Program Guide User Interface

• US 20080270449A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Taylor, Thomas H., Brown, David A., Sahami, Mehran, Patel, Manish G., Gupta, Neha, Blackburn, John, Gossweiler, Richard C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,631,440 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/738 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/787 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/278 Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A computer-implemented method includes receiving a search request related to media programming and generating a search. The result has a list of one or more collections of episodes responsive to the search request, and a schedule grid displaying a plurality of episodes on a plurality of different channels for a time period, including at least one program responsive to the search request.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a search request related to media programming; and

generating a search result having

(a) a list of one or more collections of episodes responsive to the search request; and

(b) a schedule grid displaying a plurality of episodes on a plurality of different channels for a time period, including at least one program responsive to the search request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list includes a show title and a show time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the list contains a subset of episodes responsive to the search request, and further comprising displaying a control whose selection causes the display of additional episodes responsive to the search request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the collections of episodes are organized by one or more categories selected from a group consisting of channel, genre, and program.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of an episode in the list scheduled outside the time period and automatically moving the schedule grid to display the program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of one or more collections of episodes and the schedule grid are displayed next to each other.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of an episode in the list or grid and displaying program details associated with the selected episode.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the program details are displayed in a pop up box over the list or grid.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the program details are displayed in a display pane separate from a pane displaying the list and grid.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the program details are comprised of results obtained from a plurality of information corpuses.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the program details include information about a plurality of actors in the selected episode.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a selection of one of the plurality of actors and generating a search result on the selected actor.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating a map of actor casting connections for one or more of the plurality of actors.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating controls for selecting a plurality of follow-up actions for the selected episode.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of follow-up actions include one or more actions selected from he group consisting of e-mailing episode information, establishing a recording of the episode, and adding the episode to a personal or shared calendar.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection commenting on a show and making the comment available to a network of users associated with an information provider.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more episodes responsive to the search request are displayed in the schedule grid in a format that contrasts with programs that are not responsive to the request.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different channels include station identifications.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different channels include a personalized channel.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a time bar for display across a spatial dimension of the schedule grid, the time bar having a time dimension that does not match the time dimension of the schedule grid.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before generating the search result, determining a head-end for a user and asking the user for head-end related information if a head-end cannot be determined.

22. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a search request related to media programming;

obtaining a plurality of search results responsive to the search request, and information for a schedule grid around one or more of the search results; and

generating mark-up code for establishing a first and second screen areas and simultaneously displaying a portion of the plurality of search results in the first screen area, and the schedule grid in the second screen area.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the portion of the plurality of search results is grouped into a plurality of categories, wherein each category includes one or more media episodes.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein each category includes a category title and each of the one or more media programs includes a display of a show time and a related channel.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the schedule grid is defined by a time axis and a channel axis.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the plurality of different channels include a personalized channel.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising generating mark-up code to display program details associated with a program in the first screen area and display the program details, in response to a selection of a program, within the plurality of search results by pushing the search results outward from each other.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising generating mark-up code to display episode details associated with an episode in the second screen area over the grid, in response to a selection of the episode.

29. A computer-implemented system for generating media programming information, comprising:

an interface to receive requests for media programming content;

a programming database storing information about schedules for a large plurality of media programs; and

a page formatter programmed to generate code for displaying media-related search results in one or more groupings next to a programming guide grid.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising a media streamer to provide streaming media content in response to selection of a program on the programming guide.