TECHNICAL FIELD

The various aspects relate to a content search and distribution system comprising a content search server enabling a user to search for content items.

BACKGROUND

Content distribution services like iTunes by Apple enable users to search content items of their interest. Such content items may be executable applications, music tracks, so- called podcasts, TV shows, films or other audiovisual content. In response to entering search terms, references to content items are returned, together with evaluation scores and further information on the content item. The references returned relate to content items that match the search terms or at last parts thereof.

SUMMARY

It is preferred to provide a more personalised search service.

A first aspect provides in a computer, a method of retrieving information related to at least one content item selected by a user, comprising receiving a query related to the content item, retrieving a list comprising relations of the user. The list comprising relations is used for identifying relations in the list comprising relations which relations are linked to the content item. The method further comprises retrieving at least one evaluation score for the content item, the evaluation score provided by at least one identified relation that is linked to the content item. The retrieved evaluation score is provided to the user.

With this method, the user is provided with feedback on the content item provided by a person close to the user, which may be more of interest than an evaluation provided by a random person not familiar to the user.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the query comprises a search term and the method further comprises searching a database for content items matching the search term; and identifying relations in the list comprising relations which relations are linked to the content items returned by the searching. At least part of the content items returned by the searching is provided to the user. A query may be a direct selection of a content item by clicking a reference to the specific content item. If such direct reference is not available, the user may have to search for the content item. A further embodiment of the first aspect comprises determining whether the content items returned by the searching are linked to a relation of the user; and providing content items being linked to a relation of the user.

This embodiment is particularly advantageous if the user is only interested in content items linked in some way to a relation of the user, so to a person that may be close to the user.

In another embodiment of the first aspect, each relation has a relationship score associated with it, further comprising sorting the content items by relationship score.

A person may add more value to items linked to persons considered to be more important or closer to the user.

In yet a further embodiment of the first aspect, each relation has a relationship score associated with it, further comprising calculating a weighed relevance score per content items based on relationship scores of relations being linked to the content item and evaluation scores related to the content item.

This embodiment may be advantageous if the user is also interested in evaluations provided by other users a bit further away from the closest relations. This embodiment allows sorting of references to content items in a way that content items where content items with very positive feedback by relations further away may also appear high in a list, next to content items linked to close relations who have provide a lower evaluation score. This may provide a more objective ranking from the perspective of the user.

A second aspect provides an arrangement for retrieving information related to at least one content item selected by a user, comprising: a communication unit arranged to receive a query related to the content item and retrieve a list comprising relations of the user. The arrangement further comprises a processing unit arranged to identify relations in the list comprising relations which relations are linked to the content item. The communication unit is further arranged to retrieve at least one evaluation score for the content item, the evaluation score provided by at least one identified relation that is linked to the content item and provide the evaluation score to the user.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the arrangement comprises a storage module for storing data and the communication unit is further arranged to receive a database comprising references to content items and/or meta data related to content items available on a content supply server. The processing unit is arranged to store data comprised by the database on the storage module; and query the database for content items corresponding to the query.

With this embodiment, the arrangement may provide the user with information on content items that are provided by multiple content distributors, rather than only one. This provides the user with a vast amount of information on a vast amount of content items.

A third aspect provides a computer programme product comprising code executable by a computer, enabling the computer to execute the method according to the first aspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various aspects and embodiments thereof will now be further discussed in conjunction with Figures. In the Figures:

Figure 1 : shows a content search and distribution system; Figure 2: shows a content search server;

Figure 3: shows a social media network server;

Figure 4: shows a social media network server;

Figure 5: shows a smart phone; and

Figure 6: shows a flowchart depicting a procedure as embodiment of the first aspect. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 shows a content search and distribution system 100 comprising a mobile communication device 500 as a client terminal, a content search server 200, a social media network server 300, a first content supply server 400.1 and a second content supply server 400.2. The content search server 200 is operatively coupled to the other parts of the content search and distribution system 100 via a communication network 150. The communication network 150 may be wireless, wired, or a combination thereof.

