I understand that Google is big on defensive patents, but this one seems over the top. Here is the abstract of the patent application Google has filed -- it has lots of big words, but doesn't seem to describe anything that is in any way non-obvious. Ditto for the claims...<p>"Hubs for social interaction via electronic devices are described.<p>In one aspect, a data processing device includes a display screen displaying a social interaction hub, the social interaction hub including a collection of records. Each record includes a counterparty identifier identifying a counterparty of a past social interaction event, a mode indicium identifying a mode by which the past social interaction event with the counterparty occurred, and a collection of mode indicia each identifying a mode by which a future, outgoing social interaction event with the counterparty can occur.<p>The counterparty identifier, the mode indicium, and the collection of mode indicia are associated with one another in the records of the social interaction hub."<p>The full text of the patent application is here: <a href="http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20110099486.PGNR.&OS=dn/20110099486&RS=DN/20110099486" rel="nofollow">http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sec...</a>