Rating media item recommendations using recommendation paths and/or media item usage

• US 9,224,427 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Issued: 12/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VideoLabs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Napo Enerprises, LLC (Concert Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Black, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHECHTMAN, CHERYL MARIA
• Application Number:
  US11/695,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20080243733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,193 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 709/217, 709/227, 725/89
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence

Abstract

A media item recommendation rating system and method are provided. A recommendation rating for media items is established and dynamically updated in response to media items being recommended to other users. A recommendation server or other device receives a report of a media item recommendation and updates a recommendation rating in response. The recommendation rating may also be updated based on how often a recommended media item is used or played. Thus, a media item'"'"'s recommendation rating is affected by events relating to its recommendation, as opposed simple play-based ratings that are updated on any play action regardless of whether related to a recommendation or not. Simple play-based ratings do not distinguish between ordinary usages or plays and those resulting from recommendations.

Claims

1. A method of rating media item recommendations that are sent from a sending user to a recipient user, at a server, comprising the steps of:

receiving a report of a media item recommendation of a media item, wherein the report comprises information about a recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

storing the recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

altering a recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation using an alteration scale;

receiving a report of a play or usage action for the media item; and

altering the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for altering the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a recommendation server in a media recommendation rating system to:

receive a report of a media item recommendation of a media item, wherein the report comprises information about a recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

store the recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

alter a recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation using an alteration scale;

receive a report of a play or usage action for the media item; and

alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for the altering recommendation rating in response to receiving the media item recommendation.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein to alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for the altering recommendation rating in response to receiving the media item recommendation, the software further instructs the controller of the recommendation server to alter the recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to a play or usage of the media item by a play user only if the media item was previously recommended to the play user.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the software further instructs the controller of the recommendation server to determine if the recommendation path, comprised of a sending user and a recipient user, has been previously established in a recommendation path table associated with the media item being recommended.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the software further instructs the controller of the recommendation server to receive a play or usage action for a media item from a play user.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the software further instructs the controller of the recommendation server to determine if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user by determining if the play user is the recipient user in the recommendation path table for the media item associated with the play or usage action.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the software further instructs the controller of the recommendation server to alter a recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a user device to:

obtain a recommendation rating for each of one or more media items; and

provide a user interface including a media item table, the media item table comprising media columns, comprising;

a media item identification column comprised of a plurality of different media identifiers for a plurality of associated media items including the one or more media items; and

a recommendation rating column located proximate to the media item identification column comprised of the recommendation ratings for the one or more media items, which are associated with and located proximately to one or more of the plurality of different media identifiers,

for each media item of the one or more media items;

altering the recommendation rating of the media item in response to receiving a recommendation for the media item by a sending user using an alteration scale; and

after receiving the recommendation from the sending user for the media item, altering the recommendation rating of the media item in response to the media item being used or played by a play user using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for altering the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the media identifiers comprise media titles.

10. A server in a media item recommendation system, comprising:

a communication interface;

at least one processor operatively in communication with the communication interface; and

memory containing software executable by the at least one processor whereby the server is operative to;

receive a report of a media item recommendation of a media item, wherein the report comprises information about a recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

store the recommendation path for the media item recommendation;

alter a recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation using an alteration scale;

receive a report of a play or usage action for the media item; and

alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for altering the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein the information about a recommendation path for the media item comprises information identifying the media item, a first user account that originated the media item recommendation, and a second user account that received the media item recommendation.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein to receive the report of a play or usage action for the media item, the server is operative to receive the report of the play or usage action for the media item from a second device associated with the second user account.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein the server is further operative to determine if a recommendation path, comprised of the first user account and the second user account, has been previously established in a recommendation path table associated with the media item being recommended.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the server is further operative to establish the recommendation path in the recommendation path table if the recommendation path was not previously established.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the server is further operative to store the recommendation path in the recommendation path table.

16. The server of claim 13, wherein the recommendation path table comprises a recommendation id, a recipient id identifying the second user account, and a recommender id identifying the first user account.

17. The server of claim 13, wherein the recommendation path table is comprised of two tables consisting of a received recommendations table and a sent recommendations table.

18. The server of claim 10, wherein to alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action using a different alteration scale than the alteration scale used for altering the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the media item recommendation, the server is further operative to alter the recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving a report of a play or usage of the media item only if the media item was previously recommended to the play user.

19. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is further operative to determine if the media item has an established recommendation rating in memory prior to altering the recommendation.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the server is further operative to establish the recommendation rating associated with the media item being recommended if the recommendation rating has not been previously established.

21. The server of claim 20, wherein the server is further operative to establish an initial recommendation rating for the media item being recommended after establishing the recommendation rating for the media item.

22. The server of claim 10, wherein the media item being recommended is comprised from the group consisting of the media item, and a media item identifier identifying the media item.

23. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is further operative to send the media item being recommended to the recipient user on behalf of the sending user.

24. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is operative to store the recommendation rating for the media item being recommended in a recommendations table that contains a recommendation id identifying the media item being recommended and a sending user id identifying the sending user of the media item being recommended.

25. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is further operative to receive a play or usage action for a media item from a play user.

26. The server of claim 25, wherein to determine if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user, the server is operative to determine if the play user is the recipient user in the recommendation path table for the media item associated with the play or usage action.

27. The server of claim 26, wherein the server is further operative to alter a recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user.

28. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is further operative to send the recommendation rating associated with the media item to a user device.

29. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is further operative to receive a request for the recommendation rating associated with the media item.

30. The server of claim 29, wherein the server is further operative to send the requested recommendation rating associated with the media item to a requester in response to receiving the request.

31. The server of claim 10, wherein to alter the recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving the report of a media item recommendation, the server is operative to at least one of increase the recommendation rating associated with the media item in response to receiving the report and decrease the recommendation rating associated with the media item in memory in response to receiving the report.

32. The server of claim 10, wherein to alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action, the server is operative to alter the recommendation rating in response to receiving the report of the play or usage action if the media item was previously recommended to the play user sending the report of the play or usage action.

33. The server of claim 32, wherein to alter of the recommendation rating for the media item associated with the play or usage action if the media item associated with the play or usage action was previously recommended to the play user sending the report of the play or usage action, the server is operative to:

increase the recommendation rating for the media item if the play or usage action occurs within a prescribed period of time; and

decrease the recommendation rating for the media item if the play or usage action does not occur within a prescribed period of time.

34. The server of claim 10, wherein the recommendation rating is a relative recommendation rating comprised of one or more rating levels.

35. The server of claim 10, wherein the server is comprised from the group consisting of a recommendation server, a peer device, and a super peer device.