RATING MEDIA ITEM RECOMMENDATIONS USING RECOMMENDATION PATHS AND/OR MEDIA ITEM USAGE

• US 20080243733A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VideoLabs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Inventors: Black, Gary
• Granted Patent: US 9,224,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence

Abstract

A media item recommendation rating system and method. A recommendation rating for media items is established and dynamically updated in response to media items being recommended to other users. A recommendation server or other device receives a report of a media item recommendation and updates a recommendation rating in response. The recommendation rating may also be updated based on how often a recommended media item is used or played. Thus, a media item'"'"'s recommendation rating is affected by events relating to its recommendation, as opposed simple play-based ratings that are updated on any play action regardless of whether related to a recommendation or not. Simple play-based ratings do not distinguish between ordinary usages or plays and those resulting from recommendations. Recommendation of a media item to another user may be a better indicator of the user'"'"'s likeability or popularity of a given media item, since a recommendation is an endorsement by another.

Claims

1. A method of rating media item recommendations that are sent from a sending user to a recipient user, at a server, comprising the steps of:

receiving a report of a media item being recommended from a sending user to a recipient user; and

altering a recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising not altering the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to a play or usage of the media item by a play user, if the play or usage of the media item was not previously recommended to the play user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if the media item has an established recommendation rating in memory before the step of altering.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising establishing the recommendation rating for the media item being recommended before the step of altering, if the recommendation rating has not been previously established.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising establishing an initial recommendation rating for the media item being recommended after the step of establishing the recommendation rating for the media item being recommended.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if a recommendation path, comprised of the sending user and the recipient user, has been previously established in a recommendation path table associated with the media item being recommended.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising establishing the recommendation path in the recommendation path table if the recommendation path was not previously established.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising storing the recommendation path in the received recommendation path table.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising only performing the step of altering the recommendation rating associated with the media item if the recommendation path was not previously established.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the media item being recommended is comprised from the group consisting of the media item, and a media item id identifying the media item.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the media item being recommended to the recipient user on behalf of the sending user.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the recommendation path table comprises a recommendation id, a recipient id identifying the recipient user, and a recommender id identifying the sending user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation rating for the media item being recommended is stored in a recommendations table that contains a recommendation id identifying the media item being recommended and a sending user id identifying the sending user of the media item being recommended.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving a play or usage action for a media item from a play user.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user by determining if the play user is the recipient user in the recommendation path table for the media item associated with the play or usage action.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising altering the recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the recommendation path table is comprised of two tables consisting of a received recommendations table and a sent recommendations table.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the recommendation rating for a media item stored in memory to a user device.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for the recommendation rating for a media item stored in memory.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising sending the requested recommendation rating for the media item stored in memory to a requester in response to receiving the request.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the altering the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report, is a step comprised from the group of steps consisting of:

increasing the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report, and decreasing the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the altering of the recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user, and the altering the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report, are performed according to different alteration scales.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the altering of the recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user comprises:

increasing the recommendation rating for the media item if the play or usage action occurs within a prescribed period of time; and

decreasing the recommendation rating for the media item if the play or usage action does not occur within a prescribed period of time.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation rating is a relative recommendation rating comprised of one or more rating levels.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is comprised from the group consisting of a recommendation server, a peer device, and a super peer device.

26. A media item recommendation rating system, comprising:

a recommendation server;

the recommendation server adapted to;

receive a report of a media item being recommended from a sending user to a recipient user; and

alter a recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the recommendation server is further adapted to not alter the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to a play or usage of the media item by a play user, if the play or usage of the media item was not previously recommended to the play user.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the recommendation server is further adapted to determine if a recommendation path, comprised of the sending user and the recipient user, has been previously established in a recommendation path table associated with the media item being recommended.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the recommendation server is further adapted to receive a play or usage action for a media item from a play user.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the recommendation server is further adapted to determine if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user by determining if the play user is the recipient user in the recommendation path table for the media item associated with the play or usage action.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the recommendation server is further adapted to alter the recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user.

32. A user interface generated by a client application executing on microprocessor-based user device, comprising:

a media item table;

the media item table comprising media columns, comprising;

a media item title column comprised of a plurality of different media titles for a plurality of associated media items; and

a recommendation rating column located proximate the media item title column comprised of recommendation rating for one or more media items, which are associated with and located proximately to one or more of the plurality of different media titles,

wherein the recommendation rating comprises a rating altered in response to the media item having been recommended by a sending user.

33. The user interface of claim 32, wherein the recommendation rating located in the recommendation rating column is further altered in response to the media item being used or played by a play user after receiving a recommendation for the sending user for the media item.