Platform for providing interactive applications on a digital content platform

• US 8,737,678 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Luminate, Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Everingham, James R., Scullin, Will, Waterson, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Tom Y
• Application Number:
  US13/308,401
• Publication Number:
  US 20130089273A1
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 382/305, 382/100, 707/705
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing interactive applications. In one embodiment, the systems and methods may include: (a) identifying digital content published on digital content platforms (e.g., images published on webpages); (b) assigning a key to the digital content; and (c) processing the digital content through a tagging engine (e.g., a crowdsource network) to tag the content with contextual data. The systems and methods may further include: (d) maintaining a data repository, wherein the content and respective data are indexed by corresponding key; (e) receiving a data request from an enabled application, upon user-activation of the application, wherein the data request includes the key; (f) conducting a data search of the data repository based on the key; and (g) providing the content data, responsive to the data request, for rendering of the enabled and user-activated application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating the rendering of third-party in-image applications in connection with images published on webpages, the method comprising:

(a) providing a webpage publisher with software code for insertion into a webpage, wherein the software code, when executed, functions to identify an image that has been published on the webpage and submit the image to a service provider'"'"'s computer system;

the service provider'"'"'s computer system performing the steps of

(b) assigning an image key to the image;

(c) processing the image through an image tagging engine, wherein the image tagging engine tags the image with one or more contextual tags based on the content within the image;

(d) maintaining an image data repository, wherein the one or more contextual tags are indexed by the image key;

(e) providing the webpage publisher with the image key for linking to the published image;

(f) providing the webpage publisher with an in-image application interface;

(g) enabling one or more third-party in-image applications based on the one or more contextual tags;

(h) receiving a data request from an enabled in-image application, upon user-activation of the enabled in-image application, wherein the data request includes the image key;

(i) conducting a data search of the image data repository based on the image key; and

(j) providing the one or more contextual tags, responsive to the data request, for rendering of the enabled and user-activated third-party in-image application, wherein the third-party in-image application uses the contextual tags to perform its respective function.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving use feedback from the rendered in-image application; and

supplementing the one or more contextual tags with use feedback.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

overlaying the rendered in-image application on the image on the webpage.

4. A computer-implemented system for facilitating the rendering of third-party in-image applications on one or more digital content platforms, the system comprising:

(a) an image identification interface which identifies digital images published on one or more digital content platforms;

(b) an image tagging engine which tags images with contextual tags based on the content within the image;

(c) an image data repository storing the contextual tags linked to respective digital images, wherein the digital images are indexed by an image key; and

(d) an in-image application interface which;

(1) receives a data request from an enabled third-party in-image application, upon user-activation of the enabled third-party in-image application, wherein the data request includes the image key, (2) conducts a data search of the image data repository based on the image key, and (3) provides image data, responsive to the data request, for rendering of the enabled and user-activated third-party in-image application, wherein the third-party in-image application uses the image data to perform its respective function.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the image tagging engine comprises proximate-text recognition.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the image tagging engine comprises thematic tagging.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the in-image application interface further comprises:

(4) overlaying the rendered in-image application on the digital content platform, based on the image data.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for facilitating the rendering of third-party in-image applications in connection with images published on webpages, comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to

(a) receive identification of an image that has been published on a webpage;

(b) assign an image key to the image;

(c) process the image through an image tagging engine, wherein the image tagging engine tags the image with one or more contextual tags based on the content within the image;

(d) store the one or more contextual tags, indexed by the image key, in an image data repository;

(e) receive a data request from an enabled third-party in-image application, upon user-activation of the enabled third-party in-image application, wherein the data request includes the image key;

(f) conduct a data search of the image data repository based on the image key; and

(g) provide the one or more contextual tags, responsive to the data request, for rendering of the enabled and user-activated third-party in-image application, wherein the third-party in-image application uses the contextual tags to perform its respective function.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to perform proximate-text recognition of the image on the webpage.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to submit the digital image to a thematic tagging engine.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to

receive use feedback from the rendered in-image application; and

supplement the one or more contextual tags with use feedback.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to overlay the rendered in-image application on the webpage.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for facilitating the rendering of one or more third-party in-image applications in connection with an image published on a webpage, comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to

(a) receive identification of an image that has been published on a webpage;

(b) submit the image to an image tagging engine to identify contextual data for the image;

(c) receive a request for the contextual data, from a third-party in-image application, upon user-activation of the third-party in-image application; and

(d) provide the contextual data, responsive to the request, for rendering of the user-activated third-party in-image application on the webpage, wherein the third-party in-image application uses the contextual data to perform its respective function.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine whether the contextual data needed for rendering of the in-image application is maintained in a service provider image data repository or a third-party image data repository.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to

receive use feedback from the rendered in-image application; and

update a reporting metric for the image based on the use feedback.