Real-time interaction during video viewing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9253225-B1
Application number	US-201314029583-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 17, 2013
Priority date	Apr 22, 2009
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

Community interaction during video viewing is provided. A video hosting website includes videos available for viewing. Users establish lists of friends, who are other users of the video hosting site. When a user logs on, her presence is made known by an interaction engine to her friends that are also logged in to the site. The user's activities are tracked and her friends are notified of those activities. Tracked activities may include viewing a video, rating a video, commenting on a video, uploading a video to the site, and adding a new friend. Friends are notified of these activities in one embodiment through one or more user interface elements. A user can select a user interface element to discover which of her friends are also watching the same video at that time. A user watching a video can summon her online friends to the watch page to watch collaboratively.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for viewing digital video content on a video hosting site, the method comprising:
sending, by a server, digital video content over a network to a first client device for display on the first client device;
receiving, by the server, a request from the first client device to determine other viewers watching the digital video content;
responsive to receiving the request, determining, by the server, a second client device to which the digital video content is also being sent, whereby the digital video content is displayed on the second client device asynchronously from display of the digital video content on the first client device of the first viewer; and
providing, by the server, over the network to the first client device an indication that the second client device is displaying the digital content.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: providing, by the server, over the network to the second client device, an indication that the first client device is displaying the digital content.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each client device is represented within the server with an executing process, and wherein automatically determining the second client device comprises the server contacting the executing process representing the second client device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital video content is represented by a process and the process tracks client devices currently watching the digital video content, wherein automatically determining a second client device comprises identifying a client device tracked by the process.

5. A computer program product for providing real-time collaborative viewing of digital video content on a video hosting site, the computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and including computer code adapted when loaded into memory to cause a processor to carry out the steps of:
sending digital video content over a network to a first client device for display on the first client device;
receiving a request from the first client device to determine other viewers watching the digital video content;
responsive to receiving the request, automatically determining a second client device to which the digital video content is also being sent, whereby the digital video content is displayed on the second client device asynchronously from display of the digital video content on the first client device of the first viewer; and
providing over the network to the first client device an indication that the second client device is displaying the digital content.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , where in the computer code is further adapted to cause the processor to carry out the step of: providing, over the network to the second client device, an indication that the first client device is displaying the digital content.

7. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein each client device is represented by an executing process, and wherein automatically determining the second client device comprises contacting the executing process representing the second client device.

8. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the digital video content is represented by a process and the process tracks client devices currently watching the digital video content, wherein automatically determining a second client device comprises identifying a client device tracked by the process.

9. A computer program product for collaborative viewing of digital video content on a video hosting site, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions adapted for execution on a processor on a client device, the instructions causing the processor to carry out the steps of:
transmitting a request from a requestor to the video hosting site to view a video, the video provided to the client device from the video hosting site over a network, wherein the requestor is logged in to the video hosting site from the client device;
receiving, from the requestor, a selection of at least one user from a list of users contemporaneously logged in, with the requestor, to the video hosting site;
transmitting an invite to the selected user to view the video;
transmitting a request to determine other viewers viewing the video; and
responsive to transmitting the request, receiving an indication that the selected viewer is viewing the video, the video displayable to the selected viewer asynchronously from the video displayed to the requestor.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the video is embedded in a web page displayed on a computer of the requester.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the displayed web page includes a list of users contemporaneously viewing the video.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein each of the users in the list of users is associated with a set of friends identified to the video hosting site by the requester.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the displayed web page includes a chat interface enabling each of the list of users contemporaneously viewing the video to chat with the other users as a group.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein a user interface element of the web page displays an alert, the alert indicating that a user has logged in to the video hosting site.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the alert identifies a user that is associated with a set of friends identified to the video hosting site by the requester.

16. A system for collaborative viewing of digital video content on a video hosting site, comprising:
a processor configured to execute instructions;
a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing instructions executable by the processor and causing the processor to carry out the steps of:
transmitting a request from a requestor to the video hosting site to view a video, the video provided to the client device from the video hosting site over a network, wherein the requestor is logged in to the video hosting site from the client device;
receiving, from the requestor, a selection of at least one user from a list of users contemporaneously logged in, with the requestor, to the video hosting site;
transmitting an invite to the selected user to view the video;
transmitting a request to determine other viewers viewing the video; and
responsive to transmitting the request, receiving an indication that the selected viewer is viewing the video, the video displayable to the selected viewer asynchronously from the video displayed to the requestor.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the video is embedded in a web page displayed on a computer of the requester.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the displayed web page includes a list of users contemporaneously viewing the video.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein each of the users in the list of users is associated with a set of friends identified to the video hosting site by the requester.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the displayed web page includes a chat interface enabling each of the list of users contemporaneously viewing the video to chat with the other users as a group.

21. The system of claim 17 wherein a user interface element of the web page displays an alert, the alert indicating that a user has logged in to the video hosting site.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the alert identifies a user that is associated with a set of friends iden

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Junee Ryan
• Ho Herbert
• Pan Yu
• Klein Erik
• Jovanovski Slave
• Frumar Julian
• Schrock Jasson Arthur
• Leider Richard B
• Nibhanupudi Mohan

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F3/0481 Primary

  based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance · CPC title

• H04L65/403 Primary

  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 title

• H04L12/1822

  Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission · CPC title

• H04L12/18

  for broadcast or conference {, e.g. multicast} · CPC title