DEEP LINKING TO MOBILE APPLICATIONS

• US 20150156061A1
• Filed: 12/02/2013
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Saxena, Sanchan, Low, Daryl, Vaish, Gaurav
• Granted Patent: US 9,806,942 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

Techniques are described for providing deep linking capability from any mobile app to any other mobile app in a way that is scalable. App configuration information (including deep link information) is programmatically accumulated and provided to mobile devices in a way that enables launching or linking to mobile apps to meet expressed information needs of users. In addition, online marketplaces are described that employ such techniques to enable a wide variety of transaction types.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for discovering mobile applications, comprising:

with one or more computing devices, receiving input entered by a user in an interface of a mobile device;

with the one or more computing devices, identifying a first one of a plurality of information needs represented by the input;

with the one or more computing devices, identifying a first subset of a plurality of mobile applications corresponding to the first information need; and

with the one or more computing devices, providing application configuration information to the mobile device for the first subset of mobile applications, the application configuration information including deep link information, the deep link information being configured to enable the mobile device to launch or link to a corresponding one of the first subset of mobile applications in a manner that is responsive to the input entered in the interface of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a data store that relates each of the plurality of mobile applications to one or more of the plurality of information needs and includes the application configuration information for each of the plurality of mobile applications, wherein the application configuration information for each of the mobile applications specifies one or more parameters to be provided to the mobile application and the deep link information for the mobile application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the deep link information for each of the mobile applications further includes a uniform resource indicator (URL) scheme for the corresponding mobile application, and a URL template for generation of one or more deep links to the corresponding mobile application.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the application configuration information for each of the mobile applications further includes or specifies any one or more of an identifier of the mobile application, a mobile operating system with which the mobile application is compatible, a human language supported by the mobile application, a category of the mobile application, payment information for the mobile application, a ranking of the mobile application, a rating of the mobile application, or a link for downloading the mobile application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the interface of the mobile device corresponds to a first mobile application operating on the mobile device, and wherein the payment information specifies a payment by a first entity associated with the corresponding mobile application to a second entity associated with the first mobile application operating on the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subset of the mobile applications includes more than one of the mobile applications, and wherein the application configuration information for the first subset of the mobile applications is ordered with reference to any one or more of relevancy with respect to the information need, demographic information of the user, contextual information of the user, or popularity within a population of users.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving installed application information representing one or more previously installed mobile applications on the mobile device, wherein identifying the first subset of mobile applications is done with reference to the installed application information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identification of the first information need, identification of the first subset of mobile applications, or providing of the application configuration information is done with reference to one or more actions by the user in connection with a previously filled information need.

9. A computer-implemented method for discovering mobile applications, comprising:

with a mobile device, receiving input entered by a user in a first interface of the mobile device;

with the mobile device, receiving application configuration information for a set of mobile applications, the set of mobile applications corresponding to an information need represented by the input, the application configuration information including deep link information, the deep link information being configured to enable the mobile device to launch or link to a corresponding one of the set of mobile applications in a manner that is responsive to the input entered in the interface of the mobile device; and

with the mobile device, exposing in a second interface of the mobile device one or more representations of one or more of the mobile applications using the application configuration information.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising initiating downloading of one of the mobile applications in response to selection of the corresponding representation.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising launching one of the mobile applications in response to selection of the corresponding representation.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein exposing the one or more representations of one or more of the mobile applications in the second interface of the mobile device comprises automatically launching one of the mobile applications.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein exposing the one or more representations of one or more of the mobile applications in the second interface of the mobile device comprises presenting a ranked list of entries in which each entry represents one of the mobile applications.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the entries are ranked with reference to any one or more of relevancy with respect to the information need, demographic information of the user, contextual information of the user, or popularity within a population of users.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the list of entries includes one or more organic entries responsive to the input, and one or more sponsored entries, each sponsored entry representing a payment by an entity associated with the corresponding mobile application.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein exposing the representations of the one or more of the mobile applications in the second interface comprises selecting at least one of the representations based on a payment by an entity associated with the corresponding mobile application.

17. A system for discovering mobile applications, comprising:

one or more data stores having data stored therein relating each of a plurality of mobile applications to one or more of a plurality of information needs, and including application configuration information for each of the plurality of mobile applications, the application configuration information for each mobile application specifying deep link information for the mobile application, the deep link information being configured to enable launching or linking to the corresponding mobile application; and

one or more computing devices configured to implement;

a first application programming interface (API) configured to receive input from a first mobile application operating on a mobile device, and to identify a first one of the plurality of information needs represented by the input;

resolver logic configured to identify a second mobile application corresponding to the first information need;

launcher logic configured to provide the application the configuration information for the second mobile application to the mobile device;

a second API configured to receive at least some of the application configuration information for the second mobile application and determine whether the second mobile application can operate on the mobile device;

parser logic configured to parse the deep link information for the second mobile application and to decompose the deep link information to a format consumable by the second mobile application; and

interstitial user interface logic configured to generate interfaces for the mobile device to facilitate launching of or linking to the second mobile application on the mobile device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the deep link information for each of the mobile applications includes a uniform resource indicator (URL) scheme for the corresponding mobile application, and a URL template for generation of one or more deep links to the corresponding mobile application.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the application configuration information for each of the mobile applications further includes or specifies any one or more of an identifier of the mobile application, one or more parameters to be provided to the mobile application, a mobile operating system with which the mobile application is compatible, a human language supported by the mobile application, a category of the mobile application, payment information for the mobile application, a ranking of the mobile application, a rating of the mobile application, or a link for downloading the mobile application.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the payment information specifies a payment by a first entity associated with the corresponding mobile application to a second entity associated with the first mobile application operating on the mobile device.

21. A computer-implemented method for programmatically generating application configuration information for a plurality of mobile applications, comprising:

with one or more computing devices, programmatically downloading an instance of each of the mobile applications from one of a plurality of mobile application provider platforms;

with the one or more computing devices, programmatically generating deep link information for each of the mobile applications using the corresponding instance of the mobile application, the deep link information being configured to enable launching or linking to the corresponding mobile application in a manner that is responsive to user input;

with the one or more computing devices, programmatically generating metadata for each of the mobile applications by scraping the metadata from the corresponding mobile application provider platform;

with the one or more computing devices, programmatically associating one or more of a plurality of information needs with each of the mobile applications based, at least in part, on the metadata for the mobile application;

with the one or more computing devices, identifying a first subset of the mobile applications corresponding to a first one of the information needs; and

with the one or more computing devices, providing application configuration information for each of the first subset of the mobile applications, the application configuration information including the deep link information for each of the first subset of the mobile applications.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the deep link information for each of the mobile applications includes a uniform resource indicator (URL) scheme for the corresponding mobile application, and a URL template for generation of one or more deep links to the corresponding mobile application.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the application configuration information for each of the mobile applications further includes or specifies any one or more of an identifier of the mobile application, one or more parameters to be provided to the mobile application, a mobile operating system with which the mobile application is compatible, a human language supported by the mobile application, a category of the mobile application, payment information for the mobile application, a ranking of the mobile application, a rating of the mobile application, or a link for downloading the mobile application.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first information need corresponds to input in an interface of a mobile device, wherein the interface of the mobile device corresponds to a first mobile application operating on the mobile device, and wherein the payment information specifies a payment by a first entity associated with the corresponding mobile application to a second entity associated with the first mobile application operating on the mobile device.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein generating the metadata for at least some of the mobile applications further comprises scraping the metadata from third party web sites.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising manually generating at least a portion of the deep link information for at least some of the mobile applications.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising identifying the first information need with reference to input received in an interface of a mobile device.