System and method of creating and rating items for social interactions

• US 8,195,676 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2007
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bond, Robert W., Jaffe, Stephen E., Loring, Keith P., McCulloch, Douglas J., Richards, Patrick J. Jr., Trevathan, Matthew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peng, Huawen
• Application Number:
  US11/682,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/40, 707 3- 6, 707/723, 707/748, 707/752, 709/204, 709/206, 715/530
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A system and method for providing items to users and, more particularly, a system and method for rating items and placing such items into a queued list. The method includes providing an item from a web browser to a recipient on a preferred list and placing the item into a queued list with respect to other items based on a rating. The system includes a computer infrastructure being operable to provide a rated item from a web browser to a recipient on a preferred list and place the rated item in a queued list with respect to other items.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

displaying in a web browser of a computing device having a processor a plurality of items of interest to a user;

selecting at least one item of interest from the plurality of items of interest to be sent to a device of at least one recipient;

providing a rating to the at least one item of interest to create at least one rated item of interest;

sending the at least one rated item of interest from the web browser to the device of the at least one recipient in order to share the at least one rated item of interest with the at least one recipient; and

placing the at least one rated item of interest into a queued list on a display of the device of the at least one recipient with respect to existing items already displayed and based on the rating;

wherein;

the placing of the at least one rated item of interest into the queued list comprises;

comparing the at least one rated item of interest to the existing items already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing items, and the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing items;

when the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing items, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the at least one item of interest is determined as different from the existing items, resorting the queued list to include the at least one rated item based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the at least one recipient and the rating of the at least one rated item provided by the user; and

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the at least one rated item was sent to the at least one recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one item of interest is at least one of an article, website, link, document and a feed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rating is provided prior to the sending the at least one item of interest to the device of the at least one recipient.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is placed, automatically, at a certain location in the queued list, based on the rating which is based on at least one of:

a score provided by the user;

a weight assigned to the user;

a number of times the at least one rated item of interest has been sent to the recipient; and

a number of times the at least one rated item of interest has been read by other users.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising resorting the queued list upon at least one of:

receipt of additional items;

receipt of another item which is already on the queued list;

after the at least one rated item of interest has been read by the recipient; and

expiration of the at least one rated item of interest.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising time stamping the at least one rated item of interest.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising deleting the at least one rated item of interest from the queued list after an expiration of the at least one rated item of interest or after the at least one rated item of interest has been read, and resorting the queued list after the at least one rated item of interest has been deleted or read.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is provided to the recipient via RSS web based feed format.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the RSS is specified in XML.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving at least one of a description of the at least one rated item of interest, a comment on the at least one item of interest, a custom link, a link to the at least one item of interest, and a sender'"'"'s IM name.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a weight is assigned to a sender of the at least one rated item of interest, which increases or decreases an importance of the at least one rated item of interest with respect to other items.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a mechanism on the web browser which, when activated, copies a link of a browser page or link on the browser page.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising bringing up a window that allows the user to at least one of comment and rate the at least one item of interest.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the queued list is provided with a value next to the at least one rated item of interest in the queued list.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the queued list is provided with a name of the user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 1.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are provided on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing information associated with the at least one rated item of interest in a database.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching a page of the web browser for links to the plurality of items of interest; and

placing an icon near each of the links to the plurality of items of interest, each of the icons being actionable to copy each of the links respectively,

wherein;

the displaying of the plurality of items of interest to the user comprises displaying the links and the icons near each link;

the selecting the at least one item of interest comprises selecting a respective one of the icons placed next to a respective one of the links to the at least one item of interest, which causes the processor to copy the respective one of the links to the at least one item of interest and to open a separate user display;

the at least one recipient is a contact in an preferred list of contacts of the user;

the rating of the at least one item of interest is provided by the user in the separate user display;

the separate user display of the device is configured to allow the user to comment on the at least one item of interest;

the queued list on the display of the at least one recipient displays the at least one item of interest and a name of the user that sent the at least one item of interest to the at least one recipient; and

the name of the user that sent the at least one item of interest is actionable to display the comment provided by the user on the at least one item of interest.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein:

the preferred list is a instant messenger contact list;

the at least one rated item of interest is sent to the at least one recipient absent a recipient search request; and

the sending is performed in real-time.

