System and method for media search and playback

• US 20030018799A1
• Filed: 09/20/2002
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Friskit
• Original Assignee: Friskit
• Inventors: Eyal, Aviv
• Granted Patent: US 6,725,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A playback system is provided to locate and playback streaming media from network resources. The playback system includes a search module that signals a query to a network site, and receives in return a search result. The search result identifies one or more links that are selectable to open media files. A media player couples to the search module to automatically play back streaming media contained in media files located by the search result.

Claims

1. A media playback system comprising:

a search module that signals a user-query to a first network site to receive a search result, and in response to receiving the search result, identifies a first link contained in the search result that is selectable to open media files; and

a media player coupled to the search module to automatically play back streaming media contained in a first media file of the first link contained in the search result.

2. The media play back system of claim 1, wherein the search module includes a parser to parse the search result for the first link.

3. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module searches a media directory comprising a plurality of addresses, each address locating a network site for accessing a media file, the search module retrieving from the media directory at least a first address for the first network site based on the user-query.

4. The media playback system of claim 3, wherein the search module searches the media directory via an HTTP interface.

5. The media playback system of claim 1, further comprising a user-interface to receive the user-query, and to signal the user-query to the search module.

6. The media playback system of claim 5, wherein the search module signals the user-query to the first network site including one or more search fields for determining the search result.

7. The media playback system of claim 6, wherein the search module signals the user-query to the first network site including one or more search fields, the one or more search fields being selected from the group of search fields consisting of an artist name, a media title, a genre of media, or a type of media file.

8. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module includes a web browser component, and the search module accesses a first web site in response to the user-query.

9. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the user-query to the first network site to identify the first link contained in the search result for opening media files containing audio digital recordings.

10. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the user-query to the first network site to identify the first link contained in the search result for opening media files containing video and/or audio digital recordings.

11. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the user-query to a search engine of the first network site in the form of a uniform resource locator.

13. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the search module identifies a first link from a first network site, and a second link from a second network site, and wherein the media player automatically accesses and loads a first media file of the first link, and a second media file of the second link, so as to continuously and sequentially playback streaming media from the first link and the second link.

14. The media playback system of claim 13, wherein the first network site has a first domain address, and the second network site has a second domain address that is different than the first domain address.

15. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the search module formulates the search query into a network query directed to one or more of the network sites.

16. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the search module formulates the search query into a plurality of network queries, each of the plurality of network queries being directed on one of the plurality of network sites.

17. The media playback system of claim of claim 15, wherein the search module formulates each network query so as to include a uniform resource locator including metadata information specific to the corresponding network sites.

18. The media player of claim 17, wherein the search module formulates each network query into the uniform resource locator, including an address to the corresponding network site, and arguments to search for streaming media on the corresponding network site.

19. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the search module signals the search results to a playlist module, the playlist module arranging the plurality of links from the search results into a designated order, each of the plurality of links providing a network address for a corresponding media file, the playlist module signaling the plurality of links to the media player in the designated order.

20. The media playback system of claim 12, further comprising a user-interface to receive the user-query.

21. The media playback system of claim 20, wherein the user-query comprises one or more search terms.

22. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the user-query is a request for streaming media playback of a specified category.

23. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein user-query is signaled automatically in response to a user of the terminal opening a web browser.

24. The media playback system of claim 18, wherein the search module includes a parsing component to parse each of the plurality of search results for links that are selectable to open media files.

26. The playback system of claim 25, wherein the parsing component implements a separate parsing logic for parsing the search result of each individual network search engine.

27. The playback system of claim 26, wherein a first search result in the plurality of search results includes a plurality of network pages, each of the network pages containing one or more links that are selectable to open media files, and wherein the parsing component parses each page of the first search result to identify the plurality of links for that network site.

28. The playback system of claim 27, wherein the parsing component detects a next page link on a first page of the first search result using a first parsing logic, and in response to detecting the next page link, uses the first parsing logic to parse a second network page of the first search result.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising accessing a network site associated with each link, and the loading the media file of each link into the media player.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein receiving a query includes receiving a search term from the user.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein receiving the search term includes prompting a user of the terminal for a search term through a user-interface appearing on a display of the terminal.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein signaling the query to a network search engine includes signaling the query to an Internet search engine.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein parsing the search result includes identifying the links on the search result that are selectable to open an audio file.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the search results each include one or more of the plurality of links arranged in an order of priority designated by the corresponding network search engine, and wherein arranging the plurality of links in a designated order includes at least partially arranging the plurality of links according to the priority order designated by each of the network search engines.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein signaling the query to a plurality of network search engines includes converting the query into a plurality of uniform resource locators, each uniform resource locator being specific to one of the network search engines.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein receiving a query includes receiving a search term from a user of the terminal.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising converting the search term into the plurality of uniform resource locators, each uniform resource locator including an address identifier for locating a corresponding network search engine, and arguments for submitting the search term to the network search engine.

12. A media playback system operated on a terminal coupled to a network, the media playback system comprising:

a search module that signals a user-query to a plurality of network sites to receive a plurality of search results, and in response to receiving the plurality of search results, identifies a plurality of links that are selectable to open media files; and

a media player coupled to the search module to automatically access and load the media files of the plurality of links.

25. A media playback system operated on a terminal coupled to a network, the media playback system comprising:

a user-interface to receive a search request from a user of the terminal;

a search module to signal the search request to one or more network search engines, the search module converting the search request to a network format specific to each of the one or more search engines;

a parsing component to parse one or more search results signaled back from the network search engines, the one or more search results containing a plurality of links that are selectable to open media files; and

a media player coupled to the parsing component to automatically access and load the media files of the plurality of links.

29. A method for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

signaling the query to a network search engine;

receiving from the network search engine a search result;

parsing the search result for links that are selectable to open a media file; and

signaling the links to a media player.

35. A method for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

signaling the query to a plurality of network search engines;

receiving a plurality of search results from the network search engines;

parsing the plurality of search results to identify a plurality of links, each of the plurality of links being selectable to open a media file; and

arranging the plurality of links into a designated order; and

signaling the plurality of links to the media player in the designated order.

40. A system for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the system comprising:

a means for receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

a means for signaling the query to a plurality of network search engines;

a means for receiving a plurality of search results from the network search engines;

a means for parsing the plurality of search results to identify a plurality of links, each of the plurality of links being selectable to open a media file; and

a means for arranging the plurality of links into a designated order; and

a means for signaling the plurality of links to the media player in the designated order.