System for integrating an on-line service community with a foreign service

• US 6,433,795 B1
• Filed: 12/07/1999
• Issued: 08/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: America Online Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: MacNaughton, Bruce A., Turner, Leigh R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Application Number:
  US09/455,652
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 345/329, 345/331, 345/332, 345/346, 345/357, 345/330, 345/971, 345/738, 345/733, 345/751, 345/758, 345/753, 345/741, 345/742, 345/760, 345/804, 345/779, 345/745, 707/501, 707/10, 707/512, 707/513, 707/501.1, 709/203, 709/201, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/249, 709/329, 709/315, 709/313, 709/310
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A system and method for integrating an on-line service community with a foreign service such as the Internet World Wide Web. To take advantage of the present invention, on-line service subscribers access a membership module to complete a membership process in which they join communities each of which represents a specific area of interest. The present invention operates as an extension to a user'"'"'s preferred Web browser and is manifested as a toolbar comprised of control buttons and a viewer on a computer user'"'"'s screen. By interacting with the control buttons of the toolbar and the menus of the viewer, on-line service content is delivered to the user in response to the URLs specified by the user as he or she browses the Web. In addition, control buttons on the toolbar present opportunities for interacting with other community members. Although the user may change URLs and Web sites frequently, the present invention maintains a context—via a persistent connection between a Community Server at the on-line service and a Community Client on the user'"'"'s computer—for the user'"'"'s interactions so that on-line service content may be presented and interactions with other community members facilitated. The benefit of the present invention for end-users is a transformation of the Web to a community.

Claims

1. A method for integrating a community with a web browser, comprising the steps of:

defining community content for a plurality of communities;

defining capabilities for each of said plurality of communities;

associating each of said plurality of communities with an identifier for a web page;

defining a community client adapted for interacting with said web browser and for responding to notifications regarding said plurality of communities;

defining a community server adapted for transmitting notifications to said community client; and

transmitting from said community server to said community client notifications regarding a community associated with an identifier for a web page selected in accordance with said web browser.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of defining a community server comprises the step of establishing a persistent connection between said community server and said community client.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of defining capabilities for each of said plurality of communities comprises the steps of:

defining a home page for each of said plurality of communities;

defining comments for each of said plurality of communities;

defining a list of online users for each of said plurality of communities;

defining real time interactions for each of said plurality of communities;

defining invitations for each of said plurality of communities;

defining instructions for each of said plurality of communities;

defining message inneractions for each of said plurality communities; and

defining internet features for each of said plurality of communities.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of defining capabilities for each of said plurality of communities comprises the steps of assigning a capability identification number to each capability.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting from said community server to said community client notifications regarding a community comprises the step of notifying a user of said web browser of capabilities defined for said community associated with said identifier for said web page selected in accordance with said web browser.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting from said community server to said community client notifications regarding a community comprises the step of notifying a user of said web browser of annotations associated with said identifier for said web page, other community members associated with said identifier for said web page, and in progress chats associated with said identifier for said web page.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmiting from said community server to said community client notifications regrarding a community comprises the step of determining the contents of said notifications in accordance with a tracking server.

8. A client communications application for viewing at least one web page from among a plurality of web pages, the plurality of web pages including at least one foreign page and at least one community page, comprising:

communications logic for sending a request and for receiving the at least one web page in response to the request; and

display logic for displaying at least one foreign page in a first window and capable of displaying at least one community page whose content is based on a content of the displayed foreign page, wherein the community page is placed in a separate pane of the first window.

9. A client communications application for viewing at least one web page from among a plurality of web pages, the plurality of web pages including at least one foreign page and at least one community page, comprising:

communications logic for sending a request and for receiving the at least one web page in response to the request; and

display logic for displaying at least one foreign page in a first window and capable of displaying at least one community page whose content is based on a content of the displayed foreign page, wherein the community page is integrated in the toolbar of the first window.

10. A client communications application for viewing at least one web page from among a plurality of web pages, the plurality of web pages including at least one foreign page and at least one community page, the client communications application capable of sending a first request for at least one foreign page, comprising:

communications logic for sending a second request for a community page whose content is related to the content of the requested foreign page and for receiving the requested community page; and

display logic for displaying the requested foreign page in a first window and capable of displaying the requested community page, wherein the community page is placed in a separate pane of the first window.

11. A client communications application for viewing at least one web page from among a plurality of web pages, the plurality of web pages including at least one foreign page and at least one community page, the client communications application capable of sending a first request for at least one foreign page, comprising:

communications logic for sending a second request for a community page whose content is related to the content of the requested foreign page and for receiving the requested community page; and

display logic for displaying the requested foreign page in a first window and capable of displaying the requested community page, wherein the community page is integrated in the toolbar of the first window.