Aggregation system

• US 7,908,647 B1
• Filed: 08/19/2008
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fingerprint Cards Anacatum IP AB (Fingerprint Cards AB)
• Original Assignee: CONFLUENCE COMMONS, INC.
• Inventors: Polis, Jared, Goyal, Payal, Herman, Jeffery D, Wu, Samuel C, Wu, Eric, Wilson, Michael C, Young, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Chai, Longbit
• Application Number:
  US12/194,531
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• Field of Search: 726/6
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer

Abstract

Machine, method for use and method for making, and corresponding products produced thereby, as well as data structures, computer-readable media tangibly embodying program instructions, manufactures, and necessary intermediates of the foregoing, each pertaining to digital aspects of a computerized aggregation system. The system can include a user computer system interposed between a segment of a network allowing communication between the user computer system and at least one server system, and other segments allowing communication between the user computer system and a plurality of third party server systems. The one server system enables the user computer system to access the plurality of other servers. The access permits forming an aggregation of information obtained from the third party server systems.

Claims

1. A computerized aggregation system, the system comprising:

a master server system programmed so as to provide credentials to a user computer system programmed by a client-side application piece, wherein the client-side application piece is configured to receive the credentials, directly send respective portions of the credentials in obtaining access to each of a plurality of third party server systems, and produce an aggregate of on-line information collected from said third party server systems, wherein the aggregate is produced without the master server system being intermediate to the user computer system and the third party server systems.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the client-side application piece comprises an applet that includes a controller that facilitates obtaining the information from the third party server systems, and wherein user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece to parse and to display the information obtained from the third party server systems.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so that the aggregate is produced without limit to browser type.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece regardless of operating system present at the user computer system.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece such that after the user computer system receives an email sent to one email address corresponding to one of the third party servers, the client-side application piece facilitates replying on another email address of another of the third party servers.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate automatic email address or name completion by using at least one list of contacts imported from one of the third party servers.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to support aggregating email regardless of mail protocol provided respectively by the third party server systems.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate emptying trash selectably at the client-side application piece and at least one of the third party servers, wherein where there is no trash corresponding to an option to empty the trash, marking email corresponding to the option so as to expire.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate toggling read and unread email indicators.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate aggregating Facebook-type or MySpace-type messages into an inbox with the email.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate aggregating comments left by one user on another user'"'"'s social network profile into an inbox with the email.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate aggregating a non-email communication into an inbox with the email.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the non-email communication comprises at least one of a bulletin, a friend request, a group invite, an invite to an event, a message, a comment left by one user on another user'"'"'s profile.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate resending as an email a message that is not natively an email.

15. The system of claim 2, wherein the information includes email and wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate automatically generating a list of elements or contacts that were recently accessed so as to allow expedited opening or display of the selected element or contact.

16. The system of claim 2, wherein the master server system is programmed to facilitate further aggregation by operations including receiving further information from at least some of the third party server systems and communicating the further information to the user computer system.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the further information comprises social status messages.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the communicating further information to the user computer system comprises communicating an aggregated stream of the social status messages.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the further information comprises communications of a group of contacts.

20. The system of claim 2, wherein the information comprises communications of a group of contacts.

21. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate receiving social status messages from the third party server systems.

22. The system of any one of claims 19, 20, wherein the information and the third party server systems for the group of contacts comprise at least two of:

email from an email third party server system, social status messages from a third party system, and a communication from a social networking third party system.

23. The system of claim 2, wherein the information comprises third party forums.

24. The system of claim 2, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate ranking of a user'"'"'s contacts'"'"' communication activity and generating a leaderboard from the ranking.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate a user interface, at the user computer system, that enables selectably configuring the leaderboard.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the user interface enables selectably configuring a number of contacts in the ranking displayed in the leaderboard.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the user interface enables selectably configuring activity from the third party servers contributing to the ranking displayed in the leaderboard.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate advertising.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising is implemented at a home page.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising is implemented at an inbox page.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate displaying, at the user computer system, a profile picture from a social network that is one of the third party server systems.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate displaying, at the user computer system, a preview of a communication sender'"'"'s profile information from a social network that is one of the third party server systems when a cursor of the user computer system hovers over the sender'"'"'s communication.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate synchronizing a folder structure and contents of the folder structure with said information.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate creation of a folder on at least one of the third party server systems and moves a communication from the user system to the folder.

35. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate a search from a single search interface of the information that has been aggregated.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the search comprises a search of content in the information, and wherein the information comprises information from email, a social network, and a message service provider respectively corresponding to said third party server systems.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the search comprises a search of keywords.

38. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate threading and displaying message conversations for messages of one of said third party servers that does not natively thread conversations.

39. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregate is published using RSS or another syndication client.

40. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the master server system and the user computer system is programmed to provide an automatically generated numeric score that represents a user'"'"'s level of communication activity.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the score reflects at least one of:

messages that are received, messages that are sent, total messages received, total messages sent, number of friends listed on at least one of the third party server systems, and any combination thereof.

42. The system of claim 40, wherein the score reflects at least two of:

messages that are received, messages that are sent, total messages received, total messages sent, number of friends listed on at least one of the third party server systems, and any combination thereof.

43. The system of claim 40, wherein the score reflects at least three of:

messages that are received, messages that are sent, total messages received, total messages sent, number of friends listed on at least one of the third party server systems, and any combination thereof.

44. The system of claim 40, wherein the score reflects usage of said client-side piece.

45. The system of any one of claims 40-44, wherein a reward is provided via the master server system, the reward providing an incentive to increase activity reflected by said score.

46. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the master server system and the user computer system is programmed to provide an automatically generated second numeric score that represents the level of communication activity associated with each account corresponding to a respective one of the third party server systems.

47. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the master server system and the user computer system is programmed to provide an automatically generated numeric score that represents a user'"'"'s level of communication activity through a web-based badge or “

widget”

that is published on a third-party website.

48. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation such that the master server system can read ahead and retrieve and cache content in local memory based on an anticipated request for retrieval of the content, so as to reduce the time between a request and content rendering.

49. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation such that rendering of the aggregate is platform independent.

50. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation such that rendering of the aggregate is a plug in to a client or browser.

51. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the third party servers provides a platform within a web site for another party to execute an application within the web site, and that web site provides the rendering of the aggregate.

52. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system provides a web site and that web site provides the rendering of the aggregate.

53. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate a display, at the user computer system, of the aggregate limited to communications from a user-selected contact or group of contacts.

54. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate a display, at the user computer system, of all communications from a user-selected contact or group of contacts.

55. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate SPAM detection and blocking applied to the aggregate.

56. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate iterative discovery of server settings and ports from an input email address.

57. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computer system is programmed by the client-side application piece so as to facilitate presenting a test, the test being a test to determine whether an action taken at one of the third party server systems is initiated by a human, from the one of the third party servers to the user computer system to allow human response to the test.

58. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation so as to facilitate presenting a user interface that presents different data types at the user computer system.

59. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation so as to facilitate presenting a user interface that receives different data types at the user computer system.

60. The system of any one of claims 58-59, wherein the data types include text and audio.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein the data types includes video.

62. The system of claim 1, wherein the master server system is programmed, and the user computer system is programmed, for cooperation so as to facilitate presenting a user interface that provides at least two of:

email, social status messages, and a social networking communication.

63. A method of making a computerized aggregation system, the method including:

programming a master server system;

so as to provide credentials to a user computer system; and

so as to program a client-side application piece at the user computer system;

to receive the credentials,

to directly send respective portions of the credentials in obtaining access to each of a plurality of third party server systems, and

to produce an aggregate of on-line information collected from said third party server systems, such that the aggregate is produced without the master server system being intermediate to the user computer system and the third party server systems.

64. A method of using a computerized aggregation system, the method including:

providing, with a master server system;

credentials to a user computer system; and

a client-side application piece to the user computer system to configure the user computer system;

to receive the credentials,

to directly send respective portions of the credentials in obtaining access to each of a plurality of third party server systems, and

to produce an aggregate of on-line information collected from said third party server systems, such that the aggregate is produced without the master server system.