Syndication feeds for peer computer devices and peer networks

• US 20070022174A1
• Filed: 07/25/2005
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Issa, Alfredo
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable

Abstract

Syndication feeds for peer computer devices. In one aspect, a request is received at a server for a syndicated feed from a peer on a peer-to-peer network. It is determined whether the peer is currently online or offline; if online, the requested feed is pulled from the peer and served to the requester, and if offline, the requested feed is retrieved from a cache of the server and served to the requester. In one embodiment, an online/offline indicator is inserted in a feed by the server to indicate to the user the online or offline status.

Claims

1. A method for providing syndicated feeds from peers of a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

receiving a request at a server from a requestor for a syndicated feed from a peer on the peer-to-peer network;

determining whether the peer is currently online or offline;

pulling the requested feed from the peer and serving the requested feed to the requestor if the peer is currently online; and

retrieving the requested feed from a cache of the server and serving the requested feed to the requestor if the peer is currently offline.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the server is a proxy node server that facilitates communication between the peers of the peer-to-peer network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the server receiving the request and serving the requested feed is a feed portal accessible externally to the peer-to-peer network.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising inserting an indictor in the requested feed before serving the feed to the requester, the indicator indicating the online or offline status of the peer serving the requested feed.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the requestor is a program provided on a computer that can communicate with the proxy server over a network, wherein the program can read the indicator inserted in the requested feed and display an indicator indicating the online or offline status of the peer serving the requested feed.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the requestor is a standard feed reader provided on a computer that can communicate with the server over a network.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the requestor is a feed portal that can communicate with the proxy node server over a network, wherein the feed portal can serve the feed to a web browser on a client computer connecting to the feed portal.

8. The method of claim 3 further comprising searching feeds provided from a plurality of peers on the peer-to-peer network based on search criteria provided by a user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the server receives the request for the syndicated feed when the peer generates a new feed.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the peer generates a new feed when new content is published from the user of the peer.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the syndicated feed provides feed content, the feed content including a thumbnail image.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the syndicated feed is an album feed that references a photo album of images stored on the peer.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the full content referred to by the served feed when requested by the requestor, wherein the full content is provided by requesting and receiving the full content from the peer that provided the requested feed.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising polling the peers to receive feeds from the peers.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the polling is performed at predetermined time intervals.

16. The method of claim 3 wherein the feed portal receives and caches feeds that have been pushed from the peers to the feed portal.

17. A network system comprising:

a plurality of peer computers, each peer computer capable of communicating with the other peer computers over a peer-to-peer network and generating a syndicated feed summarizing content stored on that peer computer; and

a server capable of communication with each of the peer computers, wherein the server is configured to perform the following;

receiving a request from a requester for a particular syndicated feed provided by a particular one of the peer computers;

determining whether the particular peer computer is currently online or offline;

pulling the particular feed from the peer and serving the particular feed to the requestor if the peer is currently online; and

retrieving the requested feed from a cache of the server and serving the requested feed to the requestor if the peer is currently offline.

18. The network system of claim 17 wherein the server is a proxy node server that facilitates communication between the peer computers of the peer-to-peer network.

19. The network system of claim 17 wherein the server receiving the request and serving the requested feed is a feed portal accessible externally to the peer-to-peer network.

20. The network system of claim 17 wherein the server inserts an indictor in the requested feed before serving the feed to the requester, the indicator indicating the online or offline status of the peer computer serving the requested feed.

21. The network system of claim 18 wherein the requestor is a program provided on a computer that can communicate with the proxy node server over a network, wherein the program can read the indicator inserted in the requested feed and display an indicator indicating the online or offline status of the peer computer serving the requested feed.

22. The network system of claim 17 wherein the requestor is a standard feed reader provided on a computer that can communicate with the server over a network.

23. The network system of claim 18 wherein the requestor is a feed portal that can communicate with the proxy node server over a network, wherein the feed portal can serve the feed to a web browser on a client computer connecting to the feed portal.

24. The network system of claim 17 further comprising a feed manager provided on each peer computer to generate a syndicated feed from that peer computer, wherein each feed manager generates a new feed when new content is published from the user of the associated peer computer.

25. The network system of claim 17 wherein the syndicated feed is an album feed that references a photo album of images stored on the particular peer computer.

26. The network system of claim 19 wherein the web feed portal includes a portal feed manager that controls the caching of feeds from the peer computers.

27. A method for distributing a syndicated feed from peers in a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

receiving a notification at a feed portal that a new feed has been generated on a peer in the peer-to-peer network;

requesting the data for the new feed from a proxy server that is connected to the peer;

receiving the new feed at the feed portal from the proxy server and storing the new feed in a database; and

serving the new feed from the database when requested by a requestor connecting to the feed portal.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the notification is received at the feed portal from the peer generating the new feed.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the new feed received from the proxy server includes an indicator indicating whether the peer is currently online or offline, and providing the indicator in the served new feed.

30. The method of claim 27 further comprising providing full content referred to by the served new feed when requested by the requestor, wherein the full content is provided by requesting and receiving the full content from the peer that provided the requested feed.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the requestor is a web browser.

32. The method of claim 27 further comprising searching feeds from a plurality of peers on the peer-to-peer network based on search criteria provided by a user.

33. The method of claim 27 wherein the peer generates a new feed when new content is published from the user of the peer.

34. A computer readable medium including program instructions to be implemented by a computer, the program instructions for providing syndicated feeds from peers of a peer-to-peer network, the program instructions implementing steps comprising:

receiving a request at a server for a syndicated feed from a peer on the peer-to-peer network;

determining whether the peer is currently online or offline;

pulling the requested feed from the peer and serving the requested feed to the requestor if the peer is currently online; and

retrieving the requested feed from a cache of the server and serving the requested feed to the requester if the peer is currently offline.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34 wherein the program instructions further implement inserting an indictor in the requested feed before serving the feed to the requestor, the indicator indicating the online or offline status of the peer serving the requested feed.