Method and system for providing preference based content to a location aware mobile device

• US 9,743,230 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: New York Times Company
• Original Assignee: New York Times Company
• Inventors: Young, Michael Alan, Bilton, Nick
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tu
• Application Number:
  US14/317,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20140308979A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information

Abstract

A system and method in accordance with exemplary embodiments may include receiving a message from a location-aware mobile device associated with a user, receiving content delivery information from the user, formulating a content package at least based on the content delivery information, and sending a content message associated with the content package to the location-aware mobile device via a network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, at a computer system, a location-aware mobile device being within a detectable proximity of the computer system;

receiving, from a user associated with the location-aware mobile device, a selection of content;

formulating a content package that comprises a summarized version of the selected content, wherein the summarized version of the selected content has a size and the formulating step comprises using a commute time and a reading speed associated with the user to set the size of the summarized version of the selected content;

detecting, by the computer system, whether the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system;

the computer system making a decision as to whether or not to send a content message to the location-aware mobile device, wherein the decision is based on whether or not the computer system has detected that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system; and

the computer system initiating the sending of the content message to the location-aware mobile device in response to the computer system deciding to send the content message to the location-aware mobile device, wherein

the content message comprises a hyperlink for accessing the content package, and

the computer system is configured to such that the computer system decides to send the content message to the location-aware mobile device in response to and as a result of the computer system detecting that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user profile information associated with the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein user profile information includes at least one of:

an electronic mail address, a first name, a last name, a telephone number, and a carrier name.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of formulating the content package comprises summarizing the selected content.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein

the selected content comprises a news feed associated with a news article,

the step of summarizing the selected content comprises extracting the headline of the news article, and

the step of formulating the content package comprises including the extracted headline in the content package but excluding the body of the article from the content package.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computer system, in response to detecting the location-aware mobile device being within the detectable proximity of the computer system, launching a web browser and causing the browser to display a web page associated with a full version of information provided in the content package that has been designated for full version review by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is selected from one or more search results for one or more content items of interest based on user input.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected content comprises a plurality of articles, and wherein the summarized version of the selected content comprises only headlines of the articles or only abstract summaries of the articles.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the content message includes at least one of:

a text message, an electronic mail message, and an instant message.

10. A system, comprising:

a database having data for display; and

a network-enabled computer system configured to;

detect a location-aware mobile device being within a detectable proximity of the computer system;

receive, from a user associated with the location-aware mobile device, a selection of content from among the data in the database, the selected content matching an interest of the user;

formulate a content package that comprises a summarized version of the selected content, wherein the summarized version of the selected content has a size and the computer system is configured to formulate the content package by using a commute time and a reading speed associated with the user to set the size of the summarized version of the selected content;

detect that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system;

in response to and as a result of detecting that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system, make a decision to send a content message to the location-aware mobile device;

in response to and as a result of detecting that the location-aware mobile device is still within the detectable proximity of the computer system, make a decision to refrain from sending the content message to the location-aware mobile device;

initiate the sending of the content message to the location-aware mobile device in response to and as a result of the computer system making the decision to send the content message to the location-aware mobile device, wherein

the content message comprises a hyperlink for accessing the content package.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the location-aware mobile device is one of:

a cellular telephone, a portable computer, a watch, a gaming device, a personal media player, a portable television, a Global Positioning System navigation device, and a personal digital assistant.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the database stores user profile information.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer system is configured to search the database for a data portion that matches the interest of the user, wherein the content is selected from the data portion.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the network-enabled computer system is further configured, such that, in response to detecting the location-aware mobile device being within the detectable proximity of the network enabled computer system, the network enabled computer system launches a web browser and causes the browser to display a web page associated with a full version of information provided in the content package that has been designated for full version review by the user.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-accessible medium encoded with computer program code that, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to:

detect a location-aware mobile device being within a detectable proximity of the computer system;

summarize content selected by a user using a commute time and a reading speed associated with the user;

detect that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system;

in response to and as a result of detecting that the location-aware mobile device is no longer within the detectable proximity of the computer system, make a decision to send a content message to the location-aware mobile device;

initiate the sending of the content message to the location-aware mobile device in response to and as a result of the computer system making the decision to send the content message to the location-aware mobile device, wherein

the content message comprises a hyperlink for accessing the summarized content.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer program code is configured to cause the computer system to, in response to detecting the location-aware mobile device being within the detectable proximity of the network-enabled computer system, launch a web browser and cause the browser to display a web page associated with a full version of information provided in the content package that has been designated for full version review by the user.