Presenting content related to current media consumption

• US 8,954,448 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2011
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Durham, Scott, Roberts, Paul William, Meaker, Scott K., Dantzler, Jim L., Anderson, Erin O., Moss, Randall E., Shepherd, Benjamin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US13/222,480
• Time in Patent Office: 1,259 Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for presenting content items that are related to media items that are currently being consumed by a user. A media item in a stream of media items being presented to a user is identified. A content item that is relevant to the media item is determined. An entry is added to the entries of a relevant content listing. The entry includes a link to the content item. The entries in the relevant content listing are chronologically correlated to the stream that is being presented to the user. The relevant content listing is updated in a user interface that is being presented to the user.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying at least one program executable in at least one computing device, the at least one program comprising:

code that maintains a plurality of files in a plurality of virtual file systems that are individually associated with a respective user, at least some of the plurality of files corresponding to a plurality of media files owned by the respective user;

code that sends at least two of the plurality of media files in one of the plurality of virtual file systems to a client associated with the respective user for playback in the client;

code that identifies a first performer associated with a current one of the plurality of media files being played in the client;

code that identifies a second performer based at least in part on the first performer and relationship data that describes a plurality of relationships among a plurality of performers;

code that identifies a current location of the respective user;

code that determines at least one content item that is relevant to the current one of the plurality of media files based at least in part on the second performer and the current location of the respective user, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a live event associated with the second performer at a location that is within a predefined radius of the current location of the respective user; and

code that sends at least one update to a relevant content listing rendered in the client in response to the current one of the plurality of media files playing in the client, the at least one update being configured to add at least one entry to the relevant content listing, the at least one entry including a link to the at least one content item, the at least one entry in the relevant content listing arranged in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of the plurality of media files from the one of the plurality of virtual file systems.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code that sends the at least one update is configured to delay sending the at least one update to ensure a minimum predefined time interval between updates to the relevant content listing.

3. A method, comprising:

identifying, in at least one computing device, a media item being played from a stream of media items being presented to a user;

accessing, in the at least one computing device, relationship data that describes a plurality of relationships among a plurality of performers;

identifying, in the at least one computing device, a first performer associated with the media item;

identifying, in the at least one computing device, a second performer having a relationship to the first performer based at least in part on the relationship data;

determining, in the at least one computing device, at least one content item that is relevant to the media item and is associated with the second performer;

adding, in the at least one computing device, at least one entry to a plurality of entries in a relevant content listing in response to the media item currently being played, the at least one entry including a link to the at least one content item, the plurality of entries in the relevant content listing being arranged in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of the stream of media items that is being presented to the user;

updating, in the at least one computing device, the relevant content listing in a user interface being presented to the user, wherein updating the relevant content listing is performed responsive to detecting, in the at least one computing device, that at least an interval of time has elapsed since the relevant content listing was previously updated; and

sending, in the at least one computing device, data implementing a media player user interface, the media player user interface being configured to render the relevant content listing in a first panel and a media file playlist in a second panel.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the interval of time is a variable interval of time.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining, in the at least one computing device, the interval of time according to at least one factor selected from a group consisting of:

an update frequency preference of the user and a media consumption history of the user.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to user-generated content.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to content generated by a publisher of the media item.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

identifying, in the at least one computing device, a current location of the user; and

wherein the at least one content item is determined based at least in part on the current location of the user.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one content item is determined based at least in part on a friend of the user in a social network.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein individual media items in the stream of media items are owned by the user and stored in a virtual file system associated with the user.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one media item in the stream of media items is owned by the user and stored in a local file system of a client computing device associated with the user.

12. The method of claim 3, further comprising generating, in the at least one computing device, the user interface, wherein the user interface further includes at least one component configured to control playback of the stream of media items.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one entry includes a thumbnail image related to the at least one content item.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a network page describing a live event of the second performer associated with the media item.

15. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device;

a networked storage system executable in the at least one computing device, the networked storage system comprising;

logic that maintains a plurality of files in a plurality of virtual file systems that are individually associated with a respective user, at least some of the plurality of files corresponding to a plurality of media files owned by the respective user; and

a media consumption interface executable in the at least one computing device, the media consumption interface comprising;

logic that sends at least two of the plurality of media files in one of the plurality of virtual file systems to a client associated with the respective user for playback in the client;

logic that identifies a current one of the plurality of media files being played in the client;

logic that determines at least one content item that is relevant to the current one of the plurality of media files;

logic that, in response to the current one of the plurality of media files playing in the client, sends an update to a relevant content listing rendered in the client, the update being configured to add at least one entry to the relevant content listing and being performed responsive to detecting that at least an interval of time has elapsed since the relevant content listing was previously updated, the at least one entry including a link to the at least one content item, the at least one entry in the relevant content listing being arranged in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of the plurality of media files from the one of the plurality of virtual file systems; and

logic that sends data implementing a media player user interface to the client, the media player user interface being configured to render the relevant content listing in a first panel and a media file playlist in a second panel.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item is determined based at least in part on a media consumption history of the respective user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the link corresponds to a network page having additional information regarding the at least one content item.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the logic that sends the update is configured to delay sending the update to ensure a minimum time interval between updates.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the media consumption interface further comprises logic that identifies a current location of the respective user, wherein the at least one content item is determined based at least in part on the current location of the user.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a news event regarding a performer associated with the current one of the plurality of media files.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a biography regarding a performer associated with the current one of the plurality of media files.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to user-generated content.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to content generated by a publisher of the current one of the plurality of media files.