Smart button

• US 9,367,850 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2008
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Achlioptas, Dimitris
• Primary Examiner(s): Christensen, Scott B
• Application Number:
  US12/347,237
• Publication Number:
  US 20090112785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,722 Days
• Field of Search: 707/999.003, 709/229, 709/248
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention provides for systems and methods that facilitate conveying user information between and among users effectively to thereby create a collaborative filtering environment with maintained user privacy. More specifically, the present invention allows user-profile building to occur coincident with user-browsing, for example. This can be accomplished in part by incorporating an input component on the user interface used for browsing and/or searching. A user who has opted-in to construct a personal profile makes declarations regarding his relationship with at least a portion of the information being currently viewed. The declarations are annotated to the user'"'"'s profile. At the user'"'"'s discretion, the user'"'"'s profile can be disseminated to others in whole or in part such that other people can make use of the user'"'"'s expertise, experience or opinions. In addition, the user profiles can be machine-readable and searchable.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system that facilitates populating a sharable user profile, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory, accessible by the one or more processors;

an input component stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors that displays a selectable user-interface button having at least one opinion or declaration; and

one or more components stored in the memory and including computer-executable instructions that when executed on the one or more processors perform operations comprising;

providing a first user interface including first content and the user-interface button;

performing an analysis of at least a portion of the first content to determine a first group of one or more words, letters, symbols, or a combination thereof, to display on the user interface button and to determine a first opinion or declaration corresponding to the first group, the first opinion or declaration indicating a first relationship of a user with the at least a portion of the first content;

storing the first opinion or declaration in a profile of the user based at least partly on selection of the user interface button in the first user interface;

providing a second user interface including second content and the user-interface button, the second content being different from the first content;

performing an analysis of at least a portion of the second content to determine a second group of one or more words, letters, symbols, or a combination thereof, to display on the user interface button and to determine a second opinion or declaration corresponding to the second group, the second opinion or declaration being different from the first opinion or declaration and the second opinion or declaration indicating a second relationship of the user with the at least a portion of the second content;

storing the second opinion or declaration in the profile of the user based at least partly on selection of the user interface button in the second user interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

analyzing the at least a portion of the first content to extract first semantic components from the first user interface; and

analyzing the at least a portion of the second content to extract second semantic components from the second user interface, wherein the first opinion or declaration is based at least partly on the first semantic components and the second opinion or declaration is based at least partly on the second semantic components.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least a portion of the first content and the at least a portion of the second content comprises one or more of a web page, a video, or music.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise searching profiles of additional users to locate an additional user having a profile including an aspect similar to an aspect of the profile of the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile of the user is associated with an internet social network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein aspects of the profile of the user are sharable with other users of the internet social network and at least a subset of shared aspects of the profile of the user dynamically reflect updates to the profile of the user related to one or more selections of the user-interface button by the user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the subset of shared aspects at least in part communicate to the other users of the internet social network one or more opinions or declarations by the user based at least in part on the one or more selections of the user interface button.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more of web content, video, or music related to the one or more opinions or declarations by the user are accessible to the other users of the internet social network.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise facilitating formation of the first opinion or declaration for selection by the user reflecting a relationship between a current computer-based interaction and the user, wherein the inference component comprises one or more of a support vector machine (SVM), a naive Bayes model, a Bayesian network, a decision tree, a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), a neural network, or a data fusion engine.

10. A computer-implemented method that facilitates populating a sharable user profile, the method comprising:

analyzing first amounts of time spent by a user on web pages on which the user has previously made declarations or opinions;

providing a web page for display on a computer system;

determining a second amount of time spent by the user on the web page;

inferring a declaration or opinion about the web page based, at least in part, on analyzing the first amounts of time and on the second amount of time; and

populating a profile of the user, the profile of the user indicating the declaration or opinion about the web page.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing an additional web page for display on the computer system; and

providing a user interface button in the additional web page, the user interface button indicating an additional declaration or opinion corresponding to content of the additional web page.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining the additional opinion or declaration based at least in part on analyzing content of the additional web page.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the user-interface button in the additional web page is related to a desire of the user to share the one or more of the webpage, visual content, or audio content with other disparate users.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user can share at least a portion of the profile of the user.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the user can share access to one or more of web content, visual media, or audible media, with other users of an internet social network.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional declaration or opinion is expressed as a group of one or more words, letters, symbols, or a combination thereof, on the user interface button.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising modifying the user interface button to express another declaration or opinion using a different group of one or more words, letters, symbols, or a combination thereof, based at least in part on content of another web page accessed by the user.

18. A computer-implemented method that facilitates conveying information in an internet social networking environment about a user to other users, the method comprising:

determining a number of opinions or declarations regarding a web page;

analyzing content of the web page to narrow the number of opinions or declarations regarding the web page to identify an opinion or declaration corresponding to a portion of the web page;

displaying the opinion or declaration regarding the portion of the web page for selection on the web page; and

populating a user profile associated with the social networking environment based, at least in part, on a selection by the user of the opinion or declaration regarding the portion of the web page, the opinion or declaration indicating a relationship of the user with the portion of the web page.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising facilitating sharing of one or more of web pages, web content, videos, or music between the user and other users of the internet social networking environment through the populating of the user profile.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the opinion or declaration regarding the portion of the web page is displayed on a user selectable user interface component that includes a user interface button effecting sharing of the opinion or declaration by the user by way of the user profile upon selection of the user interface button.