22. A system for deploying an application in a computing environment, comprising a computer infrastructure being operable to:

display in a web browser of a computing device a plurality of items of interest to a user;

select at least one item of interest from the plurality of items of interest to be sent to a device of at least one recipient;

provide a rating to the at least one item of interest to create at least one rated item of interest;

send the at least one rated item of interest from the web browser to the at least one recipient on an address list in order to share the at least one rated item of interest with the at least one recipient; and

place the at least one rated item of interest in a queued list on the device of the at least one recipient with respect to existing items already displayed,

wherein;

the placing of the at least one rated item of interest in the queued list comprises;

comparing the at least one rated item of interest to the existing items already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing items, and the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing items;

when the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing items, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the at least one item of interest is determined as different from the existing items, resorting the queued list to include the at least one rated item based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the at least one recipient and the rating of the at least one rated item provided by the user; and

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the at least one rated item was sent to the at least one recipient.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the at least one item of interest is at least one of an article, website, link, document and a feed.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is placed, automatically, at a certain location in the queued list, based on the rating which is based on at least one of:

a score provided by the user;

a weight assigned to the sender;

a number of times the at least one rated item of interest has been sent to the recipient; and

a number of times the at least one rated item of interest has been read by other users.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to resort the queued list upon at least one of:

receipt of additional items;

receipt of another item which is already on the queued list;

after the at least one rated item of interest has been read by the recipient; and

expiration of the at least one rated item of interest.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to time stamp the at least one rated item of interest and delete the at least one rated item of interest from the queued list after an expiration of the at least one rated item of interest or after the at least one rated item of interest has been read, and resort the queued list after the at least one rated item of interest has been deleted or read.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to receive or send at least one of a description of the at least one rated item of interest, a comment on the at least one rated item of interest, a custom link, a link to the at least one rated item of interest, and a sender'"'"'s IM name.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to provide a weight to a sender of the at least one rated item of interest, which increases or decreases an importance of the at least one rated item of interest with respect to other items.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to copy a link of a browser page or link on the browser page and provide the link of the browser page or the link on the browser page to the recipient as the at least one rated item of interest.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to bring up a window that is configured to allow the user to at least one of comment and score the at least one item of interest.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is provided by a service provider.

32. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of created, maintained, deployed and supported by a service provider for a fee.

33. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to store information associated with the item in a database.

34. The system of claim 22, wherein:

the computer infrastructure is operable to send the at least one rated item of interest to the at least one recipient absent a recipient search request; and

the computer infrastructure is operable to send the at least one rated item of interest in real-time.

35. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage memory having readable program code embodied in the memory, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

display in a web browser of a computing device having a processor a plurality of items of interest to a user;

select at least one item of interest from the plurality of items of interest to be sent to a device of at least one recipient, wherein the recipient is a contact in an preferred list of contacts of the user;

provide a rating to the at least one item of interest to create at least one rated item of interest;

send the at least one rated item of interest from the web browser to at least one recipient in order to share the at least one rated item of interest with the recipient, wherein the at least one rated item of interest is sent upon activation of a mechanism, which links a URL of the at least one rated item of interest, and the at least one rated item of interest being one of a link from a browser page or a link to the browser page; and

place the at least one rated item of interest into a queued list on a display of the device of the at least one recipient with respect to existing items already on the display and based on the rating, which is provided by the user of the at least one rated item of interest,

wherein the placing of the at least one rated item of interest into the queued list comprises;

comparing the at least one rated item of interest to the existing items already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of;

the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing items, and the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing items;

when the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing items, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the at least one item of interest is determined as different from the existing items, resorting the queued list to include the at least one rated item based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the at least one recipient and the rating of the at least one rated item; and

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the at least one rated item was sent to the at least one recipient.

36. A method for deploying an application in a computing environment, comprising a computer infrastructure being operable to:

search a page of a web browser on a computing device of a user for links and place an icon near each link, the icon being actionable to copy each corresponding link;

copy a link of an item of interest from the page of the web browser;

provide a rating for the item of interest on the computing device of the user;

send the copied link and the rating for the item of interest from the web browser of the computing device of the user to a contact'"'"'s computing device or a group of contacts'"'"' computing devices, wherein the contact or the group of contacts are from a preferred list of contacts of the user; and

place the link of the rated item of interest onto a queued list of the contact'"'"'s computing device or each of the group of contacts'"'"' computing devices based on the rating with respect to existing links of items of interest already displayed on the queued list,

wherein;

the placing of the link of the at least one rated item of interest onto the queued list comprises;

comparing the link of the at least one rated item of interest to the existing links of items of interest already displayed on the device of the at least one recipient;

determining one of;

the link of the at least one rated item of interest is the same as any of the existing links of items of interest, and the link of the at least one rated item of interest is different from the existing links of items of interest;

when the link of the at least one rated item of interest is determined as the same as any of the existing links of items of interest, resorting the queued list to reflect a combination of factors and that the link of the at least one rated item of interest has been received at least one additional time; and

when the link of the at least one rated item of interest is determined as different from the existing links of items of interest, resorting the queued list to include the link of the at least one rated item of interest based on the combination of factors;

the combination of factors includes a weight assigned to the user by the contact or the group of contacts and the rating of the item of interest;

the at least one additional time is a number of times that the link of the at least one rated item of interest was sent to the at least one recipient; and

a link of a higher rated item is placed higher on the queued list than a link of a lower rated item.