Wrapper playlists on streaming media services

• US 7,076,478 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Issued: 07/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: O'Rourke, Bret P., Dean, Dawson F., Kucer, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US09/892,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20030028505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,841 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/6, 707/102, 707/100, 707/103.R, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The following subject matter associates new or different media content with a particular playlist while maintaining the playlist'"'"'s corresponding reference(s) to content such as streaming media content. A server component receives a request from a client for one or more content items. The server component identifies a data structure that refers to one or more further content items. Next, the server modifies the data structure to reference the content item or items requested by the client. The server provides the content items referenced by the modified data structure to the client.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media containing computer program instructions executable by a processor for providing streaming media content to a plurality of clients, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving, by a server computer, a request that refers to one or more streaming media content items;

identifying, by a server computer, a playlist that refers to a sequence of one or more further streaming media content items;

modifying, by a server computer, the playlist to reference the one or more requested streaming media content items in the sequence; and

streaming, by a server computer, the streaming media content items referenced by the modified playlist to at least one requesting client computer.

2. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for modifying the playlist further comprise instructions for adding a plurality of references to the requested content item to the playlist.

3. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for modifying the playlist further comprise instructions for adding a plural number of references to requested content item to the playlist, the number being indicated by the received request.

4. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for identifying the playlist further comprise instructions for creating the playlist by modifying a base playlist.

5. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for identifying the playlist further comprise instructions for creating the playlist by modifying a copy of a base playlist.

6. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for modifying the playlist, the playlist further comprises a placeholder that identifies a particular point in the sequence where the requested content is placed.

7. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer program instructions for receiving the request further comprise instructions for receiving a variety of requests from the client, at least one subset of the variety of requests comprising respective requests to one or more different streaming media content items.

8. One or more computer-readable media containing computer program instructions for a server computer to provide Web content to a plurality of client computers, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving, by a server computer, a request from a client computer for one or more requested Web documents;

responsive to receiving the request;

identifying, by a server computer, a wrapper Web document that refers to one or more further Web documents;

modifying, by a server computer, the wrapper Web document to reference the one or more requested Web documents; and

providing, by a server computer, the Web documents referenced by the modified wrapper Web document to the client.

9. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8 wherein the instructions for modifying the wrapper Web document further comprise instructions for adding a plurality of references to the requested Web documents in the wrapper Web document.

10. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the instructions for modifying the wrapper Web document further comprise instructions for adding a plural number of references to the requested Web documents in the wrapper Web document, the number being indicated by the received request.

11. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the instructions for identifying the wrapper Web document, the wrapper Web document is a base wrapper Web document.

12. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the instructions for identifying the wrapper Web document, the wrapper Web document is a copy of a base wrapper Web document.

13. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the instructions for modifying the wrapper Web document, the wrapper Web document further comprises a placeholder that identifies a particular point in a sequence where the requested documents are referenced.

14. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 8, wherein the instructions for receiving the request further comprise instructions for receiving a variety of requests from the client, at least a subset of the variety comprising respective requests to one or more different Web specification documents.