System and method of presenting media content

• US 7,917,853 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2007
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: TRAUTH, KURT
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu, Tadeese
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hope, Darrin
• Application Number:
  US11/726,369
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,469 Days
• Field of Search: 715/733, 715/764, 715/700, 715/838, 715/841
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0489 using dedicated keyboard keys or combinations thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4038 Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00

Abstract

A method of presenting media content is disclosed that includes providing a first view including multiple image cells to a destination device of a first user, where at least one cell of the multiple image cells includes an image. The method further includes automatically collecting a second image from a third party website associated with a second user and providing a second view to the destination device. The second view includes the multiple image cells having the image and includes the second image.

Claims

1. A method of presenting media content, the method comprising:

determining, at a server, that a first user has subscribed to media content associated with at least one second user;

determining, at the server, that updated media content for the at least one second user is available;

retrieve data related to the updated media content;

sending an alert from the server to a device associated with the first user to inform the first user of the availability of the updated media content;

receiving a command to present multiple image cells to a destination device of the first user after the alert is sent; and

providing multiple image cells to the destination device of the first user, wherein at least one cell of the multiple image cells includes an image associated with the first user, and wherein at least one cell of the multiple image cells includes at least a portion of the data related to the updated media content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is an email notification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is a pop-up notification on the destination device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple image cells are arranged in date order.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple image cells comprise rows and columns of image cells, and wherein each row is associated with a particular user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing multiple image cells to the destination device comprises providing a first row of image cells, wherein content of the first row of image cells is associated with the first user, providing a second row of image cells, wherein content of the second row of image cells is associated with the at least one second user, and providing a third row of image cells, wherein content of the third row of image cells is associated with a third user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first user, the at least one second user, and the third user comprise a computer-based social network.

8. A system to present media content, the system comprising:

an interface to a network; and

a processor coupled to the interface, the processor to generate a first view including multiple image cells, wherein at least one first image cell of the multiple image cells includes an image and wherein at least one second image cell of the multiple image cells includes a second image from a third party website associated with a second user, the processor to determine when a new image is available from the third party website associated with the second user, the processor to replace content of the at least one second image cell with the new image and to archive the content of the at least one second image cell, and the processor to generate a second view including the multiple image cells having the image and the new image.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a memory accessible to the processor to store the image and to store a thumbnail image of the second image and a pointer to the website associated with the second image.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is adapted to provide the second view to a destination device via the network.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor accesses a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed associated with the website to identify modified content.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor retrieves a third image from the website associated with the second viewer in response to identifying modified content.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor retrieves audio data from the website associated with the second user.

14. A method of presenting media content, the method comprising:

sending a first graphical user interface (GUI) to a destination device from a server, the server to receive one or more identifiers of one or more other users forming a social network associated with a user account, each identifier within the social network associated with one or more websites accessible to the one or more other users;

automatically collecting data related to updated media content from a selected third party website of the one or more websites;

sending an alert from the server to a device associated with the first user when data related to updated media content is collected; and

generating, at the server, a second GUI including multiple image cells, wherein at least one cell of the multiple image cells includes an image related to the collected data or to the updated media content.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing the second GUI to the destination device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the data comprises an image.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the data comprises a link to an audio file.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the data comprises a link to a multimedia data stream.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the social network comprises a first user associated with the destination device and a second user associated with at least one of the one or more websites.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple image cells are arranged in date order.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple image cells are arranged in a user-specified order.

22. A processor-readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor to:

generate a graphical user interface (GUI) to present media content to a display device associated with a first user, the GUI comprising;

multiple selectable cells arranged in at least two rows, wherein a first row includes images related to media content from the first user, wherein each additional row includes images related to media content from a source other than the first user, wherein a first selection of a particular selectable cell causes a first display window to display media content associated with the particular selectable cell, and wherein a second selection of the particular selectable cell causes a second display window to display a configuration menu.

23. The processor-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the configuration menu comprises one or more selectable menu options to adjust an arrangement of images within the multiple selectable cells.

24. The processor-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the multiple selectable cells are arranged in chronological order according to a date that an image was added to the multiple selectable cells.

25. The processor-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the configuration menu includes a freeze cell control option to prohibit changes to an image associated with the particular selectable cell.

26. The processor-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the first selection comprises a left click operation associated with a pointing device and the second selection comprises a right click associated with the pointing device.

27. The processor-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the multiple selectable cells are arranged in a matrix and wherein a first row of the matrix includes one or more images related to the first user, and wherein a second row of the matrix includes one or more images related to a second user.