DATA FEEDS WITH PERIPHERALLY PRESENTED INTERESTING CONTENT

• US 20110173570A1
• Filed: 01/13/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vishnumurty, Rajendra H., Songco, Russell P., Augustine, Matthew S., Narayanan, Raman, Liu, Ming, Moromisato, George
• Application Number:
  US12/686,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20110173570A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/838
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A social data feed, comprising a set of data items submitted by individuals in a social network, may be presented to the user, but the frequency of new data items appearing in the social data feed may be overwhelming, and may cause the user to miss data items that may be of interest. Instead, potentially interesting data items may be selected and peripherally presented to the user, e.g., as a tiled set of thumbnail images presented near the right edge of the display, adjusted for low contrast with the display background. Peripheral presentation may suggest potentially interesting data items to the user, thereby promoting serendipitous discovery of interesting data items, while reducing the distraction of the user while viewing the social data feed. Metadata of an interesting data item may be displayed upon user selection (e.g., pointer hovering), and interesting content items within a selected data item may be highlighted.

Claims

1. A method of presenting to a user at least one data item of a social data feed on a device having a processor and a display, the method comprising:

executing on the processor instructions configured to;

receive the at least one data item of the social data feed from the social data source;

among the data items of the social data feed, select at least one selected data item that may be interesting to the user;

present to the user on the display the social data feed; and

present to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one selected data item.

2. The method of claim 1, the data items represented within a deployable computing environment presented on the device.

3. The method of claim 1, the social data feed comprising a first data item retrieved from a first social data source and a second data item retrieved from a second social data source.

4. The method of claim 1, selecting the at least one selected data item comprising:

identifying at least one topic that may be interesting to the user, and

selecting at least one selected data item associated with the at least one topic.

5. The method of claim 1, selecting the at least one selected data item comprising:

selecting at least one selected data item that may be interesting to the user and that has not been presented to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, presenting on the display the at least one selected data item comprising:

present to the user on the display the at least one selected data item in a peripheral region of the display with respect to the social data feed.

7. The method of claim 1, presenting on the display the at least one selected data item comprising:

presenting to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, a preview representation of the at least one selected data item.

8. The method of claim 7, the instructions configured to:

upon detecting a user selection of at least one preview representation of a selected data item, present to the user on the display the selected data item.

9. The method of claim 1, peripherally presenting on the display the at least one selected data item comprising:

presenting to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one selected data item, respective selected data items comprising at least one highlighting of at least one content item that may be interesting to the user.

10. The method of claim 1:

the at least one data item comprising an image, and

presenting the images to the user on the display comprising;

presenting to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, a tiled thumbnail set comprising thumbnail representations of the at least one image.

11. The method of claim 1:

at least one selected data item associated with a metadata item, and

the instructions configured to, upon detecting a user selection of a selected metadata item, present to the user on the display the metadata item associated with the selected data item.

12. The method of claim 1, presenting on the display the at least one selected data item comprising:

presenting on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one data item in low contrast with a background of the display.

13. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to, upon receiving from the user a request for more data items that are similar to an indicated data item:

select at least one similar data item that is similar to the indicated data item, and

present to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one similar data item.

14. The method of claim 13, selecting the at least one similar data item that is similar to the indicated data item comprising:

identifying at least one metadata item of the indicated data item that may have prompted the request, and

selecting at least one similar data item having the metadata item.

15. The method of claim 14:

the instructions configured to, upon identifying the at least one metadata item that may have prompted the request, store the at least one metadata item associated with the user; and

subsequently selecting at least one data item that may be interesting to the user comprising;

retrieving the at least one metadata item, and

selecting the at least one selected data item having the at least one metadata item.

16. The method of claim 1, the instructions configured to, upon receiving from the user a request for fewer data items that are similar to an indicated data item:

select at least zero similar data items that are similar to the indicated data item, and

remove from peripheral presentation the selected data item and the at least zero similar data items.

17. The method of claim 16, selecting the at least one similar data item that is similar to the indicated data item comprising:

identifying at least one metadata item of the indicated data item that may have prompted the request, and

selecting at least one similar data item having the at least one metadata item.

18. The method of claim 17:

the instructions configured to, upon identifying the at least one metadata item that may have prompted the request, store the at least one metadata item associated with the user; and

subsequently selecting at least one data item that may be interesting to the user comprising;

retrieving the at least one metadata item, and

selecting at least one selected data item not having the at least one metadata item.

19. A system configured to present to a user at least one data item of a social data feed on a device having a display, the system comprising:

a data item receiving component configured to receive the at least one data item of the social data feed from the social data source;

a data item selecting component configured to, among the data items of the social data feed, select at least one selected data item that may be interesting to the user; and

a selected data item presenting component configured to;

present to the user on the display the social data feed, and

present to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one selected data item.

20. A computer-readable nontransient storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a processor of a device having a display, present to a user of the device a social data feed comprising a first data item retrieved from a first social data source and a second data item retrieved from a second social data source by:

receiving at least one data item of the social data feed from the first social data source;

receiving at least one data item of the social data feed from the second social data source;

among the data items of the social data feed, selecting at least one selected data item that may be interesting to the user by;

identifying at least one topic that may be interesting to the user, and

selecting at least one selected data item comprising an image and associated with a metadata item and the at least one topic, and that has not been presented to the user;

presenting to the user on the display the social data feed;

presenting to the user on the display, in a peripheral region of the display with respect to the social data feed, a tiled thumbnail set comprising thumbnail representations of the at least one image in low contrast with a background of the display, respective images comprising at least one highlighting of at least one content item that may be interesting to the user;

upon detecting a user selection of at least one thumbnail representation of a selected data item, presenting to the user on the display the selected data item and the at least one metadata item associated with the image;

upon receiving from the user a request for more data items that are similar to an indicated data item;

selecting at least one similar data item that is similar to the indicated data item by;

identifying at least one metadata item of the indicated data item that may have prompted the request, and

selecting at least one similar data item having the metadata item, and

presenting to the user on the display, peripherally with respect to the social data feed, the at least one similar data item;

upon receiving from the user a request for fewer data items that are similar to an indicated data item;

selecting at least zero similar data items that are similar to the indicated data item by;

identifying at least one metadata item of the indicated data item that may have prompted the request, and

selecting at least zero similar data items having the at least one metadata item;

removing from peripheral presentation the selected data item and the at least zero similar data items.