Programmable, interactive content viewing on a mobile video application

• US 8,826,342 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: LaRosa, Christopher, Ciurdar, Horia, Doronichev, Andrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Chenea
• Application Number:
  US13/349,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

Promotional content provided by content providers is distributed to mobile devices to be displayed with designated videos on mobile devices. The promotional content is received from a content provider, e.g., via an API and associated with a video, group of videos or channel available from a video hosting server. The promotional content meets certain specifications set by the video hosting server. A mobile device requests promotional content for a selected video and the video hosting server provides any available promotional content to the mobile device. The promotional content is displayed with the selected video as designated by the content provider. Activation of the promotional content in some embodiments results in an action being invoked on the mobile device, such as loading of a uniform resource identifier. In some cases, the promotional content is cached by the mobile device for later use.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing promotional content to a mobile device, the method comprising:

storing, by a video hosting server, a video claimed by a content provider;

storing, by the video hosting server, a promotional content item provided by the content provider;

responsive to a user requesting the video from a mobile device, receiving, by the video hosting server from the mobile device, a request for video information associated with the video;

providing, by the video hosting server to the mobile device, video information indicating whether a content provider has claimed ownership of the video, the mobile device determining to display promotional content with the video based on the video information indicating that a content provider has claimed ownership of the video;

responsive to the mobile device determining to display promotional content, receiving, by the video hosting server, a request for an item of promotional content;

providing, by the video hosting server, a promotional content item to the mobile device; and

providing, by the video hosting server, the video to the mobile device, the promotional content item displayed on the mobile device with the video.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item is provided to the mobile device responsive to the mobile device being authenticated as an authorized client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a request for video information from the mobile device further comprises receiving a request for promotional content associated with the video from the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item includes a mobile device instruction, the mobile device instruction when executed causing the mobile device to invoke an operating system level function that launches a mobile application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item is a branded image or video.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item is provided to the mobile device responsive to the video hosting server authenticating the mobile device and the request for an item of promotional content being signed with a device-specific key.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein authenticating the mobile device comprises:

receiving, from the mobile device, a mobile device identification;

generating the device-specific key based on the mobile device identification; and

providing the device-specific key to the mobile device.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item is received by the video hosting server from the content provider through an application programming interface.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotional content item is displayed with all videos hosted by the video hosting server that have been claimed by the content provider.

6. A computer system for providing promotional content to a mobile device, the system comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for:

storing, by a video hosting server, a video claimed by a content provider;

storing, by the video hosting server, a promotional content item provided by the content provider;

responsive to a user requesting the video from a mobile device, receiving, by the video hosting server from the mobile device, a request for video information associated with the video;

providing, by the video hosting server to the mobile device, video information indicating whether a content provider has claimed ownership of the video, the mobile device determining to display promotional content with the video based on the video information indicating that a content provider has claimed ownership of the video;

responsive to the mobile device determining to display promotional content, receiving, by the video hosting server, a request for an item of promotional content;

providing, by the video hosting server, a promotional content item to the mobile device; and

providing, by the video hosting server, the video to the mobile device, the promotional content item displayed on the mobile device with the video.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the promotional content item is provided to the mobile device responsive to the mobile device being authenticated as an authorized client.

8. The computer system of claim 6, wherein receiving a request for video information from the mobile device further comprises receiving a request for promotional content associated with the video from the mobile device.

9. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the promotional content item includes a mobile device instruction, the mobile device instruction when executed causing the mobile device to invoke an operating system level function that launches a mobile application.

10. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the promotional content item is a branded image or video.

11. A computer-implemented method for receiving promotional content at a mobile device, the method comprising:

authenticating a mobile device with a video hosting server;

receiving, by the mobile device, a request from a user for a video, the video stored at the video hosting server;

requesting, by the mobile device from the video hosting server, video information associated with the video;

receiving, by the mobile device from the video hosting server, video information indicating whether a content provider has claimed ownership of the video;

determining, by the mobile device, to display promotional content with the video responsive to the video information indicating that a content provider has claimed ownership of the video;

responsive to determining to display promotional content with the video, requesting, by the mobile device from the video hosting server, an item of promotional content;

receiving, by the mobile device, a promotional content item; and

displaying, by the mobile device, the received promotional content item with the video, the video received from the video hosting server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein authenticating comprises submitting an encrypted key to the video hosting server.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

caching the received promotional content item.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

responsive to determining to display promotional content with the video, determining whether the promotional content item has been previously cached; and

responsive a determination that the promotional content item has been previously cached, displaying the cached promotional content item.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the promotional content item includes a mobile device instruction, the mobile device instruction when executed causing the mobile device to invoke an operating system level function that launches a mobile application.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the promotional content item includes a mobile device instruction comprising a uniform resource locator (URL) to be opened in a web browser on the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the promotional content item is a branded image or video.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein authenticating with the video hosting server comprises:

providing a mobile device identification to the video hosting server; and

receiving, from the video hosting server, a device-specific key generated based on the mobile device identification, every request transmitted to the video hosting server signed with the device-specific key generated.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein the promotional content item is provided by the content provider to the video hosting server through an application programming interface.