PRESENTING COMMENTS FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

• US 20110040787A1
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Denman, Donn, CIERNIAK, Michal, Hsieh, Tony, Prothro, Derek, Pawliger, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,067 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system may include one or more databases to store comments relating to documents, the comments originating from first and second sources, where the comments from the first source include comments received from users via commenting functionality associated with browsers installed on client devices, and the comments from the second source include comments received from users independent of the commenting functionality associated with the browsers installed on the client devices. The system may also include one or more server devices to receive a request for comments relating to a particular document, search at least one of the one or more databases to identify comments relating to the particular document, and provide the identified comments for presentation in connection with the particular document.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more server devices, comprising:

providing a plurality of databases, associated with the one or more server devices, that store a plurality of comments of different types, each of the plurality of databases storing a respective one or more of the different types of the plurality of comments, each of the plurality of comments relating to one of a plurality of documents;

receiving, via a processor of the one or more server devices and from a client device, a request for comments relating to a particular document;

searching, using a processor of the one or more server devices, one or more of the plurality of databases to identify comments relating to the particular document; and

providing, using a processor of the one or more server devices, the identified comments to the client device for presentation in connection with the particular document.

2. The method of claim 1, where, for one of the plurality of comments, one of the plurality of databases stores information including at least one of:

information regarding an author of the one of the plurality of comments,

a date or time at which the one of the plurality of comments was created or modified,

a content of the one of the plurality of comments, or

an identifier associated with the one of the plurality of documents relating to the one of the plurality of comments.

3. The method of claim 1, where the plurality of comments of different types includes at least two of:

comments regarding web pages, comments contained in blog posts, comments regarding news items, comments with reviews of products, or comments with reviews of businesses.

4. The method of claim 3, where the comments regarding web pages are stored in a first one of the plurality of databases, the comments contained in blog posts are stored in a second one of the plurality of databases, the comments regarding news items are stored in a third one of the plurality of databases, the comments with reviews of products are stored in a fourth one of the plurality of databases, and the comments with reviews of businesses are stored in a fifth one of the plurality of databases.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

performing offline processing to store, in the first one of the plurality of databases, at least one of;

the comments contained in blog posts,

the comments regarding news items,

the comments with reviews of products, or

the comments with reviews of businesses,

where the offline processing occurs independent of the request for comments.

6. The method of claim 5, where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes searching the first one of the databases after storing the at least one of the comments contained in blog posts, the comments regarding news items, the comments with reviews of products, or the comments with reviews of businesses in the first one of the databases.

7. The method of claim 1, where the request for comments includes a document identifier associated with the particular document, and

where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes:

identifying a particular product based on the document identifier, and

searching one of the plurality of databases to identify comments relating to the particular product.

8. The method of claim 1, where the request for comments includes a document identifier associated with the particular document, and

where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes:

identifying a particular business based on the document identifier, and

searching one of the plurality of databases to identify comments relating to the particular business.

9. The method of claim 1, where the request for comments includes a document identifier associated with the particular document, and

where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes:

identifying a particular news item based on the document identifier, and

searching one of the plurality of databases to identify comments relating to the particular news item.

10. The method of claim 1, where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes:

selecting, based on information included in the request for comments, a database of the plurality of databases, and

searching the selected database for comments relating to the particular document.

11. The method of claim 1, where searching the one or more of the plurality of databases includes searching a subset of the plurality of databases for comments relating to the particular document, where the subset includes at least two and fewer than all of the plurality of databases.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a score for one of the identified comments; and

determining whether to provide the one of the identified comments to the client device based on the score.

13. The method of claim 12, where generating the score includes:

generating the score for the one of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the one of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the one of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the one of the identified comments was created or modified,

a measure of relevance of one of the plurality of databases from which the one of the identified comments is stored,

a language used in the one of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the one of the identified comments.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a score for each of the identified comments; and

ordering the identified comments for presentation based on the scores.

15. The method of claim 1, where providing the identified comments includes presenting the identified comments for presentation, within a same browser window of the client device, concurrently with the particular document.

16. A system, comprising:

a first database to store comments relating to documents, the comments in the first database originating from a first source;

a second database to store comments relating to documents, the comments in the second database originating from a second source, where the first source is different from the second source; and

one or more server devices comprising;

means for receiving, from a client device, a request for comments relating to a particular document,

means for searching at least one of the first database or the second database to identify comments relating to the particular document, and

means for providing, to the client device, the identified comments for presentation in connection with the particular document.

