Aggregation of reduced-sized images

• US 7,418,483 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Hess, Martin L., Wilson, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US11/421,114
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206795A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/213, 709/225, 705/27, 705/37, 719/329
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0223 User address space allocation, e.g. contiguous or non contiguous base addressing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• 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

Abstract

A method includes receiving, from a user, publication data to be published and location data identifying a storage location at which an image to be associated with the publication data is stored. The image to be included in the publication data is retrieved from the storage location identified by the location data. A reduced-size image is generated using the retrieved image and the reduced-size image is aggregated with further reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a first user, publication data to be published and first location data identifying a first storage location at which a first image to be associated with the publication data is stored;

retrieving the first image to be associated with the publication data from the first storage location identified by the first location data;

generating a first reduced-size image using the first image; and

aggregating the first reduced-size image with a second reduced-size image for presentation at a remote site, the second reduced-size image being generated using a second image retrieved from a second storage location identified by second location data received from a second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first reduced-size image is a thumbnail image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the publication data comprises an item listing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first location data identifies a network address at which the first image to be associated with the publication data is stored.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator (URL).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first location data specifies a directory path to a location at which the first image to be associated with the publication data is stored.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregating includes aggregating the first reduced-size image with the second reduced-size image onto a web page for presentation at the remote site.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first image is retrieved concurrently with the retrieval of the second image.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the first reduced-size image includes decompressing the first image from a source format to generate a decompressed image, converting the decompressed image to fit within a predetermined space to generate a converted image, and recompressing the converted image into an output format.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the first location data includes converting the first location data to have a correct syntax.

11. A method comprising:

receiving first publication data from a first client computer over a network, the first publication data including a first image location;

receiving second publication data from a second client computer over the network, the second publication data including a second image location;

retrieving a first image from the first image location;

manipulating the first image to produce a first reduced-size image using a server;

retrieving a second image from the second image location;

manipulating the second image to produce a second reduced-size image using the server; and

creating a customized web page including the first and second reduced-size images using the server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the first and second reduced-size images are of a determined size and format.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second publication data includes first and second descriptions respectively, and the creating of the customized web page further comprises including the first and second descriptions within the customized web page.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first image location and the second image location comprises a directory path.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first image location and the second image location comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

16. The method of claim 11, including concurrently retrieving the first image from the first image location and the second image from the second image location.

17. A method comprising:

using a server to harvest user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information received from a plurality of client computers, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable;

creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the publication data is an item listing, and the user-supplied information includes a description of an item for sale, the description to be included in the item listing.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the creating of the reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images comprises:

for each harvested user-specified image, decompressing the harvested user-specified image from a source format to a decompressed image format;

converting the decompressed image format to a thumbnail image format; and

compressing the thumbnail image format into an output format.

20. A system comprising:

a listing process to receive, from a first user, publication data to be published and first location data identifying a storage location at which a first image to be associated with the publication data is stored;

a harvesting process to retrieve the first image to be associated with the publication data from the first storage location identified by the first location data, and to generate a first reduced-size image using the first; and

a management process to aggregate the first reduced-size image with a second reduced-size image for presentation at a remote site, the second reduced-size image being generated using a second image retrieved from a second storage location identified by second location data received from a second user.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the first reduced-size image is a thumbnail image.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the publication data comprises an item listing.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the first location data identifies a network address at which the first image to be associated with the publication data is stored, and the harvesting process is to retrieve the first image from the network address.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the network address is a uniform resource locator (URL).

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the first location data specifies a directory path to a location at which the first image to be associated with the publication data is stored, and the harvesting process is to retrieve the first image using the directory path.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the management process is to aggregate the first reduced-size image with the second reduced-size image onto a web page for presentation at the remote site.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the harvesting process is to retrieve the first image concurrently with the second image, and is to use the second image to generate the second reduced-size image.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein the harvesting process is to decompress the first image from a source format to generate a decompressed image, convert the decompressed image to fit within a predetermined space to generate a converted image, and recompress the converted image into an output format.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the harvesting process is to convert the first location data to have a correct syntax.

