PRIORITY STATEMENT

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No.

201310231070.3, filed on June 09, 2013, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to computer techniques, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for pushing a media message.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Microblog is a platform allowing users to exchange information. Users may post information, such as "what I'm doing right now," "what I'm thinking right now," using short sentences (no more than 140 words) via various kinds of terminals.

[0004] A microblog platform may push some media messages (e.g., advertisement messages) to the users initiatively according to its requirement, e.g., add the pushed media message in a homepage of a timeline of a user's microblog. Thus, when browsing the homepage of the timeline of the microblog, the user may see the pushed media message.

SUMMARY

[0005] According to an example of the present disclosure, a method for pushing a media message is provided. The method includes:

detecting a microblog operation action of a user;

determining, if the microblog operation action of the user is detected, whether there is a media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user;

adding, if there is the media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, the media message to a timeline homepage of a microblog of the user.

[0006] According to another example of the present disclosure, an apparatus for pushing a media message is provided. The apparatus includes:

one or more processors;

a memory;

wherein one or more program modules are stored in the memory and to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more program modules include: a first processing module, adapted to

detect a microblog operation action of a user; and

trigger operations of a second processing module if the microblog operation action of the user is detected; and

the second processing module, adapted to

determine whether there is a media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user; and

add, if there is the media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, the media message correlated with the microblog operation action to a timeline homepage of a microblog of the user.

[0007] According to still another example of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium includes a set of instructions for pushing a media message is provided, the set of instructions to direct at least one processor to perform acts of:

detecting a microblog operation action of a user;

determining, if the microblog operation action of the user is detected, whether there is a media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user;

adding, if there is the media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, the media message to a timeline homepage of a microblog of the user.

[0008] Other aspects or embodiments of the present disclosure can be understood by those skilled in the art in light of the description, the claims, and the drawings of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not limited in the following figures, in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which:

[0010] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a computer system for implementing a method for pushing a media message.

[0011] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for pushing a media message according to an example of the present disclosure.

[0012] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for pushing a media message according to another example of the present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an apparatus for pushing a media message according to another example of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The preset disclosure will be described in further detail hereinafter with reference to accompanying drawings and examples to make the technical solution and merits therein clearer.

[0015] For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure is described by referring to examples. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparent however, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitation to these specific details. In other instances, some methods and structures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure. As used herein, the term "includes" means includes but not limited to, the term "including" means including but not limited to. The term "based on" means based at least in part on. In addition, the terms "a" and "an" are intended to denote at least one of a particular element.

[0016] In an existing technique, the same media message is pushed to different users. It is impossible to push different media messages to different users. In addition, the existing media message pushing method pushes the media message to user mandatorily, without any trigger of the user. Therefore, the user may be not interested in the pushed media message. The user's focus stays on the pushed media message for a very short time. Thus, the pushed media message loses its value and system resources are wasted.

[0017] In contrast to this, an example of the present disclosure provides a method for pushing a media message. In the example of the present disclosure, at least one keyword is configured for each media message to be pushed. When a user triggers a microblog operation action (e.g., posts or forwards a microblog message), at least one keyword corresponding to the microblog operation action is retrieved. The at least one keyword corresponding to the microblog operation action is compared with that of the media message. If the media message has at least one same keyword with the microblog operation action, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action and is pushed to the user.

[0018] According to the solution of the present disclosure, the pushed media message is more correlated with the user's interest. Therefore, the user will stay on the pushed media message for a longer time. The value of the pushed media message is increased and the utilization ratio of the system resources is increased. In addition, the media message is pushed to the user after a microblog operation action (e.g., post or forward a microblog message) of the user is detected. Therefore, the pushed media message can be seen by the user in time, which also increases the pushing value of the media message and increases the utilization ratio of the system resources.

[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a computer system for executing the method for pushing a media message. A computer system 100 may be a computing device capable of executing a method and apparatus of present disclosure. The computer system 100 may, for example, be a device such as a server that provides service to users locally or via a network.

