Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Definitions

• the Internet & computing devices more recently represents the principal way in which people interact with each other, share the information and knowledge, make comparisons online for products & services and make online purchases.
• the users do so at their own pace and convenience, without pressure and in the comfort of their home or office.
• the present invention generally relates to social recommendation and network based housing & real estate services be it buying, selling, leasing or renting, users may search for residential apartments, commercial shops or office buildings, residential/ commercial/agricultural land or plots, builders and developers, real estate agents or consultants, architects and interior decorators, material suppliers and contractors, colonies/streets/locations/roads, state/province, events or activities relating to housing & real estate, etc., read reviews and ratings, compare properties offered for sale/purchase/lease/rental by multiple providers, and enter into deals for sale/purchase/lease/rental of any property or any products or services related to real estate via user's own computing device.
• the present invention provides a system, method, and computer program for social recommendations and network based information with regard to housing and real estate industry.
• a communication interface is configured to conduct a search for housing and real estate information of the interest to the user and communicate with one or more data stores that store information regarding members of electronic social network service or real estate network based service and transmit information identifying one or more members of electronic social network service or real estate network based service who may have housing & real estate information of interest to the user
• Figure 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an exemplary operating environment in which social recommendation service recommends friends/social connections that may possess knowledge regarding housing & real estate information of interest;
• Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of the exemplary operating environment of Figure 1, where social recommendation service identifies members within the user's social network from an electronic social-networking service and housing & real estate network based service; determines one or more locations associated with the real estate information of interest to the user and one or more locations associated with the members and selects identified members of the user's social network for which contact information is to be transmitted to the user;
• Figure 3A is illustrates exemplary communication interface environment 300 where user submits request for housing & real estate information of interest.
• Figure 3B is illustrates exemplary communication interface environment 350 where user authorizes access to the user's social network service
• Figure 4A and 4B illustrates exemplary communication interface environment 400 and 450 respectively where user identifies housing & real estate information of interest and receives recommendations from friends/social connections that may possess knowledge regarding the information of interest;
• Figures 5A and 5B illustrates exemplary display page where friends/social connections that may possess knowledge regarding housing & real estate information of interest are identified.
• a component can be a processor, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, and/or a computer.
• an application running on a server and the server can be a component.
• One or more components can reside within a process, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
• a component can emulate an electronic component via a virtual machine, e.g., within a cloud computing system.
• the term 'user' stated in various place in this disclosure refers to the person who is seeking information and knowledge related to housing and real estate from the housing and real estate recommendation service and or network based service using his or her computing device.
• the terms as stated in various place in this disclosure e.g. 'member,' 'members', refer to the user or users of electronic social network service or housing and real estate network based service.
• the term member or members have been used to distinguish users of social network service and another network based service from the user seeking information relating to housing and real estate.
• these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon.
• the components can communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, etc. with other systems via the signal).
• a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, etc. with other systems via the signal).
• any aspect or design described herein as 'exemplary' and/or 'illustrative is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs, nor is it meant to preclude equivalent exemplary structures and techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
• the terms 'includes,' 'has,' 'contains,' and other similar words are used in either the detailed description or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive - in a manner similar to the term 'comprising' as an open transition word - without precluding any additional or other elements.
• the disclosed subject matter can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter.
• the term 'article of manufacture' as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, computer-readable carrier, or computer-readable media.
• computer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, a magnetic storage device, e.g., hard disk; floppy disk; magnetic strip(s); an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), a digital video disc (DVD); a smart card; a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive); and/or a virtual device that emulates a storage device and/or any of the above computer-readable media.
• a magnetic storage device e.g., hard disk; floppy disk; magnetic strip(s); an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), a digital video disc (DVD); a smart card; a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive); and/or a virtual device that emulates a storage device and/or any of the above computer-readable media.
• a magnetic storage device e.g., hard disk; floppy disk; magnetic strip(s); an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), a digital video disc (
• Figure 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an operating environment 100 which relates to housing & real estate recommendations and, in particular, to identifying friends/social connections that may provide knowledge regarding housing & real estate information of interest to the user.
