Method and apparatus for distributing content

• US 8,412,707 B1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ustringer LLC
• Original Assignee: Ustringer LLC
• Inventors: Mianji, Marty
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M
• Application Number:
  US12/485,037
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758, 707/769, 707/736, 715/810, 715/853
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a system that provides a user interface (UI) for categorizing content. The UI includes (i) a first UI tool for receiving identification of a set of tags and associating the set of tags to the content and (ii) a second UI tool for receiving identifications of relationships between the tags within the set of tags in order to describe the content. In some embodiments, the set of tags includes one or more tag chains that are based on a hierarchy of the tags within the set of tags. In some embodiments, the set of tags includes one or more tag chains that are based on a set of operators. Each operator in the set identifies a relationship between two or more tags within the set of tags. In some embodiments, the UI also includes a UI tool for receiving content or presenting the list of content items through a communications network. In various embodiments, the communications network may be a network of networks (e.g., the Internet), a private network, a public network, a wireless cellular network, etc.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by at least one processor causes a computing device to tag content, said computer program comprising:

a set of instructions for receiving specification of a tag chain from a user, said tag chain comprising a set of one or more tags that describe the content;

a set of instructions for associating the tag chain to the content;

a set of instructions for identifying the user that specified the tag chain, wherein different users are associated with different affinity scores;

a set of instructions for specifying a weight relating to the trustworthiness of the tag chain based on the identified user by calculating the weight at least partially based on an affinity score associated with the user, wherein only users with a particular affinity score above a threshold value are able to specify tag chains;

a set of instructions determining that the user'"'"'s affinity score is above the threshold value; and

a set of instructions for enabling the user to specify the tag chain based on the determination.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for allowing a particular user to search a sponsor for or to purchase one or more tags when the particular user'"'"'s affinity score is not above the threshold value.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the tag chain is specified using a tag collection, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for determining whether the user is able to add additional tags to the tag collection based on the user'"'"'s affinity score.