CREATING SECURE SOCIAL APPLICATIONS WITH EXTENSIBLE TYPES

• US 20100281104A1
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Media, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: TOMKINS, Andrew S., Marlow, Cameron A., Ravikumar, Shanmugasundaram, Ramakrishnan, Raghu
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social environment is provided by creating an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, the object is associated with a type selected from a set of types, and the type is associated with a schema selected from a set of schemas, where the social environment includes a set of objects including the object, wherein the objects are instances of corresponding types in a rich system of predefined types, the schemas are associated with the types, metadata is associated with the objects, and there is at least one relationship between at least two objects selected from the set of objects, where the set of objects and the metadata are extensible, such that extensions provided by a first user are available for use by a second user. In one example, metadata provided by a first user is only available to a second user having a relationship with the first user.

Claims

1. A method of providing a social environment, the method comprising:

creating an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, and the web content is presentable to a first user of a web browser; and

associating metadata with the object and with the first user, wherein the metadata is visible to a second user if the second user has a relationship with the first user, and the metadata is not visible to the second user if the second user does not have a relationship with the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the second user is a friend of the first user in the social environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the second user is a friend of a friend of the first user in the social environment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the first user is a member of a group of which the second user is also a member in the social environment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the group represents a company, school, family, or interest.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a first text string, the web content comprises a second text string, and recognition of the entity occurs in response to the first text string matching at least a portion of the second text string.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises ratings, tags, text, and attention data, or a combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the object represents a person, place, or thing.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching the web content for a reference to the object in response to receipt of the content by the web browser; and

causing display of supplemental information in the web browser in response to the reference to the object being present in the content, wherein the supplemental information is based upon metadata associated with the object, and the supplemental information is associated with the object in the web browser.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the reference to the object comprises a name of the object, an identifier associated with the object, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the method is implemented by a browser toolbar.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

wherein the object is an instance of a corresponding type in a rich system of predefined types, and

the object and the metadata are extensible, such that extensions provided by a first user via a first computer are available for use by a second user via a second computer.

13. Apparatus for providing a social environment, the apparatus comprising logic operable for:

creating an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, and the web content is presentable to a first user of a web browser;

associating metadata with the object and with the first user, wherein the metadata is visible to a second user if the second user has a relationship with the first user, and the metadata is not visible to the second user if the second user does not have a relationship with the first user; and

storing the metadata in memory.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the second user is a friend of the first user in the social environment.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the first user is a member of a group of which the second user is also a member in the social environment.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the entity comprises a first text string, the web content comprises a second text string, and recognition of the entity occurs in response to the first text string matching at least a portion of the second text string.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the metadata comprises ratings, tags, text, and attention data, or a combination thereof.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising logic for:

searching the web content for a reference to the object in response to receipt of the content by the web browser; and

causing display of supplemental information in the web browser in response to the reference to the object being present in the content, wherein the supplemental information is based upon metadata associated with the object, and the supplemental information is associated with the object in the web browser.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the reference to the object comprises a name of the object, an identifier associated with the object, or a combination thereof.

20. Computer readable storage medium having program code for providing a social environment, the program code for:

creating an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, and the web content is presentable to a first user of a web browser; and

associating metadata with the object and with the first user, wherein the metadata is visible to a second user if the second user has a relationship with the first user, and the metadata is not visible to the second user if the second user does not have a relationship with the first user.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the second user is a friend of the first user in the social environment.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the first user is a member of a group of which the second user is also a member in the social environment.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the entity comprises a first text string, the web content comprises a second text string, and recognition of the entity occurs in response to the first text string matching at least a portion of the second text string.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the metadata comprises ratings, tags, text, and attention data, or a combination thereof.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, further comprising program code for:

searching the web content for a reference to the object in response to receipt of the content by the web browser; and

causing display of supplemental information in the web browser in response to the reference to the object being present in the content, wherein the supplemental information is based upon metadata associated with the object, and the supplemental information is associated with the object in the web browser.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the reference to the object comprises a name of the object, an identifier associated with the object, or a combination thereof.

27. Interface for providing a social environment, the interface operable to:

create an object in response to recognition of an entity in a portion of web content, wherein the object represents the entity, and the web content is presentable to a first user of a web browser; and

associate metadata with the object and with the first user, wherein the metadata is visible to a second user if the second user has a relationship with the first user, and the metadata is not visible to the second user if the second user does not have a relationship with the first user.

28. The interface of claim 27, wherein the interface is displayed from a browser toolbar.

29. The interface of claim 27, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the second user is a friend of the first user in the social environment.

30. The interface of claim 27, wherein the second user has a relationship with the first user if the first user is a member of a group of which the second user is also a member in the social environment.

31. The interface of claim 27, wherein the entity comprises a first text string, the web content comprises a second text string, and recognition of the entity occurs in response to the first text string matching at least a portion of the second text string.

32. The interface of claim 27, wherein the metadata comprises ratings, tags, text, and attention data, or a combination thereof.

33. A toolbar for use within a social environment, the toolbar operable to:

recognize an entity in a portion of web content, wherein an object represents the entity, and the web content is presentable to a first user of a web browser; and

associate metadata with the object and with the first user, wherein the metadata is visible to a second user if the second user has a relationship with the first user, and the metadata is not visible to the second user if the second user does not have a relationship with the first user.

34. The toolbar of claim 33, further operable to display information associated with the object in response to recognizing the entity.

35. The toolbar of claim 33, further operable to display interactive features to the first user to associate metadata with the object.