Electronic messaging contextual storefront system and method

• US 7,890,876 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2007
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Greetings Corporation
• Original Assignee: American Greetings Corporation
• Inventors: Jhonson, Jason S., Tripoli, Benjamin J., Biniak, Bryan A., Rapp, Jeffrey M., Malkowski, Bryan A., Mandelbaum, Josef A., Higham, Dave
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitaro; Ryan F
• Application Number:
  US11/836,453
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: 715/758
• US Class Current: 715/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An electronic messaging contextual storefront system and application provides electronic and instant messaging with contextual graphical and textual content which corresponds with or is related to the subject matter of an electronic or instant message string or chat stream. Graphical and textual content for the contextual storefronts is retrieved based upon detected keywords, and presented in contextual storefronts which are associated with conversation and text entry boxes or other parts of an electronic message system display. Selected graphical and textual content can be placed directly in the text stream or elsewhere in the display either by user commands or automatically by the system. The graphical and textual content is stored by subject matter or theme or by association with keywords in a relational database. Access to contextual storefront content can be tracked, accounted for and controlled by a payments processing system.

Claims

1. A system for the presentation and use of graphical and textual content in connection with electronic messaging systems, the system comprising:

a first display which includes a conversation box and a text entry box, the conversation box configured to display messages which are entered by a first user and a second user into the text entry box;

a conversation box graphical storefront including a first set of one or more graphical images which are selected from a database of graphical images for inclusion in the conversation box graphical storefront based upon textual content which appears in the conversation box;

a conversation box textual storefront including a first set of one or more text items which are selected from a database of text items based upon textual content which appears in the conversation box;

a text entry box graphical storefront including a second set of one or more graphical images which are selected from a database of graphical images for inclusion in the text entry box graphical storefront based upon textual content which appears in the text entry box;

a text entry box textual storefront including a second set of one or more text items which are selected from a database of text items based upon textual content which appears in the text entry box,

system operative to enable selection by a client-user of a graphical image from the conversation box graphical storefront, the conversation box textual storefront, the text entry box textual storefront or the text entry box graphical storefront for insertion into the text entry box.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to select and display content in the conversation box graphical storefront based upon an intersection of keywords detected in the text entry box and keywords detected in the conversation box.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to select and display content in the text entry box graphical storefront based upon an intersection of keywords detected in the text entry box and keywords detected, in the conversation box.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to select and display content in the text entry box textual storefront based upon an intersection of keywords detected in the text entry box and keywords detected in the conversation box.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to select and display content in the conversation box textual storefront based upon an intersection of keywords detected in the text entry box and keywords detected in the conversation box.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to enable addition of user-provided content for the conversation box graphical storefront or the text entry box graphical storefront.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to enable addition of user-provided content for the conversation box textual storefront or the text entry box textual storefront.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to detect one or more keywords in the textual content which appears in the text entry box or in the conversation box and to select and retrieve associated graphical images which are associated with detected keywords and to populate the conversation box graphical storefront or the text entry box graphical storefront with the associated graphical images.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to detect one or more keywords in the textual content which appears in the text entry box or in the conversation box and to select and retrieve associated text items which are associated with detected keywords and to populate the text entry box textual storefront with the associated text items.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising means to detect one or more keywords in the textual content which appears in the text entry box or in the conversation box and to select and retrieve associated text items which are associated with detected keywords and to populate the conversation box textual storefront with the associated text items.

11. An electronic messaging contextual storefront system comprising:

an application residing on an application server which is connected via a network to two or more client user devices capable of sending and receiving electronic messages which contain textual and graphic content;

the application server communicatively connected to a contextual storefront content server having access to multiple different items of textual and graphical content;

the application operative to retrieve from the contextual storefront content server multiple items of graphical and textual content based upon text content of messages sent or received via the system, and to generate a display which includes at least one contextual storefront which includes multiple items of graphical and textual content.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the application retrieves multiple items of graphical and textual content from the contextual storefront content server based upon keywords detected in the text content of messages sent or received via the system.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein each of the keywords are associated with graphical or textual content in a database in or accessed by the contextual storefront content server.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the application is operative to generate a display which includes a first contextual storefront associated with a conversation box and a second contextual storefront associated with a text entry box.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the graphical and textual items are grouped together by subject matter in a database in or accessed by the contextual storefront content server.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the application is operative to embed or insert one or more graphical items selected by a user from the contextual storefront within a text stream in a display generated by the application.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the application is operative to embed or insert one or more textual items selected by a user from the contextual storefront within a text stream in a display generated by the application.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the application is operative to record the selection by a user of one or more graphical items by a user from the contextual storefront.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the application is operative to record the selection by a user of one or more textual items selected by a user from the contextual storefront.

20. The system of claim 11 further comprising a payment processing system for processing a payment as a pre-condition to user access to the items of textual or graphical content.

21. An electronic messaging contextual storefront system comprising:

an application residing on an application server which is connected via a network to two or more client user devices capable of sending and receiving electronic messages which contain textual and graphic content;

the application server communicatively connected to a contextual storefront content server having access to multiple different items of textual and graphical content;

the application operative to generate a display for the two or more client user devices, the display having a conversation box and a text entry box and at least one contextual storefront for displaying textual and graphic content;

the application further operative to retrieve from the contextual storefront content server multiple items of graphical and textual content based upon text content of messages sent or received via the system, and to display the multiple items of graphical and textual content within the at least one contextual storefront;

the application further operative to enable a client user to select one or more items of graphical or textual content from the at least one contextual storefront for placement in the conversation box or text entry box.

22. The electronic messaging contextual storefront system of claim 21 wherein the application is operative to retrieve multiple items of graphical or textual content from the contextual storefront content server based upon keywords detected in the text entry box or in the conversation box.

23. The electronic messaging contextual storefront system of claim 21 wherein the application is operative to retrieve multiple items of graphical or textual content from the contextual storefront content server based upon an intersection of keywords detected in the text entry box and in the conversation box.

24. The electronic messaging contextual storefront system of claim 21 wherein the application is further operative to process payments for client user access to graphical or textual content displayed in the contextual storefront.