Systems and methods for monitoring and applying statistical data related to shareable links associated with content items stored in an online content management service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9690910-B2
Application number	US-201314077160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2013
Priority date	Nov 11, 2013
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

Shareable links can be created to share content items and information pertaining to activity on those shareable links can be monitored and stored in an online content management service. Based on this activity information, actions can be executed. These actions can include sending notifications regarding link activity, disabling shareable links, and/or updating activity thresholds related to the shareable links. Using the activity information, popular shared content items can be identified and recommendations for sharing unshared content items can be provided to the user. Additionally, advertisements can be tailored to the relative popularity of the shared content items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method performed by an online content management service computing system comprising one or more processors and memory, the method comprising:
receiving, from a first client device operated by a user, a request to create a shareable link for a content item, wherein the request includes a first activity threshold for controlling access to the content item using the shareable link and an indication that link activity is to be monitored;
wherein the first activity threshold comprises a first view count, the first view count representing a threshold number of times a request to access the shareable link is received by the online content management service computing system;
creating, by one or more processors, the shareable link for the content item;
storing the first activity threshold in association with the shareable link;
receiving, from a second client device, a request by a recipient of the shareable link to access the content item using the shareable link;
determining whether the first activity threshold has been met;
in response to determining that the first activity threshold has been met, executing a first action on the shareable link;
wherein the first action comprises sending a notification that the first activity threshold has been met;
receiving, from a third client device operated by a user, a request to change the first activity threshold associated with the shareable link to a second activity threshold;
wherein the second activity threshold comprises a second view count that is greater than the first view count;
storing the second activity threshold in association with the shareable link;
receiving, from a fourth client device, a request by a recipient of the shareable link to access the content item using the shareable link;
determining whether the second activity threshold has been met; and
in response to determining that the second activity threshold has been met, executing a second action on the shareable link;
wherein the second action comprises sending a notification that the second activity threshold has been met.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first activity threshold further includes a temporal restriction on using the shareable link to access the content item.

3. the method of claim 1 , wherein the first activity threshold further includes a sharing limitation on using the shareable link to access the content item, and wherein the sharing limitation includes one or more internet protocol (IP) addresses for which to restrict access to the content item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the first action includes:
denying the request received from the second client device to access the content item using the shareable link; and
sending, to the first client device, a report that includes a description of activity received via the shareable link.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after receiving the request to access the content item from the second client device, sending a notification to the second client device indicating that the link activity is monitored, wherein the notification includes a first link confirming the request to access the content item and a second link canceling the request to access.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring requests received via the shareable link to collect link activity information; and
each time a request is received via the shareable link, sending a notification to the first client device, the notification indicating that the content item has been downloaded and the notification including link activity information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the link activity information includes an identifier associated with a user that downloaded the content item using the shareable link.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the link activity information includes a timestamp indicating when the content item was downloaded and includes a location corresponding to where the content item was downloaded using the shareable link.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring requests received via the shareable link to collect link activity information;
determining a number of times the content item has been downloaded using the shareable link;
comparing the number of times the content item has been downloaded to a threshold; and
sending a notification to the first client device including collected link activity information based on determining that the number of times the content item has been downloaded exceeds the threshold.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating an entry corresponding to the shareable link in a share history data structure, wherein the share history data structure includes a timestamp field; for each request received using the shareable link, adding, to the share history data structure, a timestamp entry corresponding to the request; identifying a first group of requests wherein a difference between timestamps corresponding to consecutive requests in the first group of requests is less than a first value; identifying a second group of requests wherein a difference between timestamps corresponding to consecutive requests in the second group of requests is less than a first value; and wherein a difference between a timestamp corresponding to a last request in the first group of requests and a timestamp corresponding to a first request in the second group of requests is greater than a second value.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
sending a notification indicating that the second group of requests has been identified, wherein the notification includes an option to disable the shareable link.

12. A computer-implemented method performed by an online content management service computing system comprising one or more processors and memory, the method comprising:
receiving, from a client device operated by a user, a request to create a shareable link for a content item, wherein the request includes a first activity threshold for controlling access to the content item using the shareable link and an indication that link activity is to be monitored;
wherein the first activity threshold comprises a first view count;
creating, by one or more processors, the shareable link for the content item;
storing the first activity threshold in association with the shareable link;
receiving, from the client device, a request to send the shareable link to a plurality of recipients, wherein the request includes user identifiers associated with each of the plurality of recipients;
sending the shareable link to the plurality of recipients using the user identifiers;
determining whether any of the user identifiers are associated with user accounts;
sending notifications to client devices authorized on the user accounts;
based on whether the first activity threshold is met, permitting or denying access, by each of the plurality of recipients, to the content item using the shareable link;
receiving, from a client device operated by a user, a request to change the first activity threshold associated with the shareable link to a second activity threshold;
storing the second activity threshold in association with the shareable link;
wherein the second activity threshold comprises a second view count that is greater than the first view count; and
based on whether the second activity threshold is met, permitting or denying access, by each of the plurality of recipients, to the content item using the shareable link.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the notifications are sent to the client devices using an online content management s

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Fushman Ilya
• Welinder Nils Peter

Classifications

• G06F16/9558 Primary

  Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations · CPC title

• G06F40/134

  Hyperlinking · CPC title

• H04L67/02 Primary

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title

• G06F2221/2101

  Auditing as a secondary aspect · CPC title