INFORMATION SERVICE THAT GATHERS INFORMATION FROM MULTIPLE INFORMATION SOURCES, PROCESSES THE INFORMATION, AND DISTRIBUTES THE INFORMATION TO MULTIPLE USERS AND USER COMMUNITIES THROUGH AN INFORMATION-SERVICE INTERFACE
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention include information services, methods and systems to facilitate gathering and management of information by home users and professional users of information gathering, processing, and distribution services, and user interfaces through which users communicate with information services. In one embodiment of the present invention, a central information gathering, processing, and distribution service provides a simple, but robust and highly functional, interface to remote home users and professional users to allow the home users and professional users to continuously receive updated information gleaned from continuous searching of the Internet and other information sources by the information service. The interface allows users to define, refine, and stably store interests that define information searches continuously carried out, on behalf of the user, by the information gathering, processing, and distribution service. The information service discovers and stores user preferences, interests, and bookmarked URLs and other information in a way that allows users within communities of users to share their stored interests, bookmarked information, and preferences among themselves.
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Citations
73 Claims
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1-41. -41. (canceled)
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42. A method for gathering, compiling, and distributing information from multiple information sources to users of an information service, implemented on multiple electronic computer systems, the method comprising:
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continuously monitoring, by one or more of the multiple electronic computer systems, the information sources to extract information from the information sources and compile the extracted information in a catalog maintained on an information-service computing and data storage system, the catalog including stored information and multiple indexes that each associates references to the stored information with an attribute and that together facilitate searching of the stored information for particular items of stored information; receiving, by one or more of the multiple electronic computer systems, user information interests and user data from users and storing the received user information interests and user data within the information-service computing and data storage system; and for each active user, continuously searching, by one or more of the multiple electronic computer systems, the catalog for information related to the user'"'"'s interests, extracting the information related to user'"'"'s interests, and providing the extracted information to the user through a user interface instantiated on any one or more of various types of information-rendering-and-display devices, including a personal computer and a set-top-box equipped television. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57)
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54-1. The method of claim 45 wherein a user interest comprises an interest name and a search list used by the information service to search for information related to keywords and information-source specifiers contained in the search list.
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58. An information service, implemented on multiple electronic computer systems, that gathers, compiles, and distributes information from multiple information sources to users of the information service, the information system comprising:
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a back end component of the information system, comprising one or more computer systems, that continuously monitors the information sources to extract information from the information sources and compile the extracted information in a catalog maintained on an information-service computing and data storage system, the catalog including stored information and multiple indexes that each associates references to the stored information with an attribute and that together facilitate searching of the stored information for particular items of stored information; and a middle layer component of the information system, comprising one or more computer systems, that receive user information interests and user data from users and stores the received user information interests and user data within the information-service computing and data storage system, and that continuously invokes back-end searching facilities for searching the catalog for information related to the user'"'"'s interests, extracting the information related to user'"'"'s interests, and providing the extracted information to the user through a user interface instantiated on any one or more of various types of information-rendering-and-display devices, including a personal computer and a set-top-box equipped television. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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Specification