US 11,868,409 B2
Social network searching with breadcrumbs
Avital Yachin, Bet-Lehem-Haglilit (IL); Sagie Davidovich, Nesher (IL); Tal Kedar, Tel Aviv (IL); Yaron Fishman, Ramat Gan (IL); and Liad Agmon, Tel Aviv (IL)
Assigned to TRANSFORM SR BRANDS LLC, Hoffman Estates, IL (US)
Filed by TRANSFORM SR BRANDS LLC, Hoffman Estates, IL (US)
Filed on Apr. 30, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/398,654.
Application 16/398,654 is a continuation of application No. 12/011,106, filed on Jan. 23, 2008, granted, now 10,275,524.
Prior Publication US 2019/0324993 A1, Oct. 24, 2019
Int. Cl. G06F 16/90 (2019.01); G06F 16/951 (2019.01); G06F 16/248 (2019.01); G06F 16/904 (2019.01)
CPC G06F 16/951 (2019.01) [G06F 16/248 (2019.01); G06F 16/90 (2019.01); G06F 16/904 (2019.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operating a system for performing searches for documents requested by one member of a plurality of members of an online social network, the method comprising:
in a computer system for communicatively coupling to user devices of the plurality of members of the social network and to the network of computers on which is stored a plurality of documents,
generating a plurality of first data structures, each first data structure comprising personal information of a corresponding individual;
generating a plurality of second data structures, each second data structure comprising data representing a link between a document accessible on the network of computers and a corresponding individual;
generating a third data structure for a particular user, the third data structure comprising link information representing social relationships identified between the particular user and other users of the network of computers;
creating a fourth data structure based on collecting information representing documents in the network of computers that are linked in the plurality of second data structures with those other users of the network of computers that are linked in the third data structure with the particular user;
in response to receiving a search query comprising one or more search criteria from the particular user,
generating search results identifying one or more documents identified in the plurality of second data structures that match the one or more search criteria, and
generating, for display in a sequential manner on a graphical user interface, a corresponding sequence of breadcrumbs identifying person-to-person and person-to-document links that form a chain of links between the particular user and each document of the one or more documents, based on search criteria from the particular user, the third data structure, and the fourth data structure; and
transmitting the search results and the corresponding sequence of breadcrumbs to a user device of the particular user via the network of computers, for display.