Automated participants for hosted conversations

• US 8,996,635 B1
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Byttow, David Mark, Prasetya, Marcel Adi, Osinga, Douwe M
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US13/938,927
• Time in Patent Office: 629 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

A server system stores a hosted conversation having a special-purpose automated participant and a standard participant. The server system receives a request to modify the conversation from a first participant, determines a set of edits that update the conversation to an updated state in accordance with the request to modify the conversation; and sends, the set of edits to a second participant. When the first participant is a standard participant: the request includes an indication of preliminary edits; the conversation is updated in accordance with the preliminary edits; and the set of edits include concurrency-resolved edits. When the first participant is a special-purpose automated participant: the request includes an operation to be performed on the conversation; the operation is performed on the conversation at the server system; and the set of edits updates the conversation, in accordance with the operation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

creating, with one or more processors, a conversation between participants, the participants including at least one automated participant that performs at least one predefined operation in response to detected predefined trigger criteria and at least two standard participants that respond dynamically to changes in the conversation;

modifying, with the one or more processors, the conversation in response to receiving edits from the participants, the edits including concurrency-resolved edits that transform the conversation to an updated state;

generating, with the one or more processors, a display of the conversation including content from a third-party webservice;

identifying, with the one or more processors, a change in content at the third-party webservice;

determining, with the one or more processors, whether the change in content at the third-party webservice meets predefined conversation update criteria for the conversation;

responsive to the change in content meeting predefined conversation update criteria, determining a set of one or more operations to update the conversation in accordance with the change in content at the third-party webservice; and

updating the conversation.

2. A computer-implemented method comprising:

creating, with one or more processors, a conversation;

generating, with the one or more processors, a display of the conversation including content from a third-party webservice;

identifying, with the one or more processors, a change in content at the third-party webservice;

determining, with the one or more processors, whether the change in content at the third-party webservice meets predefined conversation update criteria for the conversation;

responsive to the change in content meeting predefined conversation update criteria, determining a set of one or more operations to update the conversation in accordance with the change in content at the third-party webservice; and

updating the conversation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the change in content at the third-party webservice further comprises receiving a communication from the third-party webservice indicating that content has been added to the webservice.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the change in content at the third-party webservice further comprises periodically reviewing the content at the third-party webservice to determine if the change in content has occurred.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising responsive to the change in content failing to meet predefined conversation update criteria, waiting until another change is identified in the content at the third-party webservice.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein updating the conversation includes adding content to the conversation from the third-party webservice.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein updating the conversation includes deleting content from the conversation from the third-party webservice.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the third-party website is a media sharing application and the content from the third-party webservice is a comment on media from the media sharing application.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving a request to perform an operation on the conversation using a first identifier that uniquely identifies one of the participants as a first user of the third-party webservice.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the participants is a member of the third-party webservice and further comprising requesting a profile from the member of the third-party webservice.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the participants is a special-purpose automated participant that acts as a proxy for a first member of the third-party webservice.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the special-purpose automated participant acts as the proxy for a second member of the third-party webservice.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first member and the second member are associated with different permissions.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium and one or more computer programs embedded therein, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:

create a conversation;

generate a display of the conversation including content from a third-party webservice;

identify a change in content at the third-party webservice;

determine whether the change in content at the third-party webservice meets predefined conversation update criteria for the conversation;

responsive to the change in content meeting predefined conversation update criteria, determine a set of one or more operations to update the conversation in accordance with the change in content at the third-party webservice; and

update the conversation.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein identifying the change in content at the third-party webservice further comprises receiving a communication from the third-party webservice indicating that content has been added to the webservice.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to responsive to the change in content failing to meet predefined conversation update criteria, waiting until another change is identified in the content at the third-party webservice.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein updating the conversation includes adding content to the conversation from the third-party webservice.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein updating the conversation includes deleting content from the conversation from the third-party webservice.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the third-party website is a media sharing application and the content from the third-party webservice is a comment on media from the media sharing application.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to receive a request to perform an operation on the conversation using a first identifier that uniquely identifies one of the participants as a first user of the third-party webservice.