in the contact address book of the first user, there is no need to find a contact path, in order to prevent the user from inadvertently searching for a contact already in his contact address book, preferably, in the solution Before the step (al) and the initial step of the second method, the method further includes: determining whether the second user is a contact of the first user, and if yes, the contact path is the second user, and the process ends. Otherwise, perform the steps (al) of scenario one or the initial steps of scenario two.

The first level user of the first user refers to all the contacts in the contact address book of the first user, and the second level contact of the first user refers to the contact address book of all the first level contacts of the first user. All contacts, and so on.

Application example one

This application example describes the situation within a single network. You can use a social network (such as facebook) as an example. This applies to situations where all users belong to the same social network. With the solution of the present invention, the user is queried by the terminal to query the contact path of the user and another designated designated user. Includes the following steps:

Step 301: The search server receives a contact path query request of the user A sent by the terminal and another designated contact.

The user terminal sends a query request through the HTTP protocol, and the specified contact information is carried in the HTTP. In the request message. Step 302: The search server searches for a shortest path in the contact address book.

For a single network, each user has a fixed username, which can be represented numerically as 1,2, ..,,«. In this step, the problem to be solved by the relevant search server is that the user i contacts the user j, and several people are passed in the middle. For each user k, it is assumed that the search server has stored the contact address book of k, that is, k can directly Contact other users, or give a name: Friends set.

Suppose you want to search for a degree of 6 (that is, the maximum step size of the allowed contact path, you can also set it to less than 6). As shown in Figure 4, the processing steps are as follows:

Step 401: Determine whether it is directly possible to contact the ''; find if the friend is in the set, and if yes, go to step 407. The step size is 1. Expressed as: If ·7·Ε ^(ί·) , then ί(ί·, _/·) = 1;

Step 402: Determine whether i can contact j through one person;

The found friend set and the 'friend set have a public user (i.e., the same contact), and if so, step 407 is performed. The step size is 2.

That is, if the search is performed, it is determined whether there are elements equal, that is, whether i and j have the same first level contact, if any,

Then "(ι', = ² ; Step 403: Determine if it can be contacted by 2 people / / ';

The friend of the pair collects each user to search, and judges whether the user has a step size of 2, and if yes, step 407 is performed. The step size is 3.

That is, search for eA(i), and judge whether there is "( = ² , the principle is the same as the second step, if it is established, then "('', =3; Step 404: Determine whether i can contact j through 3 people) ;

The friend of the pair concentrates each user and the friends of ··' to search for each user, and judges whether there is a step size of the user in the group of friends that the user is concentrated in, that is, whether k1 of the friend group of i is j or not The k2 of the friend set has the same contact, and if yes, step 407 is performed. The step size is 4.

That is, search for (0, ^eACZ) and judge whether there is "(A) = ² , if it is established, Then n(ij) = 4 Step 405: Determine whether it can be contacted by 4 people.

The friend of the pair collects each user to search, and determines whether there is a step size of 4 for the user, and if yes, step 407 is performed. The step size is 5.

which is,

, C) to search, to determine whether there is "(, ^) = 2, if it is, then "(', · / ') = ⁵ ; Step 406: Determine whether i can contact j through 5 people;

The pair of friends concentrates each user and the friends of ··' to search for each user, and determines whether there is a step size of the user in the group of friends that the user is concentrated in, and if so, step 407 is executed. Is 6, otherwise the search failed.

That is, for k, e B, (i\ke B, (k,), k ₂ e B, (jl e B, (k ₂ ) is searched, it is judged whether or not "(^ ₄ ) = 2 if it is true, then "('·, _/·) = 6; If none of the above is true, then "(ί', ·/')> ⁶ , the search fails, and the flow of step 302 ends.

Step 407: It is considered that the qualified contact path is searched, and each intermediate contact is confirmed, and the process of step 302 ends.

If the process jumps from step 401 to step 407, then j is the special case of the contact of i; if the process jumps from step 402, 404 or 406 to step 407, it indicates that i and j have the same first, second or 3 level contacts, the corresponding contact path is i to its first, second or third level contact and then to j;

If the process jumps from step 403 or 405 to step 407, it indicates that i and j respectively have the first or second level contact of each other as the contact; the corresponding contact path is i to its corresponding first or second level contact respectively. Then go to the 1st or 2nd level contact corresponding to j, then go to j.

Step 303: If the search server searches for the specified contact contact path, the intermediate contacts are returned to the terminal.

The search server returns the search result to the terminal through the HTTP protocol, and the terminal will return the contact. The human path information is parsed and displayed to the user. Application example two

This application example describes the case of multiple networks. Take multiple social networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln) as an example. This applies to some users belonging to a certain social network, but all users use the converged network address book to register their own contact information. In the address book (of course, the social network may also register the contact information of this community). For multiple networks, the algorithm is consistent with the case of a single network. As long as the user's "friend set" can be given, the calculation process is the same. In just step two, the related service merges the "friend sets" of all users before the search begins. The process is as follows: For a specific user, for each network, give their friends set, and then replace the user names in the friends in each network with a unified user logo, and finally merge to get the total "Friends set".

