Method and System for Intermediating Content Provider Website and Mobile Device

• US 20110061091A1
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Putterman, Scott I., Wei, Kai, Mamitsuka, Lien T., Mitra, Christopher A., Camp, William N. II, Wheeler, Maxon R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,516 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method of facilitating communication between a first content provider website and a mobile device includes obtaining first information from the content provider website via a first network at a web server, the first information not including any email message, where the obtaining includes pulling by way of a back end portion of the web server the first information from the content provider website. The method also includes processing in at least one of the back end portion and a front end portion of the web server the first information so as to provide processed first information, and transmitting a notice of new content in the first information from the front end portion of the web server onto a push channel established on either the first network or a second network for receipt by the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating communication between a first content provider website and a mobile device, the method comprising:

obtaining first information from the content provider website via a first network at a web server, the first information not including any email message, the obtaining including pulling by way of a back end portion of the web server the first information from the content provider website;

processing in at least one of the back end portion and a front end portion of the web server the first information so as to provide processed first information; and

transmitting a notice of new content in the first information from the front end portion of the web server onto a push channel established on either the first network or a second network for receipt by the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, upon the obtaining of the first information, the back end portion processes the first information to provide a change indication to the front end portion of the web server for the processing to occur.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing includes one or more of (a) placing at least some of the first amount of data into a common transfer queue, (b) compressing the at least some data, and (c) converting the at least some data into a different format.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the push channel is established at least in part based upon operation of an application program running on the mobile device, and wherein the push channel employs one of more of a transmission control protocol (TCP), an extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP), and an asynchronous communications technique.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server additionally conducts communications with at least one of the social networking site and the mobile device by way of a plurality of web services calls.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein when the processing includes determining that a first portion of the first information has a high importance level, then the transmitting includes a high priority push;

and

wherein when the processing includes determining that a second portion of the first information has a low importance level, then the transmitting includes a low priority push.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein further transmitting of the new content from the web server to the mobile device is delayed until the web server receives a poll from the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed first information represents one or more differences that exist between the first information and earlier information received at the web server from the social networking site.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed first information is configured so as to enable display of at least some of the processed first information on the mobile device in a manner independent of at least one custom feature of the social networking site.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed first information is configured to be used by the mobile device, upon receiving the processed first information, to generate a display field into which either text or another input can be received from a user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining second information from a second social networking website;

processing the second information at the web server so as to provide processed second information; and

transmitting a notice of the processed second information from the web server onto the push channel for receipt by the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the processing of the first and second information serves to arrive at an aggregation of information representative of changes that have occurred with respect to the first and second information over a period of time since a previous update.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the processed first information and the processed second information is configured so as to enable display of at least some of the processed first and second information on the mobile device in a manner that is independent of at least one custom feature of the first and second social networking sites.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the web server establishes authentication in relation to the social networking site by providing an authentication indication onto the first network for receipt by the social networking site, in response to which the web server then receives an authentication token back from the social networking site.

15. A method of facilitating communication between a first social networking website and a mobile device, the method comprising:

obtaining first information at a back end portion of a web server from the social networking website via a first network;

processing the first information at the web server so as to provide processed first information, wherein the processing includes filtering at least one portion of the first information based upon at least one importance level satisfied by the at least one portion, and wherein the at least one portion includes at least one of contact information, status information, and news information; and

transmitting a notice of new content in the first information from a front end portion of the web server onto a push channel established on either the first network or a second network for receipt by the mobile device,

wherein the notice is high priority if the new content to which the notice pertains involves the status information and wherein the notice is low priority if the new content to which the notice pertains involves at least one other type of information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein further transmitting of the new content from the web server to the mobile device is delayed until the web server receives a poll from the mobile device.

17. A method of facilitating communication between a first social networking website and a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving first data from the mobile device;

receiving second data from the mobile device, wherein one of the first and second data is content data and the other of the first and second data includes at least one identifier by which the mobile device can be logged into the first social networking site; and

transmitting the at least one identifier onto the first network for receipt by the first social networking site, by which the server is capable of logging onto the first social networking site as a proxy for the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of:

transmitting the content data from the server to the first social networking site; and

maintaining a logged-in status of the server with respect to the social networking site on behalf of the mobile device even when the mobile device for a period of time becomes disconnected from the server.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an additional identifier from the mobile device and transmitting the additional identifier onto the first network for receipt by a second social networking site, by which the server is capable of logging onto the social networking site as an additional proxy for the mobile device, and wherein the content data is further transmitted by the server to the second social networking site, whereby the content data is shared with the second social networking site.

20. A method of facilitating communication between a first social networking website and a mobile device, the method comprising:

obtaining first information from the social networking website via a first network at a web server;

processing the first information at the web server so as to provide processed first information, wherein the processed first information is indicative of a difference between the first information and earlier information previously received from the social networking website, and

transmitting a notice from the web server for receipt by the mobile device, wherein when the processing includes determining that a first portion of the first information has a high importance level, then the transmitting of the notice includes substantially immediately providing a high priority notice of the processed first information onto a push channel existing between the web server and the mobile device; and

awaiting a download request from the mobile device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein when the processing includes determining that a second portion of the first information has a low importance level, then the processing further includes storing either the second portion or a corresponding second portion of the processed first information for a period of time prior to the transmitting of the corresponding second portion for receipt by the mobile device.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

obtaining second information from a second social networking website via either the first network or an additional network at the web server;

processing the second information at the web server so as to provide processed second information, wherein the processed second information is indicative of an additional difference between the second information and additional earlier information previously received from the second social networking website; and

transmitting at least some of the processed second information from the web server for receipt by the mobile device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the processed first and second information is configured to allow the mobile device to display at least some of the processed first and second information in a manner that is substantially independent of respective formatting characteristics of the first and second social networking sites.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the first information does not include any email message.

25. A method of facilitating communication between a mobile device and a plurality of social networking websites including a first social networking site and a second social networking site, the method comprising:

pulling first information from the first social networking website and second information from the second social networking website onto a web server by way of at least one first network;

processing the first and second information at the web server so as to generate processed first and second information,

transmitting a notice of the availability of the processed first and second information from the web server for receipt by the mobile device,

wherein the processed first and second information is configured so as to allow the mobile device to request the processed first and second information and display both of the processed first information and the processed second information when received in a standardized manner that is at least substantially independent of particular formatting characteristics for the first and second information as provided by the first and second social networking sites.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the first processed information is representative of at least one of a contact list and a status update.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the processing of the first and second information includes determining whether portions of the first and second information are of a high or low importance.