Automatic discover of how and when people met

Abstract

A system, computer-readable storage medium, and computer-implemented method for automatic discovery of how and when people met is provided. In some embodiments, the system obtains a plurality of signals comprising data associated with a user and comprising an electronic communication history between the user and a contact maintained by a contact management system. The system may identify a third party that introduced the user to the contact based on the plurality of signals. The system further determines a suggested entry for the data field of the contact management system is determined. The suggested entry includes a description of how the user initially met the contact and the description includes an identifier of the third party. The suggested entry of how a user met a contact is automatically displayed to a user by the system.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 obtaining a plurality of signals from one or more databases, the plurality of signals comprising data associated with a user, the data comprising an electronic communication history between the user and a contact maintained by a contact management system;   identifying, based on an analysis of the plurality of signals, a third party that introduced the user to the contact;   determining a suggested entry for a data field of the contact management system based on the plurality of signals, the suggested entry being the description of how the user initially met the contact, the description including an identifier of the third party: that introduced the user to the contact; and   automatically providing display data to display the suggested entry for the data field of the contact management system.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 displaying a user interface element that provides the user with an ability to confirm or reject the suggested entry.   
     
     
         3 . The method of claim I, further comprising:
 displaying a user interface element that provides the user with an ability to edit the suggested entry.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of signals further include at least one of an educational background, an employment history, a calendar event notification, a schedule history, social network connections, social network connection timing, and social graph data. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining the suggested entry further includes inferring, based on the user and the contact each having an email address with a domain name corresponding to the same school, that the user and the contact attended a school together. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining the suggested entry is based on inferring that the user and the contact of the user attended an event together. 
     
     
         7 . The method of claim I, wherein the determining the suggested entry includes analyzing a previous communication between the user and the contact of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the previous communication includes at least one of an email, a message sent via a social network service, or a phone call. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the communication history includes an email received from the third party for purposes of introducing the user and the contact of the user; and   the analyzing of the communication history includes determining that an email address of the contact was included as an addressee of the email or included as a carbon copy recipient of the email.   
     
     
         10 . The method of claim I, further comprising tagging the third party as a valued contact. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining the suggested entry is further based on information associated with creation of a social network connection between the user and the contact. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the determining the suggested entry includes analysing a timing of the creation of the social network connection. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining a level of significance of each of the plurality of signals in providing a description of how the user initially met the contact. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining the suggested entry inferring that the user and the contact are employed by a common employer. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the inferring that the user and the contact are employed at the same employer includes determining the user and the contact are associated with a group of additional users that share the common employer. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions, that when executed by at least one processor, cause at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
 obtaining a plurality of signals from one or more databases, the plurality of signals comprising data associated with a user, the data comprising an electronic communication history between the user and a contact maintained by a contact management system;   identifying, based on an analysis of the plurality of signals, a third party that introduced the user to the contact;   determining a suggested entry for a data field of the contact management system based on the plurality of signals, the suggested entry being the description of how the user initially met the contact, the description including an identifier of the third party that introduced the user to the contact; and   automatically providing display data to display the suggested entry for the data field of the contact management system.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , further comprising providing the user with an ability to edit the suggested entry. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 16 , wherein determining the suggested entry includes:
 determining of a level of significance of each of the plurality of signals in providing a description of how the user met the contact; and   assigning a weight to each signal based on the level of significance of the signal.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the level of significance is based on a timing of the inclusion of the contact into the contact management system, 
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 at least one processor for executing instructions;   a memory device in communication with the at least one processor and storing instructions representing a suggestion module, which, when executed by the at least one processor is to perform operations comprising:   obtaining a plurality of signals from one or more databases, the plurality of signals comprising data associated with a user, the data comprising an electronic communication history between the user and a contact maintained by a contact management system;   identifying, based on an analysis of the plurality of signals, a third party that introduced the user to the contact;   determining a suggested entry for a data field of the contact management system based on the plurality of signals, the suggested entry being the description of how the user initially met the contact, the description including an identifier of the third party that introduced the user to the contact; and   automatically providing display data to display the suggested entry for the data field of the contact management system.