Real-time content sharing between browsers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9906614-B2
Application number	US-201414269342-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2014
Priority date	May 5, 2014
Publication date	Feb 27, 2018
Grant date	Feb 27, 2018

Abstract

Techniques are provided for selectively broadcasting information from a sender's computer to one or more recipient computers in real-time. A user connects to a networked content server and browses selected content items which are determined to be of interest to other collaborators. The user activates a content sharing mode and indicates which content is to be shared. A reference to the shared content is sent to the server which in turn pushes the referenced content to identified content recipients. Content recipients can be identified based on a variety of factors, such as by subscription to a listening channel opened by the content sender, by individual selection by the content sender, and/or by geolocation. The shared content can be automatically displayed to each identified content recipient non-intrusively. Content can be pushed to the content recipients via a persistent open communication channel established between the content server and content recipients.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for content sharing that comprises:
establishing first and second open communication channels between a content server and respective first and second client computing devices;
in response to a command detected by a content browser executing on the first client computing device, receiving, at the content server via the first open communication channel, a plurality of network addresses associated with a corresponding plurality of content items that were displayed by the content browser when the command was detected; and
broadcasting the plurality of content items from the content server to the second client computing device, wherein the content items are broadcasted via the second open communication channel, and wherein broadcasting causes the content items to be displayed at the second client computing device without any command being invoked at the second client computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first open communication channel is established in response to the first client computing device executing a browser plugin retrieved from the content server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second open communication channel is established in response to the second client computing device executing a browser plugin retrieved from the content server.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second open communication channels provides duplex communications according to a WebSocket protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second open communication channel is capable of obtaining the content items from the content server based on a client-side timer running on the second client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the command detected by the content browser is a swiping gesture performed on a touch sensitive surface that forms part of the first client computing device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of content items is stored in a content repository hosted by the content server.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein: the second open communication channel is established in response to the second client computing device executing a browser plugin in the content browser running on the second client computing device.

9. A system for sharing content that comprises:
a networked content server that is configured to receive, from a first client device, a plurality of network addresses associated with a corresponding plurality of shared content items;
a content repository hosted by the networked content server, the content repository having the content items stored therein; and
active content that forms part of a webpage stored within the content repository, the active content configured to cause a web browser running on the first client device to transmit the shared content items to the networked content server in response to detection of a user interface command that is (a) invoked with respect to the content items at the first client device, and (b) detected by the web browser,
wherein transmitting the shared content items causes the shared content items to be displayed at each of a plurality of second client devices without any command being invoked at such devices,
wherein the shared content items are transmitted to the plurality of second client devices via a respective plurality of open communication channels, and
wherein the shared content items were displayed by the web browser when the user interface command was detected.

10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a geolocation module configured to estimate a physical location of a plurality of distributed client devices, wherein:
the plurality of second client devices are included in the plurality of distributed client devices; and
the plurality of second client devices are estimated to be physically located within a target audience region.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the user interface command invoked with respect to the shared content items is a swipe gesture performed on a touch sensitive surface displaying the shared content items.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the active content is further configured to establish a particular one of the open communication channels between a particular one of the second client devices and the networked content server, the particular open communication channel corresponding to a WebSocket communication protocol.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the networked content server is further configured to serve the webpage to the first client device and at least one of the plurality of second client devices before the network addresses are transmitted to the networked content server.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by one or more processors cause a content sharing process to be carried out, the process comprising:
establishing a first open communication channel between a content server and a first client device;
broadcasting availability of the first open communication channel via a web portal listing;
receiving, from a second client device, a subscription request for the first open communication channel;
in response to receiving the subscription request from the second client device, establishing a second open communication channel between the content server and the second client device;
in response to a user interaction detected by a content browser executing on the first client device, receiving, at the content server via the first open communication channel, a plurality of network addresses associated with a corresponding plurality of content items that were displayed by the content browser when the user interaction was detected; and
broadcasting the plurality of network addresses from the content server to the second client device from which the subscription request was received, wherein the network addresses are broadcasted via the second open communication channel, and wherein broadcasting causes the content items associated with the network addresses to be downloaded to and displayed at the second client device without user interaction with the second client device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the user interaction is a swiping gesture performed on a touch sensitive surface that forms part of the first client device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein
broadcasting availability of the first open communication channel further comprises identifying a plurality of distributed client devices within a specified physical proximity of the first client device and transmitting availability of the first open communication channel to the identified plurality of distributed client devices, and
the second client device is included in the identified plurality of distributed client devices.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein a plurality of second open communication channels are established in response to receiving a corresponding plurality of subscription requests for the first open communication channel.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein: the second open communication channel is capable of obtaining the content items associated with the network addresses from the content server based on a client-side timer running on the second client device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the first and second open communication channels provides duplex

Assignees

• Adobe Systems Inc

Inventors

• Capt Alexandre
• Antipa Damien
• Florian Ondrej

Classifications

• H04L12/1854

  with non-centralised forwarding system, e.g. chaincast · CPC title

• G06F17/3089

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L65/403

  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

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title

• H04L67/26 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic