Method and system for alert delivery architecture

• US 7,143,118 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2004
• Issued: 11/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Thyagarajapuram S., Eichstaedt, Matthias, Matzanas, Sotiris, Loo, Patrick, Menon, Jayachandran R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahmoudi, Hassan
• Application Number:
  US10/866,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20050027741A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/10, 707/200, 707/201, 709/228, 705/1, 705/7, 713/17, 711/4, 715/513
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

An architecture for providing an alert message based on content that may be received as an event based feed or a time based feed in one or more formats. The architecture includes a data collection processing module for normalizing the content into a predefined data structure, and indexing the content for processing large amounts of content according to selected characteristics. A matching engine employs user queries to associate the event based content with one or more users who have indicated an interest in receiving alert messages associated with selected content. The matching engine also generates the corresponding alert messages. A poller fetches content on behalf or users at a predefined period and generates a corresponding alert message. A delivery interface determines which alert messages are to be sent immediately and which alert messages are to be scheduled for later delivery. The architecture is mirrored for scalability and backup.

Claims

1. A method for making an alert message accessible, comprising

normalizing content that is accessible in a plurality of formats;

indexing the content according to at least one characteristic of the content;

using the at least one characteristic to determine whether previously stored content exists that is also indexed to the at least one characteristic, and if the previously stored content exists, evaluating the previously stored content to replace at least a portion of the previously stored content if the content includes a revision to the previously stored content and the previously stored content has not been delivered in an alert message;

associating at least one portion of the content with at least one user, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associated with at least one predetermined interest of the at least one user;

generating an alert message to the at least one user, wherein the alert message is related to the at least one portion of the content and the at least one user has selected to receive the alert message; and

enabling the at least one user to access the alert message with at least one delivery mechanism predefined by the at least one user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving the content as an event based feed; and

requesting the content as a time based feed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein normalizing the content comprises converting the content from any one of the plurality of formats to a normalized format.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein enabling the at least one user to access the message comprises one of:

delivering the alert message to the at least one user immediately; and

delivering the alert message to the at least one user at a predefined time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the content comprises at least one of:

time at which the content was received;

an identifier of the sender;

a type of the content;

a country from which the content was sent;

an indication that the content is associated with a poll request; and

an indication that the content is associated with previously received content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the at least one portion of the content comprises:

evaluating the at least one portion of the content relative to a query expression wherein the query expression represents the at least one interest of the at least one user; and

establishing an association between the at least one portion of the content and the at least one user if the at least one portion of the content matches the query expression.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the query expression is accessed from a user profile of the at least one user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

associating the at least one portion of the content is performed according to a quality of service level;

generating the alert message is performed according to a quality of service level; and

enabling the at least one user to access the alert message is performed according to a quality of service level.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the at least one user to access the alert message comprises delivering the alert message as at least one of:

an email message;

an instant message;

a short message service message; and

a voice message.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

validating that necessary data are included in the content;

transforming the content according to logical operations to express a characteristic of the content;

logging receipt parameters of the content;

storing the content;

prioritizing the content relative to other content; and

discarding a duplicate of the content.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising mirroring the operations of normalizing, associating, generating, and enabling.

12. A computer readable medium comprising volatile and/or non-volatile storage, which stores computer readable instructions that enable a computing device to perform the actions of:

normalizing content that is accessible in a plurality of formats;

indexing the content according to at least one characteristic of the content;

using the at least one characteristic to determine whether previously stored content exists that is also indexed to the at least one characteristic, and if the previously stored content exists, evaluating the previously stored content to replace at least a portion of the previously stored content if the content includes a revision to the previously stored content and the previously stored content has not been delivered in an alert message;

associating at least one portion of the content with at least one user, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associated with at least one predetermined interest of the at least one user;

generating an alert message to the at least one user, wherein the alert message is related to the at least one portion of the content and the at least one user has selected to receive the alert message; and

enabling the at least one user to access the alert message with at least one delivery mechanism predefined by the at least one user.

13. A system for making an alert message accessible, comprising:

a communication interface for accessing content and communicating an alert message;

a processor in communication with the communication interface; and

a memory in communication with the processor and storing data and instructions that cause the processor to perform a plurality of functions including;

normalizing content that is accessible in a plurality of formats;

indexing the content according to at least one characteristic of the content;

using the at least one characteristic to determine whether previously stored content exists that is also indexed to the at least one characteristic, and if the previously stored content exists, evaluating the previously stored content to replace at least a portion of the previously stored content if the content includes a revision to the previously stored content and the previously stored content has not been delivered in an alert message;

associating at least one portion of the content with at least one user, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associated with at least one predetermined interest of the at least one user;

generating an alert message to the at least one user, wherein the alert message is related to the at least one portion of the content and the at least one user has selected to receive the alert message; and

enabling the at least one user to access the alert message with at least one delivery mechanism predefined by the at least one user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operations of at least one of:

receiving the content as an event based feed; and

requesting the content as a time based feed.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operations of at least one of:

converting the content from any one of the plurality of formats to a normalized format.

validating that necessary data are included in the content;

transforming the content according to logical operations to express a characteristic of the content;

logging receipt parameters of the content;

storing the content;

prioritizing the content relative to other content; and

discarding a duplicate of the content.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one characteristic of the content comprises at least one of:

time at which the content was received;

an identifier of the sender.

a type of the content;

a country from which the content was sent;

an indication that the content is associated with a poll request; and

an indication that the content is associated with previously received content.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operations of:

evaluating the at least one portion of the content relative to a query expression wherein the query expression represents the at least one interest of the at least one user, and

establishing an association between the at least one portion of the content and the at least one user if the at least one portion of the content matches the query expression.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operations of:

associating the at least one portion of the content is performed according to a quality of service level;

generating the alert message is performed according to a quality of service level; and

enabling the at least one user to access the alert message is performed according to a quality of service level.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operations of:

delivering the alert message to the at least one user immediately; and

delivering the alert message to the at least one user at a predefined time.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising a mobile client device for receiving the alert message.

21. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a mirrored communication interface in communication with the communication interface, and also configured for accessing the content and for communicating a mirrored alert message;

a mirrored processor in communication with the mirrored communication interface; and

a mirrored memory in communication with the mirrored processor and storing data and instructions that cause the minored processor to perform a plurality of functions including;

normalizing the content that is accessible in a plurality of formats;

indexing the content according to at least one characteristic of the content;

associating the at least one portion of the content with the at least one user, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associated with the at least one predetermined interest of the at least one user;

generating the minored alert message to the at least one user, wherein the mirrored alert message is related to the at least one portion of the content and the mirrored alert message is substantially equivalent to the alert message; and

enabling the at least one user to access the minored alert message with the at least one delivery mechanism predefined by the at least one user.

22. A system for providing a message, comprising:

a collection processing module that interfaces with at least one content source, accesses content in a plurality of formats, normalizes at least one portion of the content into a normalized format, and indexes the content according to at least one characteristic of the content and uses the at least one characteristic to determine whether previously stored content exists that is also indexed to the at least one characteristic, and if the previously stored content exists, evaluates the previously stored content to replace at least a portion of the previously stored content if the content includes a revision to the previously stored content and the previously stored content has not been delivered in an alert message;

a matching engine that is in communication with the collection 1 that generates an alert message with the at least one portion of the content when the at least one portion of the content corresponds to an event based feed, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associated with at least one user based on at least one interest of the at least one user;

a poller that is in communication with the collection processing module and that generates an alert message with the at least one portion of the content when the at least one portion of the content corresponds to an time based feed, wherein the at least one portion of the content is associate with the at least one user based on the at least one interest of the at least one user; and

a delivery interface that is in communication with the matching engine and the poller, and that delivers the alert message to the at least one user in accordance with a data structure predefined by the at least one user.