Figure 2 shows the content search server 200 in further detail. The content search server 200 comprises a programmed microprocessor 210 as a processing unit, a harddisk 220 as a storage module, a first communication module 232 for communicating with the mobile communication device 500 and a second communication module 234 for communicating with the social media network server 300 and the content supply servers 400. In an alternative embodiment, the content search server 200 comprises a single communication module for communicating with all components of the content search and distribution system 100. The microprocessor 210 is operatively connected to the other components of the content search server 200. The microprocessor 210 comprises a scoring analysis and calculation module 212 as a first programmed part, a sorting module 214 as a second programmed part, a searching module 216 as a third programmed part and a matching module 218 as a fourth programmed part. In this embodiment, the microprocessor 210 is programmed by means of software stored on the harddisk 220 to perform the various functions as discussed below. Alternatively, the microprocessor is fully or partially hardwired for programming the microprocessor to perform such functions.

Figure 3 shows the social media network server 300 in further detail. The social media network server 300 comprises a network communication module 332 to communicate with other servers, user terminals, other computing devices or a combination thereof, a harddisk 320 as a storage module and a microprocessor 310 as a processing unit. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that a full social media network service will comprise a multitude of the components disclosed by Figure 3.

The social network server 300 allows subscribers to link to one another, exchange information like messages, photographs and other content in a way one would normally do in the real world. Examples of such social network are Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and similar. The social network server 300 has stored on the harddisk 320 information related to connections between subscribers to the social network servers. That information is preferably stored in a database. In that database, preferably also information of the subscribers, like hobbies, birthday, interests, other, or a combination thereof may be stored. Furthermore, the database may also comprise information on specific topics, news articles, music, games or other content items that the subscriber has specifically indicated to "like". Such "like" may be a binary value like 0 for indifferent and 1 for like, but it may also be a discrete value between 0 and 10 indicating a certain measure how much the subscriber likes a specific content item.

Figure 4 shows the content supply server 400 in further detail. The content supply server 400 comprises a network communication module 432 to communicate with other servers, user terminals, other computing devices or a combination thereof, a harddisk 420 as a storage module and a microprocessor 410 as a processing unit. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that a full content distribution service will comprise a multitude of the components disclosed by Figure 4.

The harddisk 420 has content items stored on it, for use and/or downloading by subscribers or otherwise customers of the operator of the content supply server 400. The content items may be music, games or other executable programmes, books, films, other, or a combination thereof. Such content may be encoded in a binary format and additionally further processed by means of compression, encryption, translation, other, or a combination thereof. A customer may use and/or download the content items for free or in return for a payment, as is currently available with for example the iTunes service as provided by Apple. To inform (potential) customer of content items available, the content distribution server has a list of content items stored on the harddisk 420. The list may be a plain list, a database, a formatted document comprises said data, other or a combination thereof, with a reference to the actual content item for each entry in the list. This allows convenient and efficient presentation of content items available and subsequent retrieval by the content distribution server 400 for delivery to a customer.

The database stored on the harddisk 420 preferably comprises metadata for each content item. Such metadata may be a name of the content item, the category and/or sub-category of the content item, the purchase price of a content item, a description of the content item, graphical information on the content item, evaluation of the content item provided by users, information on the developer, writer and/or publisher of the content item, other, or a combination thereof. Categories of content items specified may be books, applications, films, music tracks and similar. Sub-categories may be for books thrillers, fantasy, non-fiction, biographies and other, for applications it may be games, navigation, voice over IP, productivity, utilities and other. Figure 5 discloses a smart phone 500 as a user terminal. The smart phone 500 comprises a network communication module 532, a microprocessor 510, a solid state memory 520 as a storage module, an audio analysis module 542, a microphone 544, an audio rendering module 546, a speaker 548, a video rendering module 552, a touch screen 554 as a display and a first user input module and a keypad 560 as a second user input module.

