Focused listening and advertising guide system and method

• US 8,782,135 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Radioflag, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Radioflag, Inc.
• Inventors: Roman, Anthony, Zajac, Rafal, Bibayoff, David, Moon, Joshua
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ma, Wing
• Application Number:
  US13/077,832
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 705/319
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A method for providing an online social network of radio listeners, the method comprising the steps of providing a database of radio stations; providing a flagging function to allow the users to generate flags to indicate one or more radio stations; providing a flag-cast comprising a continuously updated feed of the flags generated by the users; providing a profile database storing user data associated with each of the users; providing a communications interface allowing the users to communicate user information to the social network provider; providing a monitoring module to track user activities on the social network; providing an activity database to store activity data about the users; providing a flag database to store flag data related to the flags generated by the users; and providing a flag-cast component that limits the flags displayed in the flag-cast by identifying selected flags.

Claims

1. A method for providing an online social network of radio listeners for a plurality of users, the method comprising the steps of a social network provider:

(a) providing a database of radio stations, the database of radio stations storing radio station data of one or more radio stations, the radio station data including a call sign, a frequency, a band, a stream location, and a geographic location;

(b) providing a flagging function, the flagging function allowing each of the plurality of users to generate one or more flags to indicate one or more of the radio stations, delete one or more of the flags, and edit one or more of the flags, the flags including radio station information, a message about radio station content, and metadata about the radio station, the metadata including a tag, a geo-location, event information, and a URL, wherein the flag generated by one of the plurality of users is distributed to at least another of the plurality of users based on user data;

(c) providing a flag-cast, the flag-cast comprising a continuously updated feed of the flags generated by the plurality of users, wherein the flag-cast is filtered and distributed based on user data;

(d) providing a profile database, the profile database storing the user data associated with each of the plurality of users, the user data including one or more radio station preferences, one or more topics of interest, user contact information, and user personal statistics;

(e) providing a communications interface, the communications interface allowing each of the plurality of users to communicate user information to the social network provider, the user information including a profile setting, the user data stored by the profile database, and a listing of other users;

(f) providing a monitoring module, the monitoring module tracking one or more user activities on the social network, the user activities including interacting with another user, interacting with a radio station, and generating a flag, the monitoring module tracking one or more of the radio stations;

(g) for each of the plurality of users, the monitoring module determining a radio station affinity, an affinity for another user, and a topic of interest affinity;

(h) providing an activity database, the activity database storing activity data about each of the plurality of users, the activity data including the user activities and, for each of the user activities, a timestamp indicating a time and date of the user activity, an activity type identifier, an indicator whether the user initiated the user activity, and a list of other users associated with the user activity;

(i) providing a flag database, the flag database storing flag data related to the flags generated by each of the plurality of users, the flag data including a timestamp indicating a time and date of the flag, an indicator whether the user initiated the flag, the geographic location of the flag, a tag associated with the flag, and a radio station related to the flag;

(j) sharing the flag and the flag data of one or more of the plurality of users with a third-party social networking platform;

(k) providing a trending component, the trending component extracting the activity data from the activity database and calculating one or more trends from the activity data;

(l) providing a flag-cast component, the flag-cast component limiting the flags displayed in the flag-cast by the flag-cast component identifying selected flags, the selected flags being a segment of the flags having the most recent timestamps;

(m) providing a semantics search component, the semantics search component allowing each of the plurality of users to search for a flag-cast based on one or more semantic details of the flag data, the semantics search component using natural language processing; and

(n) matching an advertisement to one or more of the plurality of users based on the user data and the user activities and presenting the advertisement to the matched users.

2. The method of claim 1, the selected flags being a segment of the flags corresponding to a user interest, thus defining an interests flag-cast.

3. The method of claim 1, the selected flags being a segment of the flags corresponding to a favorite radio station, thus defining a stations flag-cast.

4. The method of claim 1, the selected flags being a segment of the flags corresponding to a favorite listeners group, thus defining a listeners flag-cast.