Beginning in the early 2000s, numerous digital services have adopted systems in which each user creates a unique digital identity that allows the user to interact with other users on a platform. These services include, but are not limited to, social networking, messaging, music, gaming, forums, etc. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult and inefficient to manage, share, and connect over multiple disconnected mediums. This is especially true in instances when a person desires to connect with others across several platforms at once. A person who wishes to share his or her own digital contact information is burdened by the process of manually referencing or typing the information to everyone he or she wishes to share it with, separately. As used herein the term “digital contact information” includes but is not limited to, information that identifies a user within any service with unique usernames (e.g., music services, forums etc.), any service with unique social media profiles (e.g., social medias, friending/following/adding/connecting), or any system with unique identification strings (e.g., phone numbers, email addresses, credit cards etc.). As used herein, the term “Key” means a representative icon that has digital contact information stored within linked to it. Each “Key” uniquely identifies a user within a particular domain, e.g., Facebook, or the telephone system.
Current systems require a specific address—someone's phone number, an email address, a username—to send information to, and an organized way to receive and manage said information. The requirement for knowing and entering such personal contact information creates barriers to connecting with people who may share a similar experience or location but otherwise do not have each other's contact information.
There remains a need therefore, for an improved system and method for allowing people to contact, to connect and to communicate with each other in further expressive ways that are easy to use.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds