Hot within my communities

• US 8,312,108 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Media, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sampson, Todd, Sampson, John, Ho, Steve, Marcoullier, Eric, Rafer, Neil Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAW, PETER C
• Application Number:
  US11/752,104
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,002 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/216, 709/224, 707/3, 707/5, 707/7
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are directed to identifying network resources or other topics that are of interest to members of multiple online communities to which a user belongs. Online communities include blogs, websites, games, e-commerce systems, messaging systems, wikis, etc. For each online community, click activity or other client behaviors are tracked and analyzed to determine statistical metrics about community activity, such as which articles, links, services, or other network resources are popular in the online community. At least some of the tracking or analysis can be performed by clients that access the online communities, by a server of each online community, and/or by a central tracking system. The results for each community may be further analyzed relative to each other. The results are provided for all communities with which a given user is associated. For example, a list of the most popular links in the user'"'"'s selected online communities.

Claims

1. A method operating within a computer device for identifying network activity, comprising:

associating a user identifier with a first online community and a second online community;

performing a first analysis of first community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the first online community;

selecting a first network resource based on the first analysis;

performing a second analysis of second community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the second online community;

selecting a second network resource based on the second analysis;

performing a combined analysis of the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information;

selecting an other network resource based on the combined analysis;

identifying the first network resource, the other network resource, and the second network resource to a client associated with the user identifier, wherein the client displays a list including a link to each identified network resource and a link to the online community from which each identified network resource was selected; and

performing a third analysis of each identified network resource to infer topics that are of interest to the clients that interacted with the identified network resources; and

displaying the inferred topics in a rank ordering.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein either of the first community or the second community comprise one of the following;

a blog, an online game environment, an e-commerce system, a messaging system, a website, and a wiki.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each network resource comprise one of the following;

a website, a blog, an article, a network accessible product, a network accessible service, a widget, an image, and audio content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information each comprise at least one of the following:

click actions indicating network resources that were accessed by clients;

temporal information determined from clients that interacted with the network resources; and

messages from clients that identify network resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information comprises one of the following:

behaviors within the corresponding first community or second community by clients that interacted with the corresponding first community or second community; and

behaviors within and outside the corresponding first community or second community by clients that interacted with the corresponding first community or second community.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first analysis and the second analysis comprises at least one of the following;

a maximum, a standard deviation, and an average.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving at least a portion of the first community behavior information or the second community behavior information from a client that tracks user interaction with the client.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an ordering of the first community relative to the second community based on the first analysis and the second analysis.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the list further comprises displaying the list sorted based on a geographic location of the clients that interacted with the first online community and clients that interacted with the second online community.

10. A server for identifying network activity, comprising:

a processor;

a communication interface in communication with the processor;

an output component in communication with the processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor and storing data and instructions that cause the processor to perform a plurality of operations, including;

associating a user identifier with a first online community and a second online community;

performing a first analysis of first community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the first online community;

selecting a first network resource based on the first analysis;

performing a second analysis of second community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the second online community;

selecting a second network resource based on the second analysis;

performing a combined analysis of the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information;

selecting an other network resource based on the combined analysis;

identifying the first network resource, the other network resource, and the second network resource to a client associated with the user identifier using the determined ordering and further displaying to the client a list including a link to each identified network resource and a link to the online community from which each identified network resource was selected; and

performing a third analysis of each identified network resource to infer topics that are of interest to the clients that interacted with the identified network resources; and

displaying the inferred topics in a rank ordering.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein either of the first community or the second community comprise one of the following;

a blog, an online game environment, an e-commerce system, a messaging system, a website, and a wiki.

12. The server of claim 10, wherein the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information each comprise at least one of the following:

click actions indicating network resources that were accessed by clients;

temporal information determined from clients that interacted with the network resources; and

messages from clients that identify network resources.

13. The server of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to perform the operation of receiving at least a portion of the first community behavior information or the second community behavior information from a client that tracks user interaction with the client.

14. A client for identifying network activity, comprising:

a processor;

a communication interface in communication with the processor;

an output component in communication with the processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor and storing data and instructions that cause the processor to perform a plurality of operations, including;

associating a user identifier with a first online community and a second online community;

gathering client behavior information;

providing the client behavior information for;

a first analysis of first community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the first online community; and

a second analysis of second community behavior information that indicates network resources identified based on clients that interacted with the second online community;

performing a combined analysis of the first community behavior information and the second community behavior information;

selecting an other network resource based on the combined analysis;

a third analysis of each identified network resource to infer topics that are of interest to the clients that interacted with the identified network resources;

receiving a first network resource identifier based on the first analysis;

receiving a second network resource identifier based on the second analysis; and

providing the first network resource identifier and the second network resource identifier to the output component, wherein the output component displays a list including each network resource identifier and a link to the online community from which each received network resource identifier was selected and the inferred topics in a rank ordering.

15. The client of claim 14, wherein providing comprises displaying the first network resource identifier and the second network resource identifier in a web page.