Dynamic service presentation

• US 20030222897A1
• Filed: 06/03/2002
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Jason Fergus, De Vorchik, David George
• Granted Patent: US 7,856,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A method is provided for exchanging an organizational scheme, such as a tag-based structural framework, that can be applied to data describing and containing information relating to Web service providers to facilitate creating, updating, and interpreting the data so that Web service providers are suitably presented to a user, depending on the user'"'"'s country, language, locale, and the availability of Web service providers.

Claims

1. In an operating system for execution on a computer system, an interactive help utility for providing a collection of service providers on the display to a user so that the user may select a service provider, the interactive help utility comprising:

a text box displaying instructions for the user to select a service provider;

a set of navigation facilities; and

a window displaying a collection of service providers, at least one service provider being dynamically retrievable from a remote resource based on the the at least one of the language, country, and locale established by the operating system.

2. The interactive help utility of claim 1, wherein a service provider from the collection of service providers provides the ability to order prints of pictures.

3. The interactive help utility of claim 1, wherein a service provider from the collection of service providers provides the ability to publish a file to a Web site.

4. The interactive help utility of claim 1, wherein a service provider from the collection of service providers provides the ability to create a shortcut to shared folders or resources on a network, a Web site, or a server.

5. The interactive help utility of claim 1, wherein at least one:

a logo, a word mark, and an advertisement copy is displayed for each of said collection of service providers.

6. In an operating system for execution on a computer system, a method for exchanging information to obtain a collection of service providers for a utility to show the collection of service providers to a user so that the user may select a service provider, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from the user that the utility is invoked;

receiving an indication from the user that a file having content that is suitable for processing by a service provider is selected; and

dynamically retrieving from a remote resource a collection of service providers, at least one service provider in the collection of service providers being presentable based on the at least one of the language, country, and locale established by the operating system.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising displaying for each of said collection of service provider at least one of a logo of the service provider, a word mark of the service provider, and an advertisement copy of the service provider.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving an indication from the user that a service provider is selected, the service provider that is selected being defined as a selected service provider.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising communicating with the selected service provider to obtain a user interface of the service provider with which the user interacts to use the selected service provider to process the file.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein dynamically retrieving includes retrieving a previously stored service provider in a central hierarchical database of the operating system, the central hierarchical database being used to store information to configure the operating system for one or more users, applications, and hardware devices.

11. In an operating system for execution on a computer system, a method for exchanging information to obtain a collection of service providers for a utility to show the collection of service providers to a user so that the user may select a service provider, the method comprising:

issuing, by the utility to a resource located on a network, a request for a customizable, tag-based data structure that describes the collection of service providers, the request including an identification of a geographic region determined by the operating system;

receiving, by the resource, the request for the data structure that describes the collection of service providers, and in response, the resource parsing the request to retrieve the identification of the geographic region determined by the operating system; and

issuing, by the resource to the utility, the data structure that describes the collection of service providers on the basis of the geographic region determined by the operating system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein issuing includes issuing, by the utility to the resource located on the wide area network, the request for the data structure by specifying a protocol to be used to access the resource;

a name of a server on which the resource is located; and

optionally, a path to the resource on the server.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein prior to issuing, by the utility to the resource located on the wide area network, the request for the data structure, the method further comprises getting the identification of the geographic region from the operating system.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein issuing includes issuing, by the resource to the utility, the data structure having a nomenclature that is defined by a base and a suffix, the base being defined by the identification of the geographic region determined by the operating system and the suffix specifying that the data structure is expressed by a customizable, tag-based language.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein issuing includes issuing, by the resource to the utility, one or more icon files containing individually a symbol that identifies a service provider.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein issuing includes issuing, by the resource to the utility, the data structure that is capable of being stored on a computer-readable medium, the data structure comprising:

one or more type tags that are indicative of service providers of various kinds;

one or more provider tags that are indicative of service providers, the one or more provider tags being the contents of a type tag, each provider tag including a symbol attribute that iconically identifies a service provider and an address attribute that specifies where the service provider can be found on the wide area network;

one or more language tags that are indicative of languages used and understood by communities, the one or more language tags being the contents of a provider tag;

one or more dialect tags that are indicative of dialects, which are regional varieties of a language distinguished by linguistic features, the one or more dialect tags being the contents of a language tag; and

one or more textual tags that textually describe service providers, each textual tag containing a name of a service provider or an advertisement copy of the service provider, each textual tag being appropriate for a particular dialect of a particular language, each pair of text tags being the contents of a dialect tag.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising creating a list of service providers, by the utility, as to show, for each service provider, at least one of the symbol attribute of a service provider providing the service, a name of the service provider, and an advertisement copy of the service provider.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving an indication from the user that a service provider is selected, and in response to the indication that the service provider is selected, the utility storing a provider tag in a central hierarchical database in the operating system, the central hierarchical database being used to store information to configure the operating system for one or more users, applications, and hardware devices, the stored provider tag being indicative of a service provider who is to provide the selected service.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein creating a list of service providers, by the utility, includes using stored provider tags in the central hierarchical database in the operating system unless superseded by corresponding provider tags obtained from the resource located on the Internet.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein creating a list of service providers, by the utility, includes using stored provider tags in the central hierarchical database in the operating system even if corresponding provider tags no longer exist on the resource located on the Internet.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claims 11-20.

22. A computer-readable medium having a customizable, tag-based data structure stored thereon for use in dynamically providing a collection of service providers to an interactive help utility, the data structure comprising:

one or more type tags that are indicative of service providers of various kinds;

one or more provider tags that are indicative of service providers, each provider tag including a symbol attribute that iconically identifies a service provider and an address attribute that specifies where the service provider can be found on the Internet;

one or more language tags that are indicative of languages used and understood by communities, peoples, and nations; and

one or more textual tags that textually describe service providers, each textual tag containing a word mark of a service provider or an advertisement copy of the service provider, each textual tag being appropriate for a particular language.

23. The data structure of claim 22, further comprising one or more dialect tags that are indicative of regional varieties of a language distinguished by multiple linguistic features.

24. The data structure of claim 23, wherein each provider tag being the contents of a type tag, wherein each language tag being the contents of a provider tag, wherein each dialect tag being the contents of a language tag, and wherein each provider tag being the contents of a type tag.

25. The data structure of claim 24 being configured to be sent from a resource on the Internet to the interactive help utility running on an operating system so that the interactive help utility may create a list of service providers and present the list of service providers to a user for selection.