30. A system comprising:

a publication process to;

receive first publication data from a first computer over a network, the first publication data including a first image location; and

receive second publication data from a second computer over the network, the second publication data including a second image location;

a harvesting process to;

retrieve a first image from the first image location;

manipulate the first image to produce a first reduced-size image;

retrieve a second image from the second image location; and

manipulate the second image to produce a second reduced-size image; and

a management process to create a customized web page including the first and second reduced-size images.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein each of the first and second reduced-size images are of a determined size and format.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the first and second publication data includes first and second descriptions respectively, and the management process is to include the first and second descriptions within the customized web page.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the first image location and the second image location comprises a directory path.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the first image location and the second image location comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the harvesting process is concurrently to retrieve the first image from the first image location and the second image from the second image location.

36. A system comprising:

a harvesting process performed by a server to harvest user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information received from a plurality of client computers, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, and to create reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

an aggregation process the reduced-size images for aggregated presentation at a remote site.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the publication data is an item listing, and the user-supplied information includes a description of an item for sale, the description to be included in the item listing.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the harvesting process is to:

for each harvested user-specified image, decompress the harvested user-specified image from a source format to a decompressed image format;

convert the decompressed image format to a thumbnail image format; and

compress the thumbnail image format into an output format.

39. A system comprising:

first means for receiving, from a first user, first location data identifying a first storage location at which a first image to be associated with publication data is stored;

second means for retrieving the first image from the first storage location identified by the first location data, and for generating a first reduced-size image using the first image;

third means for aggregating the first reduced-size image with a second reduced-size image for presentation at a remote site, the second reduced-size image being generated using a second image retrieved from a second storage location identified by second location data received from a second user.

40. A system comprising:

publication means for;

receiving first publication data from a first computer over a network, the first publication data identifying a first image location;

receiving second publication data from a second computer over the network, the second publication data identifying a second image location;

harvesting means for;

retrieving a first image from the first image location;

manipulating the first image to produce a first reduced-size image;

retrieving a second image from the second image location;

manipulating the second image to produce a second reduced-size image; and

aggregation means for creating a customized web page including the first and second reduced-size images.

41. A server comprising:

harvesting means for harvesting user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, and for creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregation means for aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

42. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

receiving, from a first user, publication data to be published and first location data identifying a first storage location at which a first image to be associated with the publication data is stored;

retrieving the first image to be associated with the publication data from the first storage location identified by the first location data;

generating a first reduced-size image using the first image; and

aggregating the first reduced-size image with a second reduced-size image for presentation at a remote site, the second reduced-size image being generated using a second image retrievable from a second storage location identified by second location data received from a second user.

43. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more server processors perform the following operations:

harvesting user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable;

creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

44. A method comprising:

receiving first publication data from a first computer over a network, the first publication data including a first image location;

receiving second publication data from a second computer over the network, the second publication data including a second image location;

carrying out a harvesting process comprising;

retrieving a first image from the first image location;

manipulating the first image to produce a first reduced-size image;

retrieving a second image from the second image location; and

manipulating the second image to produce a second reduced-size image; and

creating a customized web page including the first and second reduced-size images.

45. A method comprising:

harvesting user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, the locations indicating a site of a first image specified by a first user and a site of a second image specified by a second user;

creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

46. A system comprising:

a harvesting process to harvest user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, the locations indicating a site of a first image specified by a first user and a site of a second image specified by a second user, and to create reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

an aggregation process the reduced-size images for aggregated presentation at a remote site.

47. A system comprising:

harvesting means for harvesting user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, the locations indicating a site of a first image specified by a first user and a site of a second image specified by a second user, and for creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregation means for aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.

48. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the following operations:

harvesting user-specified images to be associated with publication data from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information, the user-supplied information identifying locations from which the user-specified images are retrievable, the locations indicating a site of a first image specified by a first user and a site of a second image specified by a second user;

creating reduced-size images corresponding to the harvested user-specified images; and

aggregating the reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.