• the information of interest may pertain to anything a person can perceive or imagine and may include, but is not limited to, information regarding persons, objects, places, or events.
• the information of interest may pertain to purchasing or selling or leasing or renting of immovable properties and activities relating to housing & real estate sector.
• FIG 1 provides a schematic diagram of an exemplary operating networked or distributed computing environment 100 which comprises several computer systems that are interconnected using one or more computer networks.
• the depiction of operating environment 100 in Figure 1 should be taken as illustrative and not limiting to the present disclosure. While various embodiments have been described below, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. For example, any of the modules associated with the social recommendation service may employ any of the desired functionality set forth herein below.
• the operating environment 100 could implement various Web services modules (including but not limited to virtual utility computing services e.g. 'cloud computing services') and peer-to-peer network configurations to implement at least a portion of the disclosed processes.
• Web services modules including but not limited to virtual utility computing services e.g. 'cloud computing services'
• peer-to-peer network configurations to implement at least a portion of the disclosed processes.
• the user/client 104 may deploy any communication device for communication e.g. personal computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or any other device with processor or processing logic.
• any communication device for communication e.g. personal computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or any other device with processor or processing logic.
• the user/client 104 may conduct a search of housing & real estate information maintained by the network-based service 108 and/or the social recommendation service 102 and/or social network service 106 and select from the search results presented to the user.
• the client 104 send request to the network (which comprises network based real estate service 108, social network service 106, social recommendation service 102 ) for getting housing & real estate information of user's interest by specifying search parameters.
• the network will identify housing & real estate information of user's interest and will transmit to the user or client for selection and further action.
• the social recommendation service 102, the network-based service 108, and the social network service 106 may be combined within a single service or may comprise various modules or components, each component executing an instance of the respective social recommendation service 102, network-based service 108, and social network service 106.
• a server or remote computing device implementing one or more of the social recommendation service 102, the network-based service 108, and the social network service 106 may include a network interface to communicate with each other and may include a general purpose computer.
• Computer typically includes a variety of computer readable media and can be any available media that can be accessed by computer.
• Computer readable media can also include, but is not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, and magnetic strip), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)), smart cards, and/or flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, and key drive).
• Components of computer may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit, a system memory e.g. computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM), and a system bus that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit.
• ROM read only memory
• Figure 2 is a block diagram of the operating environment 100 of figure 1.
• the social recommendation service 102 may receive a request from the user computing device 104 for housing & real estate information of the interest of the user.
• a social recommendation service 102 means computer implemented recommendation system that identifies information of the interest of the user from one or more of search parameters provided by the user with the request and user selection from the search results generated using the search parameters and further identifies friends having knowledge or information of the interest of the user within the user's electronic social network that have a geographic similarity to the information of interest. For identifying information of the interest of the user and identifying friends, search may be performed using the search parameters on housing & real estate information maintained by one or more of the social recommendation service 102 or social recommendation service may communicate with one or more social network service 106 and/or one or more network based service 108.
• Social recommendation system may comprise various modules.
• social recommendation service may comprise data storage module 112 for storing data relating to housing & real estate information, data relating to member of social recommendation service, 'click stream' data of the members of social recommendation service, and various programs and methods, communication module 114 for receiving input from the user and transmitting identification information regarding identified members of the user's social network to the user, social network module 118 for identifying members of the user's social network from the electronic social network service 106, analysis module 116 for determining locations associated with housing & real estate information of interest and locations associated with the identified members of the user's social network, as well as determining matches between these locations and selecting members to be presented to the user., update module (not shown in figure) for receiving new context data and dynamically updating the context data in the data storage based on the new context data, filter module (not shown in figure) for filtering the plurality of data objects or the subset of the plurality of data objects based on at least one member defined criterion and so on.
• a user employing a user computing device may search for housing and real estate information of interest to the user.
• the social recommendation service may enable the user to search for housing and real estate information of interest to user, receive search results, and select search results.
• a user using the communication interface provided request for housing and real estate information of interest to user is depicted in REQ150 .