To implement the above method, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a search server. As shown in FIG. 5, the search server includes:

The query request receiving unit is configured to receive a contact path query request sent by the terminal, where the first user information and the information of the second user to be searched by the first user are carried;

The contact path searching unit is configured to search the database for the contact path between the first user and the second user according to the first user information and the second user information in the contact path query request;

The search request feedback unit is configured to determine whether the contact path that meets the preset condition is found, and when the contact path that meets the preset condition is found, the contact path or the intermediate node contact information is also returned to the terminal.

The contact path searching unit may include:

Contact address book, set to save contact information of each user;

The contact address book search module is configured to, according to the second user information, search for the second user in the contact address book layer by layer from the first level contact of the first user, until the last node contact is found. Or reaching the end condition, the last node contact refers to its contact address book The contact of the second user; the contact path determining module is configured to: if the last node contact is found, determine the previous level intermediate node contact layer by layer according to the last node contact, until the root node contact, The root node contact refers to the contact of the first user;

Optionally, the search server may be a contact search server serving one or several social networks, where the contact address book is a contact address book of a corresponding social network or several social networks.

The preset condition includes one or more of the following: returning the contact path or the middleman information setting, the step size of the contact path, the number of the contact path, the preferred condition of the contact path, or the number of social networks involved.

To implement the above method, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a contact path searching system, where the system includes a terminal and a search server as described above, where the terminal includes:

a query request sending module, configured to send a contact path query request to the search server, where the first user information and the information of the second user to be searched by the first user are carried;

The query result receiving module is configured to receive the contact path or the intermediate node contact information sent by the search server.

The search server may be a contact search server serving one or several social networks.

The preset condition includes one or more of the following: returning the contact path or the middleman information setting, the step size of the contact path, the number of the contact path, the preferred condition of the contact path, or the number of social networks involved. It can be seen that with the embodiments of the present invention, the shortest path to any contact can be found, thereby providing a way to find out how to establish contact with a stranger.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or part of the steps in the above methods may be passed through the program. To complete the instruction related hardware, the above program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium such as a read only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk. Alternatively, all or part of the steps of the above embodiments may also be implemented using one or more integrated circuits. Correspondingly, each module/unit in the foregoing embodiment may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of a software function module. The invention is not limited to any specific form of combination of hardware and software.

The above embodiments are only intended to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be modified or equivalently substituted without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY An embodiment of the present invention searches for a middleman contact path between two users in a contact address book according to a contact path query request sent by the terminal, thereby providing a practical method for the social network user. Social approach.

Claims

Claim

1. A contact path finding method, comprising:

The search server receives the contact path query request sent by the terminal, where the contact path query request carries the first user information and the information of the second user that the first user is to find;

The search server searches for a contact path between the first user and the second user in the contact address book according to the first user information and the information of the second user; the search server determines whether to search To the contact path that meets the preset condition, if the contact path meeting the preset condition is found, the contact path or the intermediate node contact information is returned to the terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the step of the search server searching for a contact path between the first user and the second user comprises:

Where n has an initial value of 1.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of the search server searching for a contact path between the first user and the second user comprises:

(a) searching, according to the second user information, from the first-level contact of the first user, whether the second user is in the contact address book, until the last node contact is found or the end condition is reached. The last node contact refers to the contact of the second user in the contact address book; (b) if the last node contact is found, the previous level intermediate node is determined according to the last node contact layer by layer. a person, up to the root node contact, the root node contact refers to the contact of the first user; The contact path includes the root node contact, each intermediate node contact, and a last node contact.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein: the search server is a search server serving one or more social networks, the contact address book being a contact address book of a corresponding one or more social networks .

5. The method of claim 1, wherein: the predetermined condition comprises one or more of the following: returning a contact path or an intermediary information setting, a step size of the contact path, a number of contact paths, and a preference of the contact path Conditions and the number of social networks involved.

6. A search server, comprising:

The search server according to claim 6, wherein the contact path searching unit comprises: a contact address book, which is configured to: save contact information of each user;

a contact path determining module, configured to: if the contact address book search module finds the last node contact, determine the previous level intermediate node contact layer by layer according to the last node contact, until the root node contact, The root node contact refers to the contact of the first user; The contact path includes the root node contact, each intermediate node contact, and a last node contact.

8. The search server of claim 6, wherein: the search server is a contact search server serving one or more social networks, the contact address book being a contact of a corresponding one or more social networks People address book.

9. The search server according to claim 6, wherein: the preset condition comprises one or more of the following: a step size of the contact path, a number of contact paths, a preferred condition of the contact path, and a social network involved Number.

A contact path search system, comprising: a terminal and a search server according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the terminal comprises:

The query request sending module is configured to: send the contact path query request to the search server; and the query result receiving module is configured to: receive the contact path or intermediate node contact information sent by the search server.