Internet streaming media workflow architecture

• US 20050038809A1
• Filed: 07/07/2004
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Abajian, Aram Christian, Porter, Charles A., Lee, Scott Chao-Chueh, Derosa, John Anthony, Rehm, Eric Carl, Dahl, Austin David, Alexander, Robin Andrew, Sudanagunta, Srinivasan, Kolar, Jennifer Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/908 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/923 Intellectual property
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method and system for utilizing metadata to search for media, such as multimedia and streaming media, includes searching for the media, receiving results, extracting metadata associated with the media, enhancing the extracted metadata, and grouping the search results in accordance with attributes of the enhanced metadata. Enhancing and grouping include adding related metadata to the database of metadata, iteratively using metadata to search for more media related data, removing duplicate URLs, collapsing URLs that are variants of each other, and masking out superfluous terms from URLs. The resultant metadata and media files are available to users and search engines.

Claims

1-26. -26. (Canceled)

27. A method for searching for media on a communications network, comprising:

searching for the media with at least one search term;

receiving at least one search result comprising metadata associated with the media;

extracting the metadata from the at least one search result;

automatically enhancing the extracted metadata by;

in a ground truth database, identifying a ground truth metadata record having contents that at least partially match the extracted metadata, and

verifying the metadata by determining that at least a portion of the contents of the identified ground truth metadata record match the extracted metadata; and

grouping the at least one search result into at least one group, wherein extracted metadata associated with each search result in a group comprise at least one common attribute.

28. A method indexing media instances accessible on a communications network, comprising:

identifying a plurality of media instances accessible on the communications network;

for each identified media instance;

extracting metadata related to the media instance;

in a trusted database, identifying a metadata record having contents that at least partially match the extracted metadata; and

enhancing the extracted metadata by adding at least a portion of the contents of the metadata record to the extracted metadata; and

augmenting a media instance search index with the enhanced metadata.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising grouping the identified media instances into at least one group, wherein metadata extracted for each identified media instance in a group comprise at least one common attribute.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the trusted database in which the identified trusted metadata record is identified is a ground truth database.

31. The method of claim 28 wherein media instances are identified by:

searching for media with at least one search term; and

receiving at least one search result comprising metadata associated with a media instance.

32. The method of claim 28 wherein media instances are identified using spidering techniques.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising providing at least one of the media instances and a uniform resource indicator (URI) related to the media instance to at least one of a user and a search engine.

34. The method of claim 28, further comprising formatting at least one of the media instances and a uniform resource indicator (URI) related to the media instance in accordance with requirements of a search engine.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the formatting comprises at least one of adding metadata to, deleting metadata from, and updating the metadata associated with the media instance.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, further comprising providing the extracted metadata as the at least one search term.

37. A method in a computing system for causing a processor to search for instances of media artifacts on a communications network, comprising:

searching for the media with at least one search term;

receiving at least one search result, each search result comprising metadata associated with a media artifact instance;

extracting metadata from the at least one search result, the metadata extracted from each search result including an identifier usable to retrieve the search result'"'"'s media artifact instance;

automatically verifying the extracted metadata;

grouping the at least one search result into at least one group, wherein extracted metadata associated with each search result in a group comprise at least one common attribute; and

in each group of search results, identifying subgroups of search results where, for each subgroup, all of the search results of the subgroup have metadata including an identifier usable to retrieve a different instance of the same media artifact.

38. A method for searching for media on a communications network, the method comprising:

discovering on the communications network instances of metadata each associated with a media artifact instance, each metadata instance including an identifier usable to retrieve the metadata instance'"'"'s media artifact instance;

automatically enhancing the discovered metadata instances;

grouping the metadata instances into at least one group, wherein metadata instances associated with each search result in a group comprise at least one common attribute; and

in each group of metadata instances, identifying subgroups of metadata instances where, for each subgroup, all of the metadata instances of the subgroup have metadata including an identifier usable to retrieve a different instance of the same media artifact.