• social network service may be notified of housing and real estate information of interest to the user based upon search parameters provided by the user.
• search parameters may include, but are not limited to, type of housing & real estate information (residential apartments, commercial shops or office buildings, residential/ commercial/agricultural land or plots, builders and developers, real estate agents or consultants, architects and interior decorators, material suppliers and contractors, colonies/streets/locations/roads, state/province, events or activities relating to housing & real estate, etc.), and characteristics e.g. location and the like.
• the social recommendation service may conduct a search.
• housing & real estate information satisfying the search parameters may be identified by the social recommendation service as depicted in 152 and further transmitted to the user for use in making a selection from the identified housing & real estate information.
• Social recommendation service will be notified of the housing & real estate information of interest to the user based upon search results selected by the user.
• Social network service will identify members of user's social network who may possess knowledge and information of the interest and present to the user.
• a user may be interested in purchase or sale or lease or rent a house in apartment within Gurgaon area.
• the user may provide the social recommendation service, a location (e.g. Sector 33, Gurgaon) and a type of property (e.g. residential apartment).
• housing & real estate information satisfying the search parameters i.e., search results
• housing & real estate information satisfying the search parameters may be identified by the social recommendation service and further transmitted to the user displaying apartments in Gurgaon.
• the user may review the search results and select a apartment within Sector 33 Gurgaon e.g. ATS Green apartment in sector 33, Gurgon.
• This selection may be received directly from the user by the social recommendation service or transmitted from a network-based service. In either case, the social recommendation service may employ the selection in order to identify friends of the user having knowledge regarding residential apartments in Gurgaon.
• a user may notify the social recommendation service of the housing & real estate information of interest in the context of housing & real estate reviews/recommendations.
• the user may receive housing & real estate reviews/recommendations maintained either by the social network recommendation service or another network-based housing & real estate service in response to a search.
• the user may further review the reviews/recommendations returned by the search and select a review/recommendation of interest to the user.
• the user's selected review/recommendation may be subsequently communicated to the social recommendation service.
• the social recommendation service may be further configured to identify members of the user's social network that have authored reviews and/or recommendations pertaining to the identified review/recommendation.
• the social recommendation service 102 may also request authorization from the user for access to one or more electronic social network services 106 of the user as depicted in figure 3B.
• An authorization received from the user may be forwarded to the social network service 106. In certain embodiments, however, such authorization may not be required.
• the social recommendation service 102 may communicate with an electronic social network service 106 as depicted in REQ154 to identify friends/social connections of the user's social network and identify locations associated with the housing & real estate information of interest and identify locations associated with the members.
• Electronic social network services provide a system, method, and computer program for social mapping and may include, but are not limited to, services that enable users to register with the service, to store and share selected user information with other users, and to view selected information of other users.
• the user's social network 106 may be provided by any network-based resource that maintains user accounts and enables respective users to indicate a relationship between each another.
• Embodiments described in this disclosure may refer to the friends of the user, members of the user's social network, or individuals/organization that the user is 'following.
• Users of electronic social network services may include, but are not limited to, individuals and organizations.
• Electronic social network services may also enable users to identify the other users with whom they desire to share information.
• users may identify the other users by indicating that these users are 'friends' or as individuals who they are 'following'.
• users may subsequently view and/or share information (e.g. location) between one another within the electronic social network service.
• the social recommendation service 102 may send a request by transmitting the identity of the user to one or more electronic social network services 106 as depicted in REQ 154 .
• the user may authorize social recommendation service to access user's social network account by providing access information (e.g. username and password) prior to or concurrently with submission of the request to the electronic social network service.
• Social recommendation service may transmit the identity and access information of the user to social network service to release the identities of the user's social network members and other associated information like locations associated with the members and profile data of the members.
• social recommendation service may send a request as depicted in REQ 154 to release the identities of the user's social network members by transmitting the identity of the user (without access information being not provided by the user) to one or more electronic social networks that may provide access to social recommendation service for identifying friends of the user and releasing their identities to social recommendation service.
