Sharing of content and hop distance over a social network

• US 7,954,058 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalaboukis, Chris, Kim, Eun-Gyu
• Primary Examiner(s): BAUTISTA, XIOMARA L
• Application Number:
  US11/956,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20090158176A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 715/733, 715/751, 715/752, 715/753, 715/758, 715/760, 715/769, 715/770, 715/205, 709/204, 709/207, 709/217, 709/218
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A method, system, and apparatus are directed to sharing information over a network. A drag-and-drop of a selection of a portion of content may be received at a sharing area. A sharing message may be generated based on a type of the portion. If the type of the portion indicates storage, the sharing message may comprise a hyperlink to a storage. The sharing message may be useable for providing the portion on at least one client device associated with at least one of a plurality of members of a social network. Sharing over the network of the portion between an originating sharing member and the plurality of members of the social network may be enabled. The portion may be shared for a customizable project. A hop distance may be provided for the shared portion.

Claims

1. A method for sharing information over a network, comprising:

receiving a drag-and-drop of a selection of a portion of content at a sharing area;

generating a sharing message based on a type of the portion, wherein if the type of the portion indicates storage, the sharing message comprises a hyperlink to a storage, and wherein the sharing message is useable for providing the portion on at least one client device associated with at least one of a plurality of members of a social network;

enabling sharing, over the network, of the portion between an originating sharing member and the plurality of members of the social network; and

providing a hop distance for the shared portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sharing area is a stand alone window, included within a window of a web browser, or included within another window of a messaging application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the hop distance comprises a combination of at least two of a topological distance within the social network between members receiving the shared portion, a number of network links between a plurality of client devices receiving the shared portion, or a number of times the portion is shared over the network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of the shared portion is at least one of a text object, a hyperlink object, or a multimedia object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling sharing further comprises:

forwarding the sharing message from a client device associated with the originating sharing member to another client device associated with at least one of a receiving member of the plurality of members of the social network at a first degree of separation from the originating sharing member; and

if the receiving member indicates the portion is to be shared, further forwarding the sharing message to another receiving member.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

anonymizing the sharing message configured to share the portion of the content.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an update in real-time of the hop distance for each sharing of the portion by at least one member of the social network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the portion by a member of the social network over a plurality of degrees of separation, if a receiving application associated with a receiving member is actively accepting shared content.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving another drag-and-drop of at least another selection of another portion before sharing, wherein the portion is shared collectively with the other portion.

10. A client device for sharing information over a network, comprising:

a transceiver for communicating data;

a processor configured to perform actions comprising;

receiving a drag-and-drop of a selection of a portion of web content at a sharing area;

sharing the portion with a plurality of members of a social network; and

providing a display of at least the portion and an associated hop distance for the shared portion.

11. The client device of claim 10, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

12. The client device of claim 10, wherein the actions further comprise:

creating the sharing area associated with a project; and

sending an invitation to another device to share content within the project.

13. The client device of claim 10, wherein the actions further comprise:

if the portion is a multimedia object, receiving a hyperlink to a copy of the portion from another device, before sharing the portion, wherein the sharing of the portion comprises sharing the received hyperlink.

14. The client device of claim 10, wherein the actions further comprise:

modifying the display to change an ordering of the portion based on a change in the associated hop distance.

15. The client device of claim 10, wherein the portion comprises a Uniformed Resource Locator (URL), an offset indicating the portion within a web page identified by the URL, or a generated hyperlink to a multimedia object associated with the portion.

16. A system for sharing information over a network, comprising:

a display list component for displaying a plurality of items, wherein at least one of the items is a shared portion of content and a co-located hop distance that is updated in real-time for each sharing of the portion between at least two members of a social network;

a message display component for displaying the shared portion; and

a sharing area configured to perform actions comprising;

receiving a drag-and-drop of the shared portion;

generating a sharing message comprising the shared portion or a hyperlink to the shared portion; and

forwarding the sharing message to a least one member of the social network.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a project component configured to perform actions comprising;

organizing the shared portion into at least one project; and

transceiving over the network the shared portion with another sharing area, wherein the other sharing area is associated with at least one of the projects.

18. An apparatus for sharing information over a network, comprising:

a transceiver for communicating data;

a processor configured to perform actions comprising

receiving, over the network, a drag-and-drop selection of a portion of web content, wherein the drag-and-drop selection is associated with a project;

generating a sharing message based on a type of the portion, wherein if the type indicates storage, the sharing message comprises a hyperlink generated and configured to provide at least a part of the portion from a storage, and otherwise including the portion in the sharing message;

forwarding, over the network, the sharing message to at least one client device associated with the project; and

providing, in real-time, an update of a hop distance for the shared portion to the at least one client device.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the update of the hop distance is based in part on a number of client devices in a sequence of client devices for which the sharing message is forwarded beyond a client device receiving the sharing message from an originating sharing member, wherein the update of the hop distance indicates an updated level of interest in the portion.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein forwarding the sharing message comprises:

forwarding the sharing message to each contact within a contact list associated with an originating sharing member such that the sharing message is sent to each contact once.