Viral Application Distribution

• US 20120110568A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Abel, Miller T., Futty, Joseph, Lau, James Kai Yu, Guday, Shai, Yao, Richard Yuqi
• Granted Patent: US 9,703,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

Viral application distribution facilitates distribution of an application among users and increases likelihood of downloading the application by the users. A first device may receive information of an application from a second device through a short-range communication channel. The information may comprise identification information of the application without any personally identifiable information of the second device to protect privacy of a user of the second device. A version of the application that is compatible with the first device is determined by searching a catalog using the identification information of the application. The compatible version of the application may then be downloaded or obtained by the first device. Location-based viral distribution may also be performed between devices that visit a location, even at different times.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for viral distribution, comprising:

receiving, at a first device, information of an application from a second device through a short-range communication channel, the information comprising identification information of the application without any personally identifiable information of the second device;

determining a version of the application that is compatible with the first device based at least upon searching a catalog using the identification information of the application; and

obtaining the compatible version of the application.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining whether the second device is in a proximity of the first device by detecting a bumping at the first device with the second device and/or determining that the short-range communication channel is one of predetermined short-range communication channel(s) of the first device for proximal communication.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the second device is in the proximity of the first device;

in response to determining that the second device is in the proximity of the first device, receiving the information of the application from the second device without verifying an authenticity of the second device.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the second device is not in the proximity of the first device;

in response to determining that the second device is not in the proximity of the first device, verifying an authenticity of the second device; and

in response to affirmatively verifying the authenticity of the second device, receiving the information of the application from the second device.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the short-range communication channel comprises infrared communication, near field communication (NFC), radio-frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth, WiFi, WiFi direct connect, ZigBee, modulated audio, infrared data association (IrDA), and/or high-frequency modulated visible light.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving the information of the application comprises:

detecting, at the first device, a bumping with the second device; and

in response to detecting the bumping with the second device, receiving the information of the application from the second device through the short-range communication channel.

7. The computed-implemented method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

in response to obtaining the compatible version of the application, receiving a confirmation code at the first device; and

sending the confirmation code to the second device for redeeming a reward by a user of the second device.

8. A computer-implemented method for viral distribution, comprising:

receiving, at a first device, an encrypted tuple associated with an application from a second device through a short-range communication channel, the encrypted tuple comprising at least identification information of the application and identification information of the second device in an encrypted form;

decrypting the encrypted tuple to obtain the identification information of the application;

determining a version of the application that is compatible with the first device based at least upon searching a catalog using the identification information of the application; and

obtaining the compatible version of the application.

9. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

determining that the second device is in a proximity of the first device by detecting whether a bumping with the second device is detected at the first device, and/or determining whether the short-range communication channel is one of predetermined short-range communication channel(s) of the first device for proximal communication; and

in response to determining that the second device is in the proximity of the first device, receiving the information of the application from the second device without verifying an authenticity of the second device.

10. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein the short-range communication channel comprises infrared communication, near field communication (NFC), radio-frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth, WiFi, WiFi direct connect, ZigBee, modulated audio, infrared data association (IrDA), and/or high-frequency modulated visible light.

11. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, wherein receiving the encrypted tuple associated with the application comprises:

detecting, at the first device, a bumping with the second device; and

in response to detecting the bumping with the second device, receiving the encrypted tuple associated with the application from the second device through the short-range communication channel.

12. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

sending the identification information of the second device in the encrypted form to an application store or website facilitating rewarding a recommender of the application.

13. A computer-implemented method of viral application distribution, comprising:

detecting a presence of a first device in a vicinity of a location associated with a data device at a first time;

receiving a request to store information of an application from the first device;

storing the information of the application;

detecting a presence of a second device in the vicinity of the location associated with the data device at a second time, which is later than the first time; and

at least partially in response to detecting the presence of the second device, distributing at least a portion of the information of the application to the second device.

14. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

storing information of the first device, the information of the first device comprising at least a buddy list stored in the first device; and

determining that the second device is included in the buddy list prior to distributing at least the portion of the information of the application to the second device.

15. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a wish list of applications from the second device; and

determining that the application is within the wish list of applications prior to distributing at least the portion of the information of the application to the second device.

16. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, further comprising verifying the information of the application to be free of malicious code.

17. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the information of the application comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the application usable by the second device to obtain a compatible version of the application from an application store.

18. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the information of the application comprises no personally identifiable information of the first device.

19. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the information of the application comprises content of the application.

20. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the information of the application comprises an encrypted tuple associated with the application, the encrypted tuple comprising identification information of the application and identification information of the first device, and

wherein the method further comprises decrypting the encrypted tuple to obtain the identification information of the application and the identification information of the first device.