CONTENT DISTRIBUTION USING EMBEDDABLE WIDGETS

• US 20110238688A1
• Filed: 03/26/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tisdale, James O., Mercuri, Marc E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,208,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A content distribution system allows authors to freely syndicate their content to content distributors in a way that ensures that the author receives appropriate credit for the impact of the content upon readers. The system provides an embeddable control that publishers can embed in a web site or other distribution channel. Authors provide the content displayed within the embeddable control and can include advertisements as well as any content restrictions. For advertisers, the system allows them to advertise with the content instead of the publisher, and allows them to do so in all of the venues that host the content. This places control of monetization of content back in the hands of the author, and incentivizes the author to maximize the distribution of his content to reach the widest possible audience rather than to hoard content at his own site.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing online content to publishers, the method comprising:

receiving a request to access content from a publisher, wherein the request identifies at least one content item;

identifying a content item stored in a content store that matches the requested content item;

identifying the publisher associated with the received content request;

determining any restrictions associated with the identified publisher and identified content item;

accessing supplemental information associated with the identified content item to include with a content response; and

sending the content response including the identified content item and accessed supplemental information to the requesting publisher,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the request to access content comprises providing an embeddable widget to the publisher and receiving the request from the widget embedded in a web page associated with the publisher.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the request to access content comprises receiving an identifier associated with the content item identified by the request.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the content item in the content store comprises accessing a content database available from the Internet that contains identifiers that identify articles stored therein.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the publisher comprises receiving a publisher identifier along with the request so that the system can respond appropriately for the particular publisher.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the publisher comprises automatically identifying the publisher based on available information associated with the request.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the publisher comprises extracting a publisher identifier from a content identifier received from the publisher with the request, wherein the publisher identifier was previously encoded by a content author.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining restrictions comprises accessing the content store to identify any content restrictions stored alongside the content item.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein determining restrictions comprises indicating supplemental information that will accompany the response to the content request based on the identified publisher.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein accessing supplemental information comprises accessing an advertisement from an advertisement server to provide with the content response.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the content response comprises sending information along with requested content that allows a content author to monetize the requested content.

12. A computer system for providing content and maintaining control of the content for the content author, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;

an author interface component configured to provide an interface between the content author and the system, through which the author can create content and specify settings for how the content can be consumed by one or more publishers;

a content store configured to provide persistent storage for content created by the author;

a widget distribution component configured to provide an interface through which publishers can request a widget that displays the author'"'"'s content and any associated information;

a content request component configured to receive requests to access the author'"'"'s content from one or more publishers;

a publisher identification component configured to identify a publisher associated with a particular content request and perform publisher-specific handling of the request for the identified publisher; and

a content supplement component configured to provide supplemental content associated with an author'"'"'s content in response to a request from a publisher to access content for display on the publisher'"'"'s site.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the author interface component is further configured to receive an identification from the content author of one or more publishers that can access the content to embed the content within the publishers'"'"' own sites and restrictions that apply to individual publishers or groups of publishers.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the widget distribution component is further configured to provide an embeddable web-based control that publishers can include in a web site to aggregate content from multiple authors, wherein the authors maintain control of the content.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the content request component is further configured to receive a content identifier provided by a publisher that identifies a content item requested by the publisher.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the publisher identification component is further configured to identify publisher-specific user experience information that affects how the publisher can display the requested content.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the publisher identification component is further configured to determine whether an affiliate agreement exists between an identified publisher and the content author and to enforce one or more restrictions imposed by an identified affiliate agreement.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein the content supplement component is further configured to provide an advertisement with the requested content that the content author is paid to associate with the requested content.

19. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to receive online content from a content author for distribution to publishers, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

receiving content from the content author;

receiving formatting options for the content from the content author, wherein the formatting options specify a manner in which a publisher may display the received content;

receiving content restrictions that specify how the content can be published, wherein the restrictions identify at least one supplemental item that will accompany the content upon providing the content to a publisher;

receiving publisher-specific restrictions that specify a difference in how the content can be published for at least one publisher; and

storing the received content and supplemental information in a content store for later retrieval by a publisher.

20. The medium of claim 19 wherein storing the received content further comprises creating a content identifier associated with the content that publishers can embed in a content page to refer to the content for later requests.