WebProNews

Yahoo published their patent application for what looks like their Yahoo 360 social networking product. The application, filed last week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), works on how users look at info in a social network.

Gary Price over at SEW had some good information on the subject. He pointed out this was just an application and not an actually patent.

Here's the abstact:

A method, apparatus, and system are directed towards managing a view of a social network user's personal information based, in part, on user-defined criteria. The user-defined criteria may be applied towards a user's relationship with each prospective viewer. The user-defined criteria may include degrees of separation between members of the social network, a relationship to the prospective viewer, as well as criteria based, in part, on activities, such as dating, employment, hobbies, and the like. The user-defined criteria may also be based on a group membership, a strength of a relationship, and the like. Such user-defined relationship criteria may then be mapped against various categories of information associated with social network user to provide customized views of the social network user.

The process for Yahoo to get the patent could take quite some time, even years and sometimes other problems arise too. If you want to read the application, check it out here.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.