Method and system for aggregating and presenting user highlighting of content

• US 20070234209A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Williams, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Highlighting of content is aggregated across a plurality of users, thus enabling the content to be presented with highlights that represent the collective highlighting of the users. Highlighted content may be presented to the users with varying levels of prominence. Accordingly, depending on the aggregated highlight information, some content may be presented with a highlight that is more or less prominent than highlighting for other content. Prominence data associated with highlighted content may include a score indicative of a strength of the highlight for the highlighted content. A score indicating a stronger highlight causes the highlight to be presented with greater prominence. The score may be incremented, possibly on a weighted bases, to represent the combined highlighting of different users. Highlights may assume many different forms, including visual forms (such as colors, lines, borders, fonts, icons, etc.), audio forms and tactile forms.

Claims

1. A system for presenting highlighted content, comprising:

a computing component configured to receive highlight information from a user, wherein the highlight information identifies content to which a highlight is to be applied;

a processing component configured to aggregate the highlight information of the user with highlight information received from other users for the same content; and

a storage component configured to store the aggregated highlight information,

wherein the storage component is further configured to store prominence data in association with the highlight information, the prominence data being configured to affect a prominence of the highlight when the highlighted content is presented, and

wherein the processing component is further configured to modify the prominence data for the highlighted content based on the aggregated highlight information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the highlight information includes locating information that identifies a location of the highlighted content.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the prominence data includes a score that indicates a strength of the highlight for the highlighted content.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein a score indicating greater strength causes the highlight to be presented with greater prominence when the highlighted content is presented.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the highlight is a visual highlight and the prominence data defines a visual attribute to indicate the strength of the highlight.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the highlight is an audio highlight and the prominence data defines an aural attribute to indicate the strength of the highlight.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the highlight is a tactile highlight and the prominence data defines a tactile attribute to indicate the strength of the highlight.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the score is configured to decay over time.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the score is configured to decay based on user activity with the content without further highlighting of the content.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight than the highlight information of other users.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the user and other users belong to a group and wherein the processing component is configured to aggregate the user'"'"'s highlight information only with highlight information of the other users who belong to the group.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the highlight information includes a user-indicated level of importance of the highlighted content, and wherein the processing component is configured to modify the prominence data in accordance with the user-indicated level of importance.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to receive the highlight information from the user on a real-time basis.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to receive the highlight information from the user on a periodic basis.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to receive the highlight information from the user on an aperiodic basis.

16. A method for highlighting content, comprising:

receiving highlight information from a user, wherein the highlight information identifies content to be highlighted; and

aggregating the highlight information of the user with highlight information received from other users for the same content, wherein prominence data is associated with the highlighted content, the prominence data being configured to affect a prominence of the highlight when the highlighted content is presented, and wherein the prominence data for the highlighted content is modified based on a combination of the highlight information of the user and the highlight information of the other users.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the highlight information includes locating information that identifies a location of the highlighted content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the locating information includes horizontal and vertical position information that identifies the location of the highlighted content.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the locating information further includes size information that identifies a size of the highlighted content.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the size information includes width and height information of the highlighted content.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the prominence data includes a score that indicates a strength of the highlight for the highlighted content.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein a score indicating greater strength causes the highlight to be presented with greater prominence when the highlighted content is presented.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the highlighted content is presented in context with the content in which the highlighted content is found.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein highlighted content is presented separately from the content in which the highlighted content is found.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the highlighted content is presented according to the strength of the highlight.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the score is determined from a calculation that combines the highlight information of the user and the other users.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the highlight is a visual highlight and the prominence data defines a visual attribute indicative of the strength of the highlight.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the visual attribute is color.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein an intensity of the color is modified to indicate the strength of the highlight.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the color is selected to indicate the strength of the highlight.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the visual attribute is a border that surrounds the highlighted content.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the border is comprised of a line having a line width that is modified to indicate the strength of the highlight.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the border is comprised of a line having a line format selected to indicate the strength of the highlight.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the border is a handwritten border.

35. The method of claim 27, wherein the visual attribute is a font for the highlighted content, and wherein the font is selected to indicate the strength of the highlight.

36. The method of claim 27, wherein the visual attribute is an underline for the highlighted content, and wherein a format of the underline is selected to indicate the strength of the highlight.

37. The method of claim 27, wherein the visual attribute is an icon for presentation with the highlighted content, the icon being selected to indicate the strength of the highlight.

38. The method of claim 21, wherein the highlight is an audio highlight and the prominence data defines an aural attribute to indicate the strength of the highlight.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the audio highlight is presented when a user positions a pointer in proximity to the highlighted content for a predetermined period of time.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein an aural attribute of the highlight changes as a function of a distance between the pointer and the highlighted content.

