Presenting content related to current media consumption

• US 9,170,712 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2014
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• 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, Brandon Scott, Roberts, Paul William, Meaker, Scott K., Dantzler, Jim L., Moss, Randall E., Anderson, Erin O., Shepherd, Benjamin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rostami, Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US14/577,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20150106717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 312 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 client 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 arranged in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of a plurality of media files. 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 identifies a first performer associated with a current media file being played in a 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 determines at least one content item that is relevant to the current media file based at least in part on the second performer;

code that sends at least one update to a relevant content listing rendered in the client in response to the current media file 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;

code that arranges the at least one entry in the relevant content listing in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of a plurality of media files; and

code 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.

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 via a client;

determining, in the at least one computing device, at least one content item that is relevant to the media item;

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 plurality of entries correlate to a sequence of the stream of media items that is being presented via the client; and

updating, in the at least one computing device, the relevant content listing in a user interface being presented via the client responsive to detecting that at least an interval of time has elapsed since the relevant content listing was previously updated, wherein the user interface is 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 3, 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 a user and a media consumption history of the user.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the at least one content item that is relevant to the media item further comprises:

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; and

determining, in the at least one computing device, the at least one content item that is associated with the second performer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a news event associated with the second performer.

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

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the at least one content item that is relevant to the media item comprises identifying metadata associated the at least one content item that is similar to metadata associated with the media item.

16. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device;

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

logic that identifies a current media file being played in a client;

logic that determines at least one content item that is relevant to the current media file;

logic that, in response to the current media file 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; and

logic that arranges the at least one entry in the relevant content listing in a time-based sequence such that the at least one entry correlates to a sequence of playback in the client of a plurality of media files.

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

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a biography regarding a performer associated with the current media file.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one content item corresponds to a live event associated with the current media file at a location that is within a predefined radius of a current location of a respective user.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the media consumption interface further comprises logic that identifies a current location of a respective user, wherein the at least one content item is determined based at least in part on the current location of the respective user.