SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING ORDERED DOWNLOAD SELECTIONS BASED ON USAGE INFORMATION

• US 20090210870A1
• Filed: 02/15/2008
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Clark, Bryan W., Taylor, Owen W., Walters, Colin
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57

Abstract

Embodiments relate to a platform for generating ordered download selections based on usage information. A download site can provide a selectable or searchable set of applications to download. The download site collects usage information from online desktops operating on a set of clients. The online desktop of each client samples the applications being used on the client at given intervals and reports the client'"'"'s usage statistics to the download site. The download site aggregates the usage information received from participating clients and collectively orders applications for download, according to usage rank. A work processing application used by the most users in the last day or other period may be listed first, followed by the second-most used, and so forth. The sampling of actual application usage, instead of for instance download totals, allows the download site to provide downloads in an order most closely approximating users'"'"' actual usage behavior.

Claims

1. A method of generating an ordered set of software download selections, comprising:

identifying a set of software objects available for downloading;

receiving usage information from a set of clients indicating the execution state of the software objects within the set of clients;

receiving user-specified selections, attributes or search terms indicating a software object to be downloaded from the set of software objects; and

generating an ordered list of the software objects for selectable download based on the user-specified selections, attributes or search terms and the usage information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of software objects comprises at least one application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the usage information comprises an indication whether the at least one application is running on a respective client at random times.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the usage information comprises an indication whether the at least one application is running on a respective client at a predetermined interval.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined interval comprises an interval of one day or less.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the usage information is generated by an online desktop operating on a respective client.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising downloading the user-selected software object to a client operated by the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the downloading is performed via a browser.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating an ordered list is repeated at a predetermined interval.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined interval for generating the ordered list comprises an interval of one hour or greater.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating an ordered list is triggered by detection of network conditions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the network conditions comprise receipt of a threshold amount of usage information.

13. A system for generating an ordered set of software download selections, comprising:

a data store storing a set of software objects available for downloading;

a download server, the download server communicating with the data store, the download server being configured to—

receive usage information from a set of clients indicating the execution state of the software objects within the set of clients,

receive user-specified selections, attributes or search terms indicating a software object to be downloaded from the set of software objects, and

generate an ordered list of the software objects for selectable download based on the user-specified selections, attributes or search terms and the usage information.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of software objects comprises at least one application.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the usage information comprises an indication of whether the at least one application is running on a respective client at random times.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the usage information comprises an indication of whether the at least one application is running on a respective client at a predetermined interval.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the predetermined interval comprises an interval of one day or less.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the usage information is generated by an online desktop operating on a respective client.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the download server is further configured to download the user-selected software objects to a client operated by the user.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the client receives the download via a browser.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the download server generates the ordered list at a predetermined interval.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the predetermined interval for generating the ordered list comprises an interval of one hour or greater.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the generation of an ordered list by the download server is triggered by detection of network conditions.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the network conditions comprise receipt of a threshold amount of usage information.

25. A client system configured to receive an ordered set of software download selections, comprising:

a set of locally installed software;

a network interface to a remote data store; and

a usage manager module, the usage manager module registering usage information for the set of locally installed software and transmitting the usage information to a remote download server via the network interface.

26. The client system of claim 25, wherein the set of locally installed software comprises at least one application.

27. The client system of claim 25, wherein the usage information comprises an indication of currently executing software in the set of locally installed software.

28. The client system of claim 25, wherein the usage manger module samples the currently executing software at a predetermined interval comprising an interval of one day or less.

29. A computer-readable medium, the computer-readable medium being readable to execute a method of generating usage information, the method comprising:

generating usage information in a client indicating the execution state of software objects installed on the client;

transmitting the usage information to a download server at a predetermined interval;

receiving user-specified selections, attributes or search terms indicating a software object to be downloaded;

receiving an ordered list of software objects from the download server based at least in part on the user-specified selections, attributes or search terms; and

presenting an ordered list of software objects to the user for selectable download.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the download server receives usage information from a plurality of clients reporting an execution state of the software objects.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the step of generating usage information is performed via an online desktop.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the step of generating usage information is repeated at a predetermined interval.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the set of software objects comprises at least one application.

34. An ordered list of software objects, the ordered list of software objects being generated by a method comprising:

identifying a set of software objects available for downloading;

receiving usage information from a set of clients indicating the execution state of the software objects within the set of clients;

receiving input from a user indicating a software object to be downloaded from the set of software objects; and

generating an ordered list of the software objects to the user for selection based on the user input and usage information.

35. The ordered list of software objects of claim 35, wherein the set of software objects comprises at least one application.

36. The ordered list of software objects of claim 35, wherein the method further comprises transmitting the ordered list of software objects to a client operated by the user.