[0020] The computer system 100 may vary in terms of capabilities or features. Claimed subject matter is intended to cover a wide range of potential variations. For example, the computer system 100 may include or may execute a variety of operating systems 141. The computer system 100 may include or may execute a variety of possible applications 142, such as a media message pushing application 145. [0021] Further, the computer system 100 may include one or more non -transitory processor-readable storage media 130 and one or more processors 122 in communication with the non-transitory processor-readable storage media 130. For example, the non-transitory processor-readable storage media 130 may be a RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of non-transitory storage medium known in the art. The one or more non-transitory processor-readable storage media 130 may store sets of instructions, or units and/or modules that comprise the sets of instructions, for conducting operations described in the present application. The one or more processors may be configured to execute the sets of instructions and perform the operations in example embodiments of the present application.

[0022] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for pushing a media message according to an example of the present disclosed media message pushing application 145. FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram according to one embodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely an example, which should not unduly limit the scope of the claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize many variations, alternatives, and modifications.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 2, the method includes at least the following.

[0024] At block 21, each time a predefined microblog operation action of the user is detected, blocks 22-23 are executed.

[0025] At block 22, it is determined whether there is a media message, among media messages to be pushed, which is correlated with the microblog operation action of the user. If yes, block 23 is performed; otherwise, the method ends.

[0026] In a practical application, before determining whether there is a media message which is correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, i.e., after the microblog operation action of the user is detected, one or more keywords corresponding to the microblog operation action need to be generated.

[0027] In addition, for each media message to be pushed, one or more keywords corresponding to the media message need to be configured. The keywords corresponding to the media message may be configured according to a practical requirement. For example, the keywords may be configured manually according to contents of the media message.

[0028] Thus, for each media message, the generated one or more keywords of the media message may be compared with the one or more keywords of the microblog operation action of the user. If the comparison succeeds, i.e., there is a same keyword between the media message and the microblog operation action, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action of the user.

[0029] Based on the above method, the number of media messages that are correlated with the microblog operation action of the user may be zero, or one, or more than one.

[0030] The success of the comparison may be determined according to any one of the following two conditions. [0031] In a first condition, the keywords corresponding to the microblog operation action are completely the same with the keywords corresponding to the media message.

[0032] In a second condition, the microblog operation action and the media message have at least one same keyword.

[0033] In a practical application, it is possible to select any one of the above two conditions to determine whether the comparison succeeds.

[0034] Hereinafter, three examples are given to describe the determination on whether the comparison succeeds.

[0035] In one example, suppose that there are three keywords corresponding to the microblog operation action of the user, respectively are keywords A, B and C. One media message to be pushed corresponds to four keywords, respectively are keywords A, D, E and F. Since one of the three keywords, i.e., keyword A, of the microblog operation action of the user is the same as that of the media message, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action.

[0036] In another example, suppose that there are three keywords corresponding to the microblog operation action of the user, respectively are keywords A, B and C. One media message to be pushed corresponds to four keywords, respectively are keywords A, B, E and F. Since two of the three keywords, i.e., keywords A and B, of the microblog operation action of the user are the same as those of the media message, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action.

[0037] In still another example, suppose that there are three keywords corresponding to the microblog operation action of the user, respectively are keywords A, B and C. One media message to be pushed corresponds to four keywords, respectively are keywords A, B, C and F. Since all of the three keywords of the microblog operation action of the user are the same as those of the media message, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action.

[0038] At block 23, the media message which is correlated with the microblog operation action of the user is added to a timeline homepage of the user's microblog.

[0039] The user does not need to follow a microblog account of a distributor of the media message, i.e., the user is not a fan of the microblog account of the distributor of the media message. Once the pushing condition is met, i.e., once the predefined microblog operation action of the user is detected, if there is a media message among the media message to be pushed which is correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, the correlated media message is pushed to the user by the distributor.