• the electronic social network service may conduct a search and analysis to determine whether the user is a registered user of that social network service. If the user is found registered to use the electronic social network service, the electronic social network service may further confirm whether it is authorized to release the identities of the user's social network members.
• the electronic social network service 106 may examine access control settings associated with the user's account on the electronic social network service 106 to determine if it is authorized to share information regarding the user's social network.
• authorization of the user may not be required by the electronic social network service 106 or the authorization may employ authorization mechanisms to determine authority.
• Electronic social network service may identify the members as depicted in 156 and transmit the identities of the user's social network members and other associated information like locations associated with the members and profile data of the members to social recommendation service provided release of the member identities is authorized.
• the social recommendation service after receiving the identities of the members of the user's social network may make analysis and determine which of the members may possess knowledge regarding at least a portion of the housing & real estate information of interest to user e.g. the social recommendation service may identify locations associated with respective members of the user's social network, may further request additional information from the social network service regarding the user's social network members. For example additional information may include 'click stream' data within the electronic social network, and any further data stored or input by the member within the electronic social network like preference indicated by the respective members by way of like or dislike buttons etc.
• the additional information regarding the members of the user's social network contained within the member's account on the social network service 106 as described in above paragraph may be transmitted to the social recommendation service concurrently with the identities of the members or at a selected time after transmission of the members' identities.
• the social recommendation service may identify one or more locations associated with the information of interest.
• the location may be a venue name, a street address, a nearby location, a city, a region, etc. associated with the housing & real estate information of interest.
• the social recommendation service may identify the location of the apartment as one or more of the street address of the apartment, cross-streets closest to the apartment, Gurgaon City, etc.
• the location of the housing & real estate information e.g., a apartment, a region, an event etc.
• the location used by the social recommendation service may be any location within a selected distance of the location associated with the housing & real estate information of interest.
• the social recommendation service may further identify one or more members of the user's social network and locations associated with respective members. Matches between locations associated with the housing & real estate information of interest and locations associated with the user's friends may be identified by the social recommendation service, based upon selected criteria (e.g., geographic and/or location criteria).
• the social recommendation service may additionally provide the user with information that identifies the matching friends. In this manner, the user may be made aware of friends that may possess knowledge regarding the information of interest.
• social network service will identify members and the locations associated with the members and additional information regarding the members of user's social network as depicted in 156 and will transmit to social recommendation service as depicted in INFO 158
• the search may be conducted on housing & real estate information maintained by a network-based service 108 separate from the social recommendation service 102.
• the social recommendation service may forward the search parameters received from the user to the network-based service as depicted in REQ 160 .
• the network-based service may conduct the search using the search parameters and return the search results to the social recommendation service.
• the network-based service may be any service that provides goods, services, and/or information that is of interest to the user. Accordingly, the network-based service may include network-based housing & real estate services such as those that provide housing & real estate recommendations authored by registered members of the service, network-based buyers & sellers that offer housing & real estate for purchase or sale or lease or rent, network-based sources of information (e.g., housing & real estate applications and electronic guidebooks, encyclopedias, media sharing, etc.), and the like.
• network-based housing & real estate services such as those that provide housing & real estate recommendations authored by registered members of the service, network-based buyers & sellers that offer housing & real estate for purchase or sale or lease or rent, network-based sources of information (e.g., housing & real estate applications and electronic guidebooks, encyclopedias, media sharing, etc.), and the like.
• the social recommendation service 102 may further obtain additional information regarding the members of the user's social network from network based service 108 other than the electronic social network service.
• the social recommendation service may transmit the identities of one or more of the members obtained from the electronic social network service 106 to network-based services requesting additional member information maintained by the network-based services e.g. profile data of the members, click stream data of the members maintained by the network-based service, and any further data stored or input by the member that is maintained by the network-based service.
• Network base service will identify members and additional member information and lactations associated maintained in data store of network service as shown in 162 and will transmit the info to social recommendation service as depicted in INFO 164 .
• the social recommendation service 102 may transmit the respective identities of the members to a network-based service 108 that provides recommendations regarding various residential apartments, commercial shops or office buildings, residential/ commercial/agricultural land or plots, builders and developers, real estate agents or consultants, architects and interior decorators, material suppliers and contractors, colonies/streets/locations/roads, state/province, events or activities relating to housing & real estate, etc..
