Method and apparatus for selectively sharing and passively tracking communication device experiences
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of sharing computer user experiences, including:
- communicating with a registration server to register a user, for automatic client-side collection of computer usage experiences for future sharing, wherein the computer usage experiences include one or more of browsing URLs or visiting a location with a location-aware device that records the visited location;
accessing one or more of the user'"'"'s messaging buddy lists and selecting one or more buddies with whom to share the automatically collected computer usage experiences;
defining categories of computer usage experiences to be shared with particular selected buddies;
tracking automatically on the client-side at least a portion of the user'"'"'s computer usage experiences and reporting the user'"'"'s computer usage experiences to a tracking server to be published to the particular buddies in accordance with their defined categories of sharing.
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Abstract
The present invention includes methods and devices for passively tracking and selectively sharing user experiences with communication devices, including computers, web-enabled telephones, and PDAs. User rating or comments on their experiences can be captured. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
34 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A method of sharing computer user experiences, including:
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communicating with a registration server to register a user, for automatic client-side collection of computer usage experiences for future sharing, wherein the computer usage experiences include one or more of browsing URLs or visiting a location with a location-aware device that records the visited location; accessing one or more of the user'"'"'s messaging buddy lists and selecting one or more buddies with whom to share the automatically collected computer usage experiences; defining categories of computer usage experiences to be shared with particular selected buddies; tracking automatically on the client-side at least a portion of the user'"'"'s computer usage experiences and reporting the user'"'"'s computer usage experiences to a tracking server to be published to the particular buddies in accordance with their defined categories of sharing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of sharing Internet browsing experiences, including:
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tracking automatically with a client-side application at least a portion of a user'"'"'s Internet usage and reporting the tracking data to a server; categorizing at least a portion of the reported tracking data by content category; presenting to the user a history of the reported tracking data, with tools for searching and forwarding the tracking data; receiving from the user data identifying of one or more persons on the user'"'"'s buddy lists and authorizing the persons to receive tracking data; responsive to a user request, sending one or more entries from the history of the reported tracking data to the authorized persons.
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32. A method of sharing computer user experiences, including:
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registering a user with a registration server to collect and share visited location data using a client-side application collected while visiting a location with a location-aware device that records the visited location; accessing one or more of the user'"'"'s messaging buddy lists to identify one or more buddies with whom the tracking data may be shared; defining rights of the buddies to access the visited location data; posting at least a portion of the user'"'"'s visited location data for the buddies to access according to their defined rights.
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33. A method of operation of a tracking server to share Internet browsing experiences, comprising the following computer-implemented steps:
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receiving, by the tracking server, tracking data from a client-side application of a user to automatically track at least a portion of the user'"'"'s Internet usage; categorizing at least a portion of the tracking data by content category; receiving data identifying one or more persons on one or more buddy lists of the user authorized by the user to receive the tracking data; receiving a user request to share one or more entries from a history of the tracking data; and sending information indicating the one or more entries from the history of the tracking data to the one or more persons authorized to receive the tracking data.
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34. A method of operation of a client-side application of a user to share Internet browsing experiences, including:
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tracking automatically with the client-side application at least a portion of the user'"'"'s Internet usage to provide tracking data; reporting the tracking data to a server so that at least a portion of the tracking data is categorized by content category; enabling viewing of a history of the tracking data; enabling selection of one or more persons on one or more buddy lists of the user to authorize to receive the tracking data; and enabling selection of one or more entries from the history of the tracking data to be shared such that information indicating the one or more entries from the history of the tracking data are shared with the one or more persons authorized to receive the tracking data.
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35. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a server to:
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receive tracking data from a client-side application operating on a user device of a user, the tracking data comprising information indicating at least a portion of the user'"'"'s Internet usage automatically tracked by the client-side application; categorize at least a portion of the tracking data by content category; present to the user a history of the tracking data; receive data identifying one or more persons and authorizing the one or more persons to receive the tracking data; receive a user request to share one or more entries from the history of the tracking data; and send the one or more entries from the history of the tracking data to the one or more persons authorized to receive the tracking data.
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36. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a user device of a user to:
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track automatically with a client-side application at least a portion of the user'"'"'s Internet usage to provide tracking data; report the tracking data to a server; enable the user to view a history of the tracking data; enable the user to select one or more persons on one or more buddy lists of the user to authorize to receive the tracking data; and enable the user to select one or more entries from the history of the tracking data to be shared such that the one or more entries from the history of the tracking data are capable of being shared with the one or more persons authorized to receive the tracking data.
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Specification