METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRELOADING SUGGESTED CONTENT ONTO DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER BASED ON SOCIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

• US 20080134039A1
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Clark, Bryan, Fischer, Donald, Pennington, Havoc
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide users with suggested content that is preloaded on a media player. The suggested content is selected based on playback data from individuals and groups in a social network or playback data from anonymous users, or explicit suggestions from peers of the user in the social network, such as friends or family. The user may set aside space on their media player, such as a DVR or PC hard drive. A service then populates this space with suggested content. For example, the user may elect to populate this space with shows that their friends are watching, automatically. In addition, embodiments of the present invention allow users to track and create recommendations of content and to automatically schedule recording of showings of this content. The user may automatically record everything suggested, or require the user make selections. The present invention also provides for automatic selections, based on content type, time of day, or a random pattern. Finally, a user may acknowledge that they have watched a show suggested by their friends and automatically or manually send feedback about that show.

Claims

1. A method of providing content to a user, said method comprising:

determining content suggested for the user based on playback data collected from the user'"'"'s social network service;

selecting a set of the suggested content; and

distributing the selected content to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content suggested for the user comprises:

receiving playback data from users of the social network service; and

determining suggested content from the received playback data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content suggested for the user comprises:

receiving playback data passively collected from users of the social network service; and

determining suggested content from the received playback data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content suggested for the user comprises:

receiving suggestions from other users in a social network of the user; and

determining suggested content from the suggestions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content suggested for the user comprises:

receiving information that indicates scheduled recordings of other users in a social network of the user; and

determining suggested content based on the scheduled recordings of the other users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining content suggested for the user comprises:

determining a history of content requested by the user and the user'"'"'s social network; and

determining suggested content based on the history of content requested by the user and the user'"'"'s social network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a set of the suggested content comprises selecting only the content suggested by the other users of the user'"'"'s social network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a set of the suggested content comprises selecting only the content that matches criteria specified by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the selected content to the user comprises:

retrieving the suggested content;

determining if the user has viewed the suggested content; and

preloading the suggested content when the user has not viewed the suggested content.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the selected content to the user comprises:

retrieving the suggested content; and

preloading the suggested content to a space reserved by the user for suggested content.

11. An apparatus comprising means configured to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A computer readable medium comprising executable program code to configure a computer to perform the method of claim 1.