Social media system with public and private networks and profiles

摘要

A social media and social networking system may be accessible on Internet and mobile devices. Users in the social media and social networking system may create public and private profiles, exchange photos, and invite individuals with specific public or private personalities to join groups and networks including college networks. College students who are currently enrolled or who are alumni of an educational institution have e-mail addresses that have a common post fix of .edu. The social networking site may foster social interaction between college students. College students may register with their real e-mail address ending with a post fix of .edu. The email address defines the individual as a current registered student at a particular educational institution and generally enables the user to be authenticated as belonging to the college group. The ability to view profiles of members may be enabled to a degree of connectivity.

主权项

1. A method for a social network service on a server, comprising:
storing a profile for a first user in a memory accessible to the server, wherein the profile contains a list of profile fields and responses thereto, the responses being descriptive of characteristics requested by the profile fields; storing a permission setting associated with a specific profile field in the memory; creating a first profile for the first user viewable by a first set of users; creating a second profile for the first user viewable by a second set of users; and matching the first user to a second user of the social network service based at least in part on the characteristics described in the responses to the profile fields; wherein the social network comprises plural networks together with plural different sub-networks, each sub-network being grouped hierarchically under a corresponding one of the plural different networks, with each network and each sub-network comprising one or more users; wherein a user is authenticated to one or more networks on the social network based on the email address provided to the server; wherein the server is configured to create a sub-network and associate the sub-network with at least one domain name; and wherein the server is configured to allow a user to join a sub-network based on a prefix and a postfix of the user's email address.