System and method of creating and rating items for social interactions

• US 8,489,621 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bond, Robert W., Jaffe, Stephen E., Loring, Keith P., McCulloch, Douglas J., Richards, Patrick J. Jr., Trevathan, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): PENG, HUAWEN A
• Application Number:
  US13/418,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20120246571A1
• Time in Patent Office: 490 Days
• Field of Search: 707/752, 707/748
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system and method for providing items to users and, more particularly, a system and method for rating items and placing such items into a queued list. The method includes providing an item from a web browser to a recipient on a preferred list and placing the item into a queued list with respect to other items based on a rating. The system includes a computer infrastructure being operable to provide a rated item from a web browser to a recipient on a preferred list and place the rated item in a queued list with respect to other items.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

displaying in a web browser of a computing device having a processor a plurality of items of interest to a user;

selecting at least one item of interest from the plurality of items of interest to be sent to a device of at least one recipient, wherein the recipient is a contact in an preferred list of contacts of the user;

providing a rating to the at least one item of interest to create at least one rated item of interest;

sending the at least one rated item of interest from the web browser to at least one recipient in order to share the at least one rated item of interest with the recipient, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is sent upon activation of a mechanism, which links a URL of the at least one rated item of interest, and the at least one rated item of interest being one of a link from a browser page or a link to the browser page; and

placing the at least one rated item of interest into a queued list on a display of the device of the at least one recipient with respect to existing items already on the display and based on the rating, which is provided by the user of the at least one rated item of interest,

wherein the placing of the at least one rated item of interest into the queued list comprises;

comparing the at least one rated item of interest to the existing items already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of;

the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing items, and the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing items;

when the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing items, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the at least one item of interest is determined as different from the existing items, resorting the queued list to include the at least one rated item based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the at least one recipient and the rating of the at least one rated item; and

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the at least one rated item was sent to the at least one recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a mechanism on the web browser which, when activated, copies a link of a browser page or link on the browser page.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a window that allows the user to provide the rating of the at least one item of interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the queued list is provided with a value next to the at least one rated item of interest in the queued list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the queued list is provided with a name of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are provided by a service provider.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the service provider at least one of creates, maintains and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are provided on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing information associated with the at least one rated item of interest in a database.

10. A computer system for rating items and providing such items into a queued list, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to display in a web browser a plurality of items of interest to a user;

second program instructions to select at least one item of interest from the plurality of items of interest to be sent to a device of at least one recipient, wherein the recipient is a contact in an preferred list of contacts of the user;

third program instructions to provide a rating to the at least one item of interest to create at least one rated item of interest;

fourth program instructions to send the at least one rated item of interest from the web browser to at least one recipient in order to share the at least one rated item of interest with the recipient, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is sent upon activation of a mechanism, which links a URL of the at least one rated item of interest, and the at least one rated item of interest being one of a link from a browser page or a link to the browser page; and

fifth program instructions to place the at least one rated item of interest into the queued list on a display of the device of the at least one recipient with respect to existing items already on the display and based on the rating, which is provided by the user of the at least one rated item of interest,

wherein the placing of the at least one rated item of interest into the queued list comprises;

comparing the at least one rated item of interest to the existing items already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of;

the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing items, and the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing items;

when the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing items, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the at least one item of interest is determined as different from the existing items, resorting the queued list to include the at least one rated item based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the at least one recipient and the rating of the at least one rated item;

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the at least one rated item was sent to the at least one recipient; and

the first-fifth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage memory having readable program code embodied in the storage memory, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

search a page of a web browser on a computing device of a user for links and place an icon near each link, the icon being actionable to copy each corresponding link;

copy a link of an item of interest from the page of the web browser;

provide a rating for the item of interest on the computing device of the user;

send the copied link and the rating for the item of interest from the web browser of the computing device of the user to a contact'"'"'s computing device or a group of contacts'"'"' computing devices, wherein the contact or the group of contacts are from a preferred list of contacts of the user; and

place the link of the rated item of interest onto a queued list of the contact'"'"'s computing device or each of the group of contacts'"'"' computing devices based on the rating with respect to existing links of items of interest already displayed on the queued list,

wherein;

the placing of the link of the at least one rated item of interest onto the queued list comprises;

comparing the link of the at least one rated item of interest to the existing links of items of interest already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of;

the link of the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing links of items of interest, and the link of the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing links of items of interest;

when the link of the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing links of items of interest, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the link of the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the link of the at least one rated item of interest is determined as different from the existing links of items of interest, resorting the queued list to include the link of the at least one rated item of interest based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the contact or the group of contacts and the rating of the item of interest;

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the link of the at least one rated item of interest was sent to the at least one recipient; and

a link of a higher rated item is placed higher on the queued list than a link of a lower rated item.