Integration of personalized portals with web content syndication

• US 20060230021A1
• Filed: 03/15/2005
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Kevin, Walther, Eckart, Lu, Qi, Garrett, Benjamin, Diab, Ali, Ku, David, Douglas, Jason, Gatz, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,020,106 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

Personal portal pages for individual users are integrated with web content syndication. For example, when a search query is received from the user, a list of hits is generated. For each hit, it is determined whether there is an associated syndication feed, such as an RSS feed. The list of hits is displayed for the user, and a syndication option is included for each hit that has an associated syndication feed. The user can select the syndication option and thereby subscribe their personal portal page to that syndication feed. In some embodiments, the user may also be able to select syndication feeds for subscription via an alternative interface.

Claims

1. A method for responding to a query, the method comprising:

receiving the query from a user;

generating a list of one or more hits, each hit referencing a target page or site;

for each target page or site, detecting whether the target page or the site has an associated syndication feed;

displaying the list of one or more hits, including a syndication option for each target page or site that has an associated syndication feed;

receiving a selection of the syndication option for one of the hits from the user; and

in response to the selection, updating a personal portal page for the user to include a subscription to the syndication feed selected by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication feed comprises an RSS feed.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an alternative interface for a user to subscribe the personal portal page to a syndication feed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the alternative interface includes a webpage and/or a syndication search page.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a human.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a computer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the selection, displaying a preview page that includes a preview of the syndication feed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the selection, displaying a field window that includes a preview of the syndication feed.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication option includes a user selectable screen button configured to initiate the subscription.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the syndication database includes metadata and/or content information for each syndication feed referenced in the syndication database.

10. A method for responding to a query for syndication feeds, the method comprising:

receiving the query from a user;

generating a list of one or more hits, each hit referencing a syndication feed;

displaying the list of one or more hits, including a syndication option for each syndication feed referenced by the list of one or more hits;

receiving a selection of the syndication option for one or more of the hits from the user; and

in response to the selection, subscribing a personal portal page of the user to each syndication feed selected by the user.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising searching a syndication database for syndication feeds relevant to the query, wherein the list of one or more hits references the syndication feeds relevant to the query.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of searching includes searching an index of the syndication feeds included in the syndication database.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each index entry in the index includes metadata and/or content information for an associated syndication feed.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of searching includes searching the metadata and/or the content information for each syndication feeds to identify at least one syndication feed relevant to the query.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the user is a human.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the user is a computer.

18. A system configured to subscribe a portal page to one or more syndication feeds comprising:

a syndication database configured to store a searchable index of syndication feeds;

a client system configured to generate a query; and

a search server configured to receive the query from the client system and search the index to generate a list of one or more hits, each hit referencing one of the syndication feeds;

wherein the client system is configured to;

receive the list of hits from the search server for presentation, the presentation including a syndication option for the hits,

receive a selection of the syndication option for at least one of the hits; and

in response to the selection, subscribe the portal page to each syndication feed selected via the syndication options.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the syndication feed comprises an RSS feed.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the client system is further configured to display an alternative interface for subscribing the personal portal page to a syndication feed.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the alternative interface includes a webpage and/or a syndication search page.

22. A page configured for display on an output device comprising:

a user selectable item associated with a syndication feed, wherein if the user selectable item is selected by a user, a user page is subscribed to the syndication feed.

23. The page of claim 22, wherein the page is a web page.

24. The page of claim 22, wherein the syndication feed is an RSS feed.

25. The page of claim 22, wherein the page is a Yahoo page.

26. The page of claim 22, wherein the page is a third party page.

27. The page of claim 22, wherein the user selectable item is a screen button.

28. The page of claim 22, wherein selection of the user selectable item is configured to initiate the display of a preview of the syndication feed.

29. The page of claim 22, further comprising a preview window that includes at least one preview module, wherein the preview module is associated with the syndication feed and is configured to be displayed in the preview window if the user selectable item is selected, and wherein a position of the preview module in the preview window corresponds to a position of the syndication feed on the user page.

30. The page of claim 29, wherein the preview window is an illustration of the user page.

31. The page of claim 22, wherein the user page a personal portal page.