• the network-based service 108 may determine whether any of the members whose identity has been transmitted by social recommendation service to the network-based service 108 are members of the network-based service 108. If the identified members are also members of the network-based service 108, additional information regarding the members maintained by network-based service 108 may be transmitted to the social recommendation service 102.
• the social recommendation service may maintain the housing & real estate information itself.
• the housing & real estate information may be available to the social recommendation service directly, without an intervening service.
• the social recommendation service may conduct the search and identify the search results by itself, without transmission of the search parameters to another network based service.
• social recommendation system may comprise various modules like data storage module, communication module, social network module, analysis module, update module, filter module and so on.
• data storage module 112 may store data
• communication module 114 may receive user input and transmit identification information regarding identified members of the user's social network to the user
• social network module 118 may identify members of the user's social network from the electronic social network service 106
• update module (not shown in figure) may receive new context data and dynamically update the context data in the data storage based on the new context data
• filter module (not shown in figure) may filter the plurality of data objects or the subset of the plurality of data objects based on at least one user defined criterion.
• Analysis module 116 may determine locations associated with housing & real estate information of interest and the identified members of the user's social network, as well as determine matches between these locations and select members to be presented to the user.
• data storage module 112 may comprise any type of storage device or medium to store data relating to housing & real estate information, profile data or any other information associated with the users of social recommendation service e.g. 'click stream' data of the members of social recommendation service.
• storage device may store various programs and methods, up-to-date information regarding prices or costs for property, property schedules (dates and times of auctions, launching of real estate projects, possession of the properties and the like), information about amenities, features, FAR (floor area ratio) and particular charges or levies, and availability or inventory, offers or discounts or promotions, etc maintained in a data store 112.
• the data store 112 may represent one or more memory devices in communication with the social network service 106 and/or the network-based housing & real estate service 108. In other embodiments, the data store 112 may be a network-based service 108.
• Data store may include a variety of computer readable media and can be any available media that can be accessed by computer.
• Computer readable media can also include, but is not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, and magnetic strip), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)), smart cards, and/or flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick, and key drive).
• Components of computer may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit, a system memory e.g. computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM), and a system bus that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit.
• ROM read only memory
• RAM random access memory
• Communication module 114 may provide the user blanks forms or windows or pages to search for housing & real estate information of interest and select from search results to identify housing & real estate information of interest.
• the communication interfaces may be configured to accept search parameters including, but not limited to, a type of housing & real estate information of interest (e.g.
• the search query may not be communicated by the user directly through social recommendation service using communication interfaces as provided by communication module 114.
• user may use any search engine e.g. Google to obtain housing and real estate information of user's interest or the search query may originate from third party housing & real estate servers, applications or carriers or any other source.
• the communication module may transmit the search query received from the user to the network based housing & real estate service 108 for identifying housing & real estate information that satisfies the search criteria provided by the user.
• the search query may be generated from the communication module 114 and transmitted to the network based housing & real estate service 108.
• the network based housing & real estate service 108 may conduct the search on the basis of search query and provide housing & real estate information in response to received queries satisfying the search criteria provided to the network service.
• the network based housing & real estate service 108 may be configured to provide housing & real estate information in response to received queries.
• the network based housing & real estate service 108 may be configured to access up-to-date information regarding prices or costs for property, property schedules (dates and times of auctions, launching of real estate projects, possession of the properties and the like), information about new projects, amenities, features, FAR (floor area ratio) and particular charges or levies, and availability, offers or discounts or promotions maintained in a data store 112 as already described earlier.
• the communication module 114 may transmit the search result to the user 104 for review and selection by the user. In turn user may select the housing and real estate information of interest to user and transmit the selection to communication module 114. The communication module 114 may communicate this selection, the housing & real estate information of interest, to the analysis module 116 for further processing, as discussed in greater detail below.
• the social network module 118 may identify one or more electronic social network services 106 of the user.
