Method and system for transferring content from the web to mobile devices

• US 8,417,772 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2011
• Issued: 04/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Daniel J., Hess, Christopher K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dennison, Jerry
• Assistant Examiner(s): COONEY, ADAM A
• Application Number:
  US13/207,234
• Publication Number:
  US 20110296315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 608 Days
• Field of Search: 709201-203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A web page architecture is provided for enabling a user browse a web page and identify items of multimedia media content that the user desires to deliver to his mobile device. The delivery mechanism to transmit such content on the user'"'"'s mobile device may be either through push messaging and communicating with a client application on the user'"'"'s mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for enabling delivery of content from web pages to a mobile device, the method comprising:

providing web-based code to a website that, when incorporated into the code of the website and activated by a user of a user terminal viewing the website, causes an address of a web page displayed on a web browser at the user terminal to be extracted from the web browser and sent as part of a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request;

receiving, from the user terminal, the HTTP request comprising the address of the web page displayed on the web browser;

redirecting the HTTP request to a host web page with an inline frame displaying the web page;

receiving an action taken by the user that indicates a request to deliver an item of content displayed on the web page to the mobile device; and

at least partially responsive to receiving the action, transmitting instructions to the mobile device to retrieve the item of content and store the item of content on the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting instructions comprises transmitting a push message to the mobile device to wake up the module to retrieve the item of content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the web-based code is based at least in part on ECMAScript.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting instructions comprises transmitting a message to the mobile device that includes an address of a location where the item of content is stored.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the web-based code, when incorporated into the code of a website, is activated by user selection of a link, button, or widget in the web page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the addresses of the web page is extracted from the web browser by script code on the user terminal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTTP request comprises an HTTP GET request.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting a user identifier from the HTTP request and associating the mobile device with the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the host web page comprises a receiving panel and the action taken by the user comprises interacting with the receiving panel and the inline frame.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes a proxy server to perform acts comprising:

providing code to a website that, when activated by a user viewing a web page of the website, causes a universal resource locator (URL) of the web page to be transmitted to the proxy server;

receiving the URL of the web page;

generating a web user interface comprising a receiving panel associated with an account of the user on the proxy server and an embedded web browser within a web page;

providing the web page of the website for display in the embedded web browser; and

receiving an action taken by the user that indicates a request to deliver an item of content displayed on the web page of the website in the embedded web browser to a mobile device associated, at the proxy server, with the account of the user.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the code is activated by user selection of a link, a button, or a widget on the web page.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the action comprises dragging the item of multimedia content from the web page in the embedded web browser into the receiving panel.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the acts further comprise:

prior to enabling delivery the item of content to the mobile device, accessing a profile of the website that indicates a fee structure for providing an item of content from the website; and

causing the user to be charged according to the fee structure for delivery of the item of content to the mobile device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the acts further comprise:

prior to enabling delivery of the item of content to the mobile device, accessing a profile of the website that indicates items of content from the website that are blocked from being copied to mobile devices; and

when the item of content is indicated in the profile as being blocked, preventing transfer of the item of content to the mobile device.

7. A server configured to enable a user to deliver content available from web pages to a mobile device, the server comprising:

a processor configured to provide web-based code to a website to enable the website to send a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request to the server, the request including an address of a web page that contains a content item which can be delivered to a user'"'"'s mobile device;

a filter configured to listen for and identify the HTTP request when received at the server; and

a proxy service configured to redirect the HTTP request to a web server that hosts the web page and receive a response from the web server;

wherein the processor is further configured to;

present a web browser user interface that includes an embedded web browser displaying the web page received by the proxy service from the web server;

receive an action taken by the user in the web browser user interface that indicates a request to deliver the content item from the web page to the mobile device; and

transmit instructions to the mobile device to retrieve the content item from the server.

16. The server of claim 7, wherein the web-based code comprises script code configured for execution by a web browser on a terminal accessed by the user.

17. The server of claim 7, wherein the proxy service is further configured to serve a Document Object Model (DOM) of the web page that includes source code for the content item in the web page.

18. The server of claim 7, wherein the web browser user interface additionally includes a receiving panel and the action taken by the user comprises identifying the content item based at least in part on an interaction with the content item in the embedded web browser and with the receiving panel.

19. The server of claim 18, wherein the interaction comprises dragging the content item from the embedded web browser to the receiving panel.

20. The server of claim 7, wherein the embedded web browser is presented in an inline frame of the web browser user interface.