[0040] In a practical application, if too many media messages are pushed to the user, the user may have a bad experience. Therefore, in this block, it is possible to determine whether the number of the media messages which are correlated with the microblog operation action of the user is larger than N, N is an integer. If the number is not larger than N, the media messages correlated with the microblog operation action are pushed to the homepage of the user's microblog, i.e., the timeline homepage. If the number is larger than N, the media messages which are correlated with the microblog operation action are sorted according to a predefined rule. Then top N media messages are pushed to the timeline homepage of the user's microblog.

[0041] The detailed sorting method of the media messages which are correlated with the microblog operation action of the user may be determined according to a practical requirement. For example, a following manner may be adopted.

[0042] A priority is configured for each media message to be pushed in advance. The higher the priority of the media message, the more forward position the media message is ranked.

[0043] If the second condition is adopted to determine whether the comparion succeeds, i.e., if the microblog operation action and the media message have at least one same keyword, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog operation action. Thus, for each two media messages correlated with the microblog operation action, e.g., media messages A and B, if media message A and the microblog operation action has one same keyword, whereas media message B and the microblog operation action have two same keywords, during the sorting operation, media message B is ranked in a position prior to media message A. The more same keywords, the more forward position the media message is ranked.

[0044] Those skilled in the art may sort the correlated media messages according to other methods, which is not described herein.

[0045] In a practical application, the predefined microblog operation action may include: posting a microblog message, or forwarding a microblog message, etc., i.e., an operation action related to characters.

[0046] Hereinafter, the posting of a microblog message is taken as an exemplary microblog operation action to describe the technical solution of the present disclosure.

[0047] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for pushing a media message according to an example of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, the method includes the following.

[0048] At block 31, each time it is detected that a user posts a microblog message, at least one keyword is retrieved from the microblog message posted by the user.

[0049] The keyword may be retrieved from the microblog message according to an existing technique and the detailed retrieving procedure is not described herein.

[0050] At block 32, a parameter M is configured with an initial value of 0.

[0051] At block 33, for each media message to be pushed, at least one keyword corresponding to the media message is compared with the at least one keyword retrieved from the microblog message. If the media message has a same keyword with the microblog message, the media message is determined as correlated with the microblog message posted by the user, and M is added by 1.

[0052] After each media message to be pushed is compared with the microblog message according to the above manner, block 34 is performed.

[0053] At block 34, it is determined whether the value of M is 0. If yes, the method ends. Otherwise, block 35 is performed.

[0054] If the value of M is 0, it indicates that there is no media message in the media messages to be pushed which is correlated with the microblog message posted by the user. At this time, the method ends.

[0055] If the value of M is not 0, it indicates that there is a media message among the media messages to be pushed which is correlated with the microblog message posted by the user. Accordingly, block 35 is performed.

[0056] At block 35, it is determined whether the value of M is 1. If yes, block 36 is performed; otherwise, block 37 is performed.

[0057] As described above, in order to avoid antipathy of the user, for one microblog message posted by the user, usually at most one media message is pushed. Therefore, in this block, it is determined whether the value of M is 1.

[0058] At block 36, the media message correlated with the microblog message posted by the user is added to a timeline homepage of the user's microblog, and then the method ends.

[0059] If the value of M is 1, i.e., there is only one media message correlated with the microblog message posted by the user, the media message is added to the timeline homepage of the user's microblog.

[0060] At block 37, the media messages correlated with the microblog message posted by the user are sorted according to a predefined rule, a media message ranking in the first is added to the timeline homepage of the user's microblog, and then the method ends.

[0061] If the value of M is larger than 1, i.e., there are multiple media messages among the media messages to be pushed which are correlated with the microblog message posted by the user. One media message is selected from the media messages and the selected media message is added to the timeline homepage of the user's microblog.