The network communication module 532 is arranged to communicate over wireless networks as WiFi and cellular networks in accordance with the GSM, 3G and/or LTE standard, variations thereof and/or any other standard. The network communication module 532 is coupled to the microprocessor 510 which is arranged for processing data received by the smart phone by means of the network communication module 532, the microphone 544, the touch screen 554 and the keypad 650 or stored in the solid state memory 520. Processed data may be sent to the speaker 548, the touch screen 554 and/or other servers or other computing and/or communication devices via the network communication module 532. The network communication module 532 may also be arranged to communicate over the communication network 150.

The functionality of the content search server 200 as depicted by Figure 2, in cooperation with other components of the content search and distribution system 100 will now be discussed in conjunction with a flow chart 600 depicted by Figure 6. The table below provides a summary of each step of the flowchart 600. The steps will be described in further detail below the table.

Ref. Step

no.

602 Start process

604 Receive search term

606 Search content reference database

608 Retrieve evaluation information

610 Receive search results

612 Retrieve relationship information

614 Check whether content items in search results are linked to relations 616 Obtain relationship score

618 Obtain evaluation score

620 Calculate relevance score

622 Associate at least one score type with at least on content item in the search results

624 Filter results

626 Sort results

628 Provide results to user

630 Receive user selection

632 Provide content item to user

634 Refer user to content supply server

636 End of process

The process starts in a terminator 602. In a step 604, a search term provided by a user is received by the content search server 200. This search term may comprise key words and/or attributes referring to categories and/or sub-categories as discussed before, other meta data, other, or a combination thereof. Alternatively or additionally, the attributes may identify a threshold for a minimum or maximum evaluation score, a purchase price, other, or a combination thereof. The search term may also be a specific query for an individually specified or identified content item. In a step 606, a database is searched for content items corresponding to the search term. The database search may be a single database available at one of the content supply servers 400 or all of them. If the search term has an attribute that the search relates to films, databases of content supply servers 400 that provide only executable applications are not searched. Alternatively, databases with references to the actual content stored on one or more of the content supply servers are copied to a local database of the content search server 200 stored on the harddisk 220. This action may be performed regularly by so-called crawlers that collect content from various locations. Hence, the search process may take place in one or more of the content supply servers 400, on the content search server 200 or a combination thereof. The search term may be sent to the content search server by a user by means of the smart phone 500.

The search results are received by the content search server 200 in step 610. The search results identify content items corresponding to the search terms received earlier. The search results comprise names of content items, references to content items, meta- data related to content items, other or a combination thereof. For the sake of simplicity, references to content items will in the further part of the description also be referred to as content items. In a step 608, evaluation information comprising scores related to the content items that correspond to the search results are retrieved. The evaluation scores may be retrieved from the content supply servers 400, from the social media network server 300, from the content search server 200 or a combination thereof. Such evaluation score may be a like score as explained above, a Boolean value, a score ranging from 0 or 1 to 5 or 10. Alternatively or additionally, it may be a positive score or a negative score, an indication that at least one person has added a content item to his or her favourites.

It may also be that a user has provided detailed comments as written text to evaluate a content item. All these types of evaluations or a selection thereof may be processed for yielding one general evaluation score per content item, calculated in step 618. Alternatively, the general evaluation score is calculated per content item per evaluating person. Evaluation scores may also have evaluation feedback scores associated with them, providing feedback on the quality of the evaluation as perceived by users. In step 612, relationship information related to the user is retrieved from the social media network server 300. The user is subscribed to the social media network preferably hosted by the social media network server 300. The information retrieved may comprise identification of other subscribers that have a relation to the user in the social media network. Such relation may be that the relations follow activities of the user, that the user follows activities of the relations or both. In the first case, the relations are followers of the user, in the second case, the relations are peers of the user and in the third case, the relations are friends of the user. These categories may be further specified as "best friends", "favourite peers" or similar. A user may pick his or her peers and friends for all content linked to the peers and friends. Alternatively, a user may pick peers for specific content items only. Such specific content items may be specified as a category - music, applications -, a subcategory - baroque music, real time strategy games -, per author or publisher - Johann Sebastian Bach or Rovio -, other values of meta-data parameters or a combination thereof. Each relation may have a relationship score associated with it. Such relationship score may indicate the tightness of the relationship. The relationship score may be determined by the type of relationship - peer, follower, friend, where friend would yield a higher score than peer or follower -, the number of mutual relations, the number of messages exchanged, the number of content items that have been purchased by both the user and the relation, the number of mutual profile views, the number of mutual interests, the number of commonly positively evaluated content items, other, or a combination thereof. Furthermore, a relation to a peer having a lot of followers may have a higher score than a relation to a peer having less followers.