41. The method of claim 21, wherein the highlight is a tactile highlight and the prominence data defines a tactile attribute to indicate the strength of the highlight.

42. The method of claim 16, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight than the highlight information of other users.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight based on a recognized reputation of the user.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the reputation of the user is derived from feedback received from other users.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater effect on the prominence of the highlight if the user is an author of the content to be highlighted.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the user and other users belong to a group and wherein the highlight information of the users in the group is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight based on a recognized reputation of the group of users.

47. The method of claim 21, further comprising configuring the score to decay over time.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the score is configured to decay at a rate that varies according to a recognized reputation of the user who supplied the highlight information.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein users who supplied the highlight information belong to a group and wherein the score is configurd to decay at a rate that varies according to a recognized reputation of the group of users.

50. The method of claim 21, further comprising configuring the score to decay based on user activity with the content without further highlighting of the content.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the user activity includes a reaffirming of the highlight by a user.

52. The method of claim 16, wherein the user and other users belong to a group and the user'"'"'s highlight information for the content is aggregated only with highlight information of the other users who belong to the group.

53. The method of claim 16, wherein the highlight information includes a user-indicated level of importance of the highlighted content, which level of importance affects the prominence data when the prominence data for the highlighted content is modified.

54. The method of claim 16, further comprising identifying additional content related to the content identified in the user'"'"'s highlight information and automatically highlighting the additional content, wherein the highlight information that is aggregated includes highlight information for the additional content.

55. A computer-implemented service operable to aggregate highlight information received from a plurality of users who have identified content to be highlighted, wherein prominence data is associated with the highlight information, the service being further operable to modify the prominence data based on the aggregated highlight information to affect a prominence of the highlight when the highlighted content is presented to a user.

56. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the service is further operable to present the highlighted content in context with the content in which the highlighted content is found.

57. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the service is further operable to present the highlighted content separately from the content in which the highlighted content is found.

58. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the prominence data includes a score that indicates a strength of the highlight.

59. The computer-implemented service of claim 58, wherein a score indicating greater strength causes the service to present the highlight with greater prominence.

60. The computer-implemented service of claim 58, wherein the service is further operable to determine the score from a calculation that combines the highlight information of the plurality of users.

61. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the service is further operable to weight the highlight information of a user to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight than the highlight information of other users.

62. The computer-implemented service of claim 61, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight based on a recognized reputation of the user.

63. The computer-implemented service of claim 61, wherein the highlight information of the user is weighted to have a greater effect on the prominence of the highlight if the user is an author of the content to be highlighted.

64. The computer-implemented service of claim 58, wherein the service is further operable to make the score decay over time.

65. The computer-implemented service of claim 64, wherein the score decays at a rate that varies according to a recognized reputation of the user who supplied the highlight information.

66. The computer-implemented service of claim 58, wherein the service is further operable to make the score decay based on user activity with the content without further highlighting of the content.

67. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the service is further operable to aggregate only the highlight information of users who belong to a group.

68. The computer-implemented service of claim 55, wherein the service is further operable to receive highlight information in a file from a user, wherein the file includes the content to which the highlight is to be applied.

69. A method for highlighting content, the method comprising:

applying a highlight to a portion of content as an indication of interest by a user in said portion of content; and

modifying a prominence of the highlight based on an interest in said portion of content indicated by other users.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein the highlight is applied based on locating information received from the user that identifies a location of said portion of content.

71. The method of claim 69, wherein the prominence of the highlight is modified based on a score that indicates a strength of the highlight.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein a score indicating greater strength causes the highlight to be presented with greater prominence when said portion of content is presented.

73. The method of claim 71, wherein the highlight is a visual highlight and the prominence of the highlight is modified by modifying a visual attribute of the highlight.

74. The method of claim 71, wherein the highlight is an audio highlight and the prominence of the highlight is modified by modifying an aural attribute of the highlight.

75. The method of claim 71, wherein the highlight is a tactile highlight and the prominence of the highlight is modified by modifying a tactile attribute of the highlight.

76. The method of claim 71, further comprising configuring the score to decay over time.

77. The method of claim 71, further comprising configuring the score to decay based on user activity with the content without further highlighting of the content.

78. The method of claim 77, wherein the user activity includes a reaffirming of the highlight by a user.

79. The method of claim 69, wherein the interest indicated by a user in said portion of content is weighted to have a greater or lesser effect on the prominence of the highlight than the interest indicated by other users.

80. The method of claim 69, wherein the indication of interest by the user in said portion of content includes a user-indicated level of importance of the highlighted content, the method further comprising modifying the prominence of the highlight in accordance with the user-indicated level of importance.