Method of enabling a user to interact with content received from a remote server

• US 9,021,060 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Critical Path Data Limited
• Inventors: Bramley, Lei, Bulmer, Russell, Tiller, Andrew, Pepper, Neil, French, Graham, Day, Owen
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chou, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US12/526,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20100094703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,633 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages

Abstract

A user interacts with content received from a remote server; content (e.g. feeds from social networking sites, advertisements) is received over a wireless network at a mobile telephone, which then automatically displays a specific item of the content on the mobile telephone, without the user explicitly requesting the display of that specific item of content. In response to the user selecting or highlighting the displayed specific item of content, the mobile telephone lists multiple options that, if individually selected, each initiate an associated action that corresponds to a particular way of responding to or interacting with the specific item of content.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a user to interact with content received on a mobile telephone from a remote server, said mobile telephone configured to run one or more end-user applications, in which the method comprises the steps of:

(a) a client content-engine application installed onto the mobile telephone receiving the content over a wireless network, the client content-engine application managing the download and storage of the content onto a cache memory in the mobile telephone, the client content-engine application then automatically providing a specific item of the stored content to at least one of said one or more end-user applications so that the at least one of said one or more end-user applications automatically displays the specific item of content on the mobile telephone, without the user explicitly requesting the display of that specific item of content, and wherein said specific item of the stored content is associated with said at least one of said one or more end-user applications and is selected by said client content-engine application for delivery based on parameters of said at least one of said one or more end-user applications;

(b) in response to the user selecting or highlighting the displayed specific item of content, listing multiple options that, if individually selected, each initiate an associated action that corresponds to a particular way of responding to or interacting with the specific item of content;

wherein;

said client content-engine application exposes a generic API accessible to said one or more end-user applications;

if the user highlights or selects a specific item of content, then that item will change appearance and the listed multiple options will alter to include menu items for applicable actions; and

some or all of said content can have an expiry date after which it will not be displayed.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the content stored on the cache memory is dynamically updateable over the air.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the specific items of content are targeted for a user based on metadata in those specific items of content.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the metadata relates to one or more of:

advertising categories;

language of the user;

location of the user;

demographic of the user;

usage patterns of the user;

feeds subscribed to by the user.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the content is displayed in a photo-sharing or upload application.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the action is one of the following:

to display a full-screen advertisement for a configurable time period, or until the user clicks;

to play an audio file;

to play a video file in full-screen mode;

to open a URL link in the phone'"'"'s browser;

to request more information via email;

to send an email from a remote server to a pre-defined address;

to dial a phone number;

to send a pre-defined Web link to a friend via email from a remote server;

to subscribe to a feed;

to add a web site to the web sites used by the application that displays the content;

to navigate to a specific screen in the menu system of the mobile telephone;

to send a SMS or MMS message.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the actions stored on the mobile telephone can be added to with new actions with an over the air update process.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the content includes one or more items of advertisement content, and each specific item of advertisement content has metadata associated with each available action.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the metadata associated with the action includes one or more of:

a full screen advertisement file attachment;

an audio file attachment (with optional graphic to display while the advertisement is playing);

a video file attachment;

a phone number and message text for click-to-call;

URL links (for display in phone browser, or for sending to a friend via SMS/email);

a pre-formatted SMS message and recipient phone number;

pre-defined message templates and email addresses to which a server should send pre-formatted or user-generated messages;

an associated subscription to a feed;

a default time interval after which a highlighted Banner advertisement will display a potential action;

menu text labels for each action item;

a specified order for the actions in the menu.

10. The method of claim 1 in which each specific item of content will have targeting metadata, which enables the content that is displayed to be targeted to a specific user.

11. The method of claim 1 including the step of recording when users view advertisements or initiate actions, and replicating this information to a remote server for analysis.

12. The method of claim 11 in which, for each action initiated, one or more of the following information is recorded:

type of action initiated;

date and time when the action was initiated;

Whether initiating an action was user-generated or involuntary;

Context.