• the social network module may communicate with the user via the communication module 114 or directly requesting the user to provide access or authorization to user's electronic social network account to which the user belongs. Having identified one or more electronic social network services 106, the social network module 118 may submit a request to an electronic social network service 106 asking for the identities of members of the user's social network maintained by the electronic social network.
• the members of the user's social network may be any member of a respective electronic social network service 106 e.g. an individual or an organization, with which the user has established a relationship within the electronic social network service 106 (e.g., 'friends' of the user within the electronic social network service 106).
• social network module may send a request to release the identities of the user's social network members by transmitting the identity of the user (without access information, being the same not provided by the user) to one or more electronic social networks that may provide access to social network module 118 for identifying friends of the user and releasing their identities to social network module 118.
• the electronic social network service may conduct a search and analysis to determine whether the user is a registered user of that social network service. If the user is found registered to use the electronic social network service, the electronic social network service may further confirm whether it is authorized to release the identities of the user's social network members.
• the electronic social network service 106 may examine access control settings associated with the user's account on the electronic social network service 106 to determine if it is authorized to share information regarding the user's social network.
• authorization of the user may not be required by the electronic social network service 106 or the authorization may employ authorization mechanisms to determine authority.
• social network module 118 may further request additional information from the social network service regarding the user's social network members.
• the social network service 106 may transmit additional information regarding the members to the social network module 118 and/or the analysis module 116. Additional information may include 'click stream' data within the electronic social network, and any further data stored or input by the member within the electronic social network like preference indicated by the respective members by like or dislike buttons etc.
• the additional information regarding the members of the user's social network contained within the member's account on the social network service 106 may be transmitted to the social network module concurrently with the identities of the members or at a selected time after transmission of the members' identities
• the social network module 118 may further obtain additional information regarding the members of the user's social network from network based service 108 other than the electronic social network service.
• the social network module 118 may transmit the identities of one or more of the members obtained from the electronic social network service 106 to network-based services requesting additional member information maintained by the network-based services e.g. profile data of the member maintained by the network-based service, click stream data of the member maintained by the network-based service, and any further data stored or input by the member that is maintained by the network-based service.
• the analysis module 116 may identify the locations associated with the information of interest to user and the locations associated with the members of the user's electronic social network and the members of the network based service who may possess the knowledge and information of the interest to user as identified by the social network module 118.
• Locations associated with the information of interest may include one or more physical locations (e.g., an address, venue name, landmark, nearby locations etc.) permanently or temporarily associated with the information of interest in the past, present, or future, physical locations that are within a selected distance from a physical location associated with the information of interest.
• the location associated with this information of interest may be sector/area/colony, city, nearby places like railway stations, bus stations, shops or malls, schools, parks and the like.
• Locations associated with the member may be determined explicitly or implicitly from the member information obtained from the social network service 106 or other network-based services 108. Locations explicitly disclosed means the locations that a member indicates they have visited or wants to visit, or locations included within files associated with the member (e.g., geo tag location data in photographs, videos, websites, text documents, etc.). For example, a member that stores a geo tagged photograph or video of a residential apartment within the social network service or other network-based services may be associated with the location of that residential apartment.
• Locations associated with the members may also be determined from member's profile data or biographical data maintained by the electronic social network service 106 or other network-based service 108 e.g. the locations of residences, schools, and workplaces of the member, past, present, or future, locations of any activities in which the member may have participated in past or will participate in future etc. For example a member who indicates his or her desire to visit a particular place may be associated with the location of the place.
• any association created by a member's explicit behavior e.g. social plug-ins such as 'Like' buttons, and similar tools, may be employed to determine a location associated with the member. For example, a member who indicates that he or she 'like' a particular'18 hole golf course' may be associated with the location of that '18 hole golf course'.
• locations associated may be determined from 'click stream' data within the electronic social network service or other network-based services 108 which may include any locations associated with the selections made by the members within the electronic social network service or other network-based services 108.
• a member that selects an advertisement displayed within the social network service for national award function may be associated with the location of national award function.
