Process For Referencing, Prioritizing, Accessing, And Displaying Marginalia in Digital Media

• US 20080052634A1
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reframe-It Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Reframe-It Incorporated
• Inventors: Fishkin, Robert, McKinney, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,801,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

A system and method for providing information over a communication network among a group of computer users. Computer users are able to provide information that relates to information downloaded from the communication network. User-provided information is displayed adjacent to the relevant information from the communication network and is viewable by other computer users utilizing the system.

Claims

1. A system for providing information via a communication network, comprising:

a server;

a storage accessible by the server, including;

a plurality of user data, wherein each user data corresponds to a user of the system; and

at least one comment data comprising a comment created by a user of the system;

at least one user interface in communication with the server, each user interface including;

a web browser for accessing webpages via the communication network;

wherein;

at least one user of the system enters at least one comment corresponding to at least one selected portion of a webpage through at least one user interface, said at least one comment is then processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data;

comment data stored by the storage is transmitted by the server via the communication network to at least one user interface such that at least one comment is displayed on at least one user interface in an area of a web browser proximate to the selected portion of the webpage to which said comment corresponds when the webpage is loaded by the web browser; and

at least one user of the system provides at least one comment rating corresponding to at least one comment displayed on a user interface and said at least one comment rating is processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server uses comment ratings to create reputation data corresponding to users of the system and stores the reputation data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server sorts comment data stored in the storage according to comment ratings to create a comment hierarchy.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein each user data corresponding to a user of the system comprises at least one user-selected preference.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by a relationship between the comment hierarchy and at least one user-selected preference.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein users of the system select a comment type from one of a plurality of comment types to correspond to an entered comment, and said comment type is processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the server sorts comment data stored in the storage according to comment type to create a comment hierarchy.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the server filters comments entered by users of the system and deletes comments that include information that is harmful to the system.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one user interface automatically requests new comment data from the server at regular intervals for display.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the server utilizes the user data to organize the users of the system into at least one group and at least one user of the system belonging to a group receives sorted comment data from the server, wherein said sorted comment data comprises only comment data created by at least one other user of the system belonging to a group.

13. A system for providing information via a communication network, comprising:

a server;

a storage accessible by the server, including;

a plurality of user data, wherein each user data corresponds to a user of the system; and

at least one comment data comprising a comment created by a user of the system;

at least one user interface in communication with the server, each user interface including;

a web browser for accessing webpages via the communication network;

wherein;

at least one user of the system enters at least one comment corresponding to at least one selected portion of a webpage through at least one user interface, said at least one comment is then processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data;

comment data stored by the storage is transmitted by the server via the communication network to at least one user interface such that at least one comment is displayed on at least one user interface in an area of a web browser proximate to the selected portion of the webpage to which said comment corresponds when the webpage is loaded by the web browser;

the server utilizes the user data to organize the users of the system into at least one group; and

at least one user of the system belonging to a group receives sorted comment data from the server, wherein said sorted comment data comprises only comment data created by at least one other user of the system belonging to a group.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one user of the system provides at least one comment rating corresponding to at least one comment displayed on a user interface and said at least one comment rating is processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server sorts comment data stored in the storage according to comment ratings to create a comment hierarchy.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each user data corresponding to a user of the system comprises at least one user-selected preference.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by a relationship between the comment hierarchy and at least one user-selected preference.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein users of the system select a comment type from one of a plurality of comment types to correspond to an entered comment, and said comment type is processed by the server and stored in the storage as comment data.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the server sorts comment data stored in the storage according to comment type to create a comment hierarchy.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage are displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the server filters comments entered by users of the system and deletes comments that include information that is harmful to the system.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein at least one user interface automatically requests new comment data from the server at regular intervals for display.

24. A method for providing information via a communication network, comprising the steps of:

receiving at least one user data corresponding to at least one computer user via a communication network;

receiving at least one comment created by at least one computer user from at least one user interface via the communication network, wherein said comment corresponds to a selected portion of a webpage;

storing said at least one comment as comment data in a storage;

transmitting comment data to at least one user interface for display on said at least one user interface in an area of a web browser proximate to the selected portion of the webpage to which said comment corresponds when the webpage is loaded by a web browser;

receiving at least one comment rating from at least one computer user; and

storing said at least one comment rating as comment data.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of sorting comment data stored in the storage according to comment ratings to create a comment hierarchy.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of transmitting comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage to be displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of storing at least one user-selected preference corresponding to a user of the system comprises as user data.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising the step of transmitting comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage to be displayed in an order determined by a relationship between the comment hierarchy and at least one user-selected preference.

29. The method of claim 24, further comprising the steps of receiving comment type data from at least one user interface, selected by at least one computer user from one of a plurality of comment types to correspond to an entered comment, processing said comment type, and storing said comment type in the storage as comment data.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising the steps of sorting comment data stored in the storage according to comment type to create a comment hierarchy.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising the steps of transmitting comments corresponding to a selected portion of a webpage to be displayed in an order determined by the comment hierarchy.

32. The method of claim 24, further comprising the steps of utilizing the user data to organize the users of the system into at least one group and transmitting sorted comment data to a user of the system belonging to a group wherein said sorted comment data comprises only comment data created by at least one other user of the system belonging to a group.