Also, a relation having provided evaluations that receive at least generally positive feedback may have a higher score associated with him or her than a relation having provided few evaluations or evaluations that generally receive negative feedback or no feedback at all. The relationship score may be one single score, resulting from compiling individual scores based on the factors identified before or a vector comprising the individual scores. In the latter case, one general relationship score may subsequently be calculated in step 616.

Based on the general evaluation score and the general relationship score, a general relevance score per content item may be calculated in step 620. More relevance may be attributed to an evaluation score originating from a relation and from a relation with a high relationship score as compared to an evaluation score originating from a relation and from a relation with a low relationship score. The relevance score may be calculated giving equal weight to each component taken into account. Alternatively, more weight may be given to the relationship score than to the evaluation score or the other way around.

In step 614, content items of which references are returned by the search step are checked against relations of the user to check whether a relation of the user has a link to each of the content items returned by the search. A link between a relation and a content item may be determined to exist if the relation has purchased the content item, downloaded the content item, used the content items, evaluated the content item, indicated a link with the content item in another way, or a combination thereof. If there is such a link between the content item and the relation, this is registered by the content search server 200 for potential later use of that information. In step 622, the evaluation scores, the relationship scores, the relevance scores, other scores or a combination thereof, either on a general level per content item and/or per relation, are associated with the content item they are associated with and that is available in the search results in a result list.

In a subsequent step 624, the search results related to the content items matching the search terms, combined with the associated scores, may be filtered. Various filter conditions may apply as to discard search results that are not linked to a relation of the user. Alternatively, search results related to followers only are discarded. In yet another alternative, search results with at least one score, either specific or general, below, equal to or above a certain threshold may be discarded.

The filtered results may be sorted in step 626. Various sorting criteria may be applied: relevance score per content item, average relationship score per item, highest relationship score per item, highest, lowest or average evaluation score per item and similar or other criteria. Alternatively or additionally, advanced sorting criteria may be applied. For example, references to content items that are most popular among relations may be presented on top of a list, followed by references to content items that are a bit less popular. Most popular may be best rated content items and/or most downloaded content items. Alternatively, results may be provided that represent content items that have been downloaded by relations in the past 24 hours. Such advanced sorting and filtering criteria may be combined with sorting and filtering criteria already discussed. The results are subsequently provided to the user in step 628. This may be done by sending a filtered and sorted list to the smart phone 500 via a cellular network. Alternatively, an unfiltered and unsorted list is sent to the smart phone 500 and the list may be sorted and filtered by the user of the smart phone 500. Upon presentation of the list on the smart phone 500, the user may select one or more content items of which references and preferably meta data are sent to the smart phone 500 by the content search server 200. The user selection is received back by the content search server 200 in step 630. Subsequently, the content search server 200 either provides the content item to the user in step 632 in case the selected and possibly purchased content item is stored on and/or sold by the content search server 200. Alternatively, the user is forwarded to the first content supply server 400.1 in step 634 if the selected content item is stored on the first content supply server 400.1 . In the latter case, the content search server 200 acts as a portal to the various content supply servers 400 with main purpose to make searching of content items that may be of interest to the user more convenient. The process ends in the terminator 636. In the description above