• Locations associated with the selections made by the members may include input provided to the electronic social network service 106 or other network-based services 108.
• a member that makes a statement or review or recommendation regarding a location may be associated with that location.
• a member makes a review or recommendation regarding a particular real estate property or real estate company, event, etc may be associated with that real estate property or Real Estate Company, event.
• the analysis module 116 may further identify matches between the locations associated with the information of interest and the locations associated with members of the user's social network that satisfy one or more selection criteria.
• the criteria may be employed, alone or in combination.
• a selection criterion may be that the respective locations are corresponding or are exactly same (e.g., corresponding addresses or matching addresses).
• the selection criteria may be that the respective locations include, or are within a selected distance from one or more location associated with the housing & real estate item of interest or from one or more corresponding features e.g. geographic features (e.g., water resources, soil types, etc.), climate features (e.g., temperature, rainfall, humidity etc.), environment features (e.g. forest, beaches, rural, urban, suburban, etc.), historical features (e.g., landmarks, peoples, battlefields, etc.).
• geographic features e.g., water resources, soil types, etc.
• climate features e.g., temperature, rainfall, humidity etc.
• environment features e.g. forest, beaches, rural, urban, suburban, etc.
• historical features e.g., landmarks, peoples, battlefields, etc.
• locations may be determined in terms of a geographic hierarchy i.e. different levels that extend between small geographic areas (e.g., streets) to much larger geographic areas (e.g. cities, districts, states/provinces, countries, continents, etc.).
• a geographic hierarchy i.e. different levels that extend between small geographic areas (e.g., streets) to much larger geographic areas (e.g. cities, districts, states/provinces, countries, continents, etc.).
• the hierarchical level of the ATS Green apartment may be taken to be the city of Gurgaon.
• the selection criterion to be the state level (hierarchically superior to city)
• members associated with locations in State Haryana, India may be selected.
• the analysis module 116 may employ this hierarchy to identify a hierarchical level for a location associated with the housing & real estate information of interest.
• Members associated with more one or more locations that are matched to the locations of the information of interest may be selected by the analysis module 116 and identity of the selected members transmitted to the communication module 114.
• the communication module 114 may further transmit one or more messages to the user containing identifying information or contact information e.g. name, username , phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, residence address, etc, regarding at least one member of the user's social network service or member of network based service, selected by the analysis module 116.
• the identity of selected members may be communicated to the user in any form such as text, an image of the selected member, audio and/or video of the selected member, and the like.
• Contact information for one or more of the selected members may be also be obtained from data store 112 maintained by the social recommendation service 102
• social recommendation service will transmit the member identification information to the user as depicted in INFO 170 enabling the user to communicate with the members who may be individuals or representatives of organizations that are knowledgeable about housing & real estate information of interest to user which may include people, places, organizations, events, and the like.
• the user may contact the members for additional information of interest.
• the user's contact with their members may be conducted without use of the social recommendation service 102.
• the social recommendation service 102 may also be configured to facilitate communication between the user (with or without user's computing device 104) and one or more of the selected members without limit allowing the user to obtain knowledge regarding the housing & real estate information of interest.
• Examples of communication mechanisms may include, but are not limited to, postal mail, short message service (SMS) messaging, MMS messaging, instant messaging (IM), electronic mail, voice over internet protocol (VOIP), video conferencing, blogs and other communication mechanisms and combinations thereof.
• any information received from members of the user's social network is perceived to be more reliable and likely to be more valuable to the user than that obtained from others sources.
• the user interested in apartment in Gurgaon could communicate with a friend who is associated with the city of Gurgaon to obtain knowledge about Gurgaon.
• a friend who has lived in Gurgaon may be able to provide recommendations regarding various apartments in Gurgaon.
• Figure 3A and 3B are exemplary communication interface environments 300 enabling the user to submit requests for housing & real estate information and authorizing access to the user's social network.
• the communication interface 300 may include a welcome window 302 with welcome message and instructing the user to select an item from the given items and search for housing and real estate information.
• communication interface may state, 'Welcome User. Please select an item below and search for housing & real estate information', as illustrated in 302.
• Window 304 may include forms allowing entry of search parameters to the social recommendation service 102, including, but not limited to type of housing & real estate information (e.g.
• the window 304 may additionally include a communication interface object 306 for submission of the information entered in communication interface 300 to the social recommendation service 102.
• communication interface 300 may be utilized to display a categorized directory relating to the hosing and real estate.
• a user may select a category among the various categories and request a search.
• user may select the category real estate agents/consultants.
• Network based housing and real estate service 108 may conduct a search and present the user with the list of members relating to the category selected by the user.
• Figure 3B depicts Communication interface 350 displaying a window 310 requesting user to allow access to user's social network service to get the information from user's friends/social connections to better serve the user.
• Window 310 allows a user to identify one or more of their electronic social network services 106 and/or authorize information release from the respective electronic social network services 106.
• user may be asked to directly log in using social network service provider account as shown in 314.
• the window 310 may include a communication interface object 312 that allows an electronic social network service 106 to be identified.
• the window 310 may include communication interface objects 316 for entry of a username and password for the selected social network.
• the window 310 may additionally include a communication interface object 318 for submission of the information entered in communication interface 350 to the social recommendation service 102.
• authorization may be optional and the authorization window 310 may be omitted.
• Figure 4A is an illustrative communication interface environment 400 for identifying housing & real estate information of interest and receiving identifying information regarding members of the user's social network that may possess knowledge regarding the information of interest.
• the user interface 400 may include a search results window 402 for display of search results 404 satisfying the search parameters submitted in the user interface 300 of Figure 3A.
• search results 404 may further include detailed information regarding the apartments e.g. apartment review ratings, descriptions, builder/developer name, slideshows, videos etc.
• Selection of housing and real estate information of interest to user from search result 404 within results window 402 by the user may further display or present information as depicted in environment 450 in figure 4B identifying the friends/social connections of the user from user's social network service or network based service that may possess knowledge regarding the information of interest.
• the identifying information may include any information that may identify a member to the user. Examples may include, contact information, such as name, phone number, mailing address, e-mail address, and the like. Further examples may include any media that may allow the user to identify the member, including, but not limited to, an image of the member, an audio recording of the member's voice, a video of the member, and the like.
• This information may be displayed to the member in a format appropriate to the identifying information, such as text (e.g., a list), images, video, audio, and the like.
• Figure 4B illustrates user interface objects 452 that represent the identified members (e.g., hyperlinked images). By selecting one of the user interface objects 452, the user may view identifying information for the member represented by the selected user interface object 452.
• Figures 5A and 5B displays exemplary user interface environment 500 in which members of the user's social network that may possess knowledge regarding housing & real estate information of interest are identified.
• User interface environment 500 includes a description 502 of a particular apartment or building selected by the user and further enables the user to search for prices and availability of the flats, office shops etc in the apartment or building.
• User interface environment 500 as depicted in Figure 5B presents the user with reviews displaying the review categories 552 and rating of the property by the reviewers as shown in 554. For example, by selecting the review category 'Tenants Reviews' option in window 552, a results window 556 is displayed with reviews of members for the housing & real estate information of interest e.g. review 1, review 2 and so on.
• user may select any review of members of the user's social network of interest as shown in object 558 which further enables the user to communicate with the object 558 with the user of social recommendation service 102 as depicted in 560 (e.g. an email message is generated and sent to the member i.e. to the user interface object 558).
• Further user may communicate with any of the members identified by the social recommendation service 102 (e.g., an individual and/or organization) in order to obtain additional information and knowledge they can trust pertaining to the information of interest regardless of the review being presented.
• User may communicate the social recommendation service regarding any problems relating to a particular review/recommendation (e.g. Review violates guidelines, review is suspicious, review posted to wrong location) by using 'problem with the review button'
• communication component as depicted in 560 may not be necessary presuming the social recommendation service 102 identifies members of the user's social network i.e. friends as already depicted in environment 450 in figure 4B and the user already being familiar with the friends can communicate them directly via telephone, an email, tax message or in person etc as per user's choice without the use of the social recommendation service 102.

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