[0062] In the timeline homepage of the user's microblog, the media message added by block

36 or 37 is displayed above the microblog message posted by the user in block 31. This is because that the media message is distributed later than the microblog message in block 31. The time that the media message is distributed is closer to the current time and thus the media message is newer than the microblog message posted by the user.

[0063] After blocks 36 and 37, if the user posts another new microblog message, the media message added in block 36 or block 37 will sink normally.

[0064] In addition, the format of the media message added in block 36 or block 37 should be the same with that of the microblog message posted by the user, i.e., the added media message needs to meet the format requirement of the microblog platform. For example, total words cannot exceed 140.

[0065] The media message added in block 36 or block 37 is not pushed to microblog fans of the user, i.e., is not propagated to fans of the user, so as to avoid antipathy of other users.

[0066] Based on the above, an example of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for pushing a media message. As shown in FIG. 4, the apparatus 400 includes:

one or more processors 410;

a memory 420;

wherein one or more program modules are stored in the memory 420 and to be executed by the one or more processors 410, the one or more program modules include:

a first processing module 41, adapted to

detect a microblog operation action of a user; and

trigger operations of a second processing module 42 if the microblog operation action of the user is detected; and

the second processing module 42, adapted to

determine whether there is a media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user; and

add, if there is the media message correlated with the microblog operation action of the user, the media message correlated with the microblog operation action to a timeline homepage of a microblog of the user.

[0067] The second processing module 42 may specifically include:

a first processing unit 421, adapted to generate at least one keyword corresponding to the microblog operation action and transmit the at least one keyword to a second processing unit 422; and

the second processing unit 422, adapted to compare, for each media message to be pushed, the generated at least one keyword with at least one predefined keyword corresponding to the media message, determine, if the comparison succeeds, that the media message is correlated with the microblog operation action, and add the media message in the timeline homepage of the microblog of the user.

[0068] In particular, the second processing unit 422 may be adapted to:

determine that the media message is correlated with the microblog operation action if the at least one keyword of the microblog operation action and the at least one keyword of the media message are completely the same; or

determine that the media message is correlated with the microblog operation action if the microblog operation action and the media message have at least one same keyword.

[0069] The microblog operation action may include posting of a microblog message.

[0070] Accordingly, the first processing unit 421 is adapted to retrieve at least one keyword of the microblog message posted by the user and take the retrieved at least one keyword as the at least one keyword corresponding to the microblog operation action.

[0071] In addition, the second processing unit 422 may be further adapted to:

determine whether the number of media messages correlated with the microblog operation action is larger than N, N is an integer;

add, if the number is not larger than N, the media message correlated with the microblog operation action to the timeline homepage of the microblog of the user; and

sort, if the number is larger than N, the media messages correlated with the microblog operation action according to a predefined rule, and add first N media message in the timeline homepage of the microblog of the user.

[0072] Other functions and operations of the modules in the apparatus 400 as shown in FIG.

4 may be seen from the foregoing method examples and will not be repeated herein.

[0073] The processor 410 may include one or more processors for executing the sets of instructions stored in the memory 420. The processor 420 is a hardware device, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or a micro controlling unit (MCU). The memory 420 is a non-transitory processor-readable storage media, such as a RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of non-transitory storage medium known in the art.

[0074] According to the solution of the present disclosure, the pushed media message is more correlated with the user's interest. Therefore, the user will stay on the pushed media message for a longer time. The value of the pushed media message is increased and the utilization ratio of the system resources is increased. In addition, the media message is pushed to the user after a microblog operation action (e.g., post or forward a microblog message) of the user is detected. Therefore, the pushed media message can be seen by the user in time, which also increases the pushing value of the media message and increases the utilization ratio of the system resources.

[0075] What has been described and illustrated herein is a preferred example of the disclosure along with some of its variations. The terms, descriptions and figures used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations. Many variations are possible within the spirit and scope of the disclosure, which is intended to be defined by the following claims — and their equivalents— in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.