17. The system of claim 16, where the one or more server devices further comprises:

means for performing offline processing to store, in the first database, the comments from the second source, where the offline processing occurs independent of the request for comments, and

where the means for searching the at least one of the first database or the second database includes means for searching the first database after storing the comments, from the second source, in the first database.

18. The system of claim 16, where the one or more server devices further comprises:

means for generating a score for one of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the one of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the one of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the one of the identified comments was created or modified,

a measure of relevance of one of the first database or the second database from which the one of the identified comments is stored,

a language used in the one of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the one of the identified comments, and

means for determining whether to provide the one of the identified comments to the client device based on the score.

19. The system of claim 16, where the one or more server devices further comprises:

means for generating a score for each of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the each of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the each of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the each of the identified comments was created or modified,

a measure of relevance of one of the first database or the second database from which the each of the identified comments is stored,

a language used in the each of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the each of the identified comments, and means for ordering the identified comments for presentation based on the scores.

20. The system of claim 16, where the comments from the first source include comments received from users via commenting functionality associated with browsers installed on client devices, and the comments from the second source include comments received from users independent of the commenting functionality associated with the browsers installed on the client devices.

21. A system, comprising:

a first database to store comments relating to documents;

a second database to store blog posts; and

one or more devices to;

analyze a plurality of the blog posts to identify the documents to which the blog posts relate,

store the plurality of blog posts, as comments, in the first database in association with the documents to which the blog posts relate,

receive, from a client device, a request for comments relating to a particular document,

search the first database to identify comments relating to the particular document, and

present, to the client device, the identified comments for presentation in connection with the particular document.

22. The system of claim 21, where, for one of the comments, the first database stores at least one of:

information regarding an author of the one of the comments,

a date or time at which the one of the comments was created or modified,

a content of the one of the comments, or

an identifier associated with the one of the documents relating to the one of the comments.

23. The system of claim 21, where, when presenting the identified comments, the one or more devices are to provide the identified comments for presentation, within a same browser window of the client device, concurrently with the particular document.

24. The system of claim 21, where, when storing the plurality of blog posts, as comments, in the first database, the one or more devices are to perform the storing of the plurality of blog posts in the first database independent of the request for comments.

25. The system of claim 21, where the one or more devices are further to:

generate a score for one of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the one of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the one of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the one of the identified comments was created or modified,

a language used in the one of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the one of the identified comments, and

determine whether to provide the one of the identified comments to the client device based on the score.

26. The system of claim 21, where the one or more devices are further to:

generate a score for each of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the each of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the each of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the each of the identified comments was created or modified,

a language used in the each of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the each of the identified comments, and order the identified comments for presentation based on the scores.

27. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a third database to store comments relating to news items,

where the particular document relates to one of the news items, and

where the one or more devices are further to search the third database to identify comments relating to the one of the news items.

28. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a third database to store comments relating to products,

where the particular document relates to one of the products, and

where the one or more devices are further to search the third database to identify comments relating to the one of the products.

29. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a third database to store comments relating to businesses,

where the particular document relates to one of the businesses, and

where the one or more devices are further to search the third database to identify comments relating to the one of the businesses.

30. A system, comprising:

one or more databases to store comments relating to documents, the comments originating from first and second sources, where the comments from the first source include comments received from users via commenting functionality associated with browsers installed on client devices, and the comments from the second source include comments obtained independent of the commenting functionality associated with the browsers installed on the client devices; and

one or more server devices to;

receive a request for comments relating to a particular document,

search at least one of the one or more databases to identify comments relating to the particular document, and

provide the identified comments for presentation in connection with the particular document.

31. The system of claim 30, where the one or more server devices is further to:

generate a score for one of the identified comments based on one or more of;

user feedback with regard to the one of the identified comments,

a rank of an author of the one of the identified comments,

a date or time at which the one of the identified comments was created or modified,

a measure of relevance of one of the one or more databases from which the one of the identified comments is stored,

a language used in the one of the identified comments, or

a rank of a document containing the one of the identified comments, and determine whether to provide the one of the identified comments based on the score.