{
  "patent_number": "US 8775328",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Nextdoor Verifies Neighbors and Limits Online Social Circles",
  "original_title": "Geo-spatially constrained private neighborhood social network",
  "summary": "A patent describing a system for a private, location-based social network that verifies users' home addresses to restrict communications to people living in the same neighborhood.",
  "what_it_does": "The system uses a computer server to verify that a user actually resides at the address they claim, often by mailing a physical postcard to that location. Once verified, the system creates a social network page for the user and automatically sets access privileges based on their specific neighborhood boundary. This allows users to post messages that are only visible to other verified residents within that same geographic vicinity. It also includes a gamification element where users can earn 'lead user' status based on their activity level and how many neighbors they invite to join.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover open social networks where anyone can join without address verification.",
    "Does not cover location-based services that track a user's real-time GPS movement rather than a fixed residential address.",
    "Does not cover social networks that allow communication between users regardless of their physical proximity or neighborhood boundaries."
  ],
  "filed": "2014-03-10",
  "granted": "2014-07-08",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Individual",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/individual",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Raj Abhyanker",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/raj-abhyanker"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 14,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "ai_ml"
  ],
  "abstract": "A method and system an online neighborhood social network designed to create private websites to facilitate communication among neighbors and build stronger neighborhoods. The private websites are embodied in a website having a domain name of nextdoor.com. In one embodiment, a method verifies that a user lives at a residence associated with a residential address claimed by the user of an online neighborhood social network. The method restricts access to a particular neighborhood to the user and to neighboring users living within the neighborhood boundary of the residence. A social network page of the user is created once verified and access privileges are determined. A message is distributed to neighboring users that are verified to live within a neighborhood boundary of the residence. The method may designate the user as a lead user with an additional privilege based on a participation level of the user in the online community.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8775328/facebook-graph-search",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8775328/facebook-graph-search/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US8775328",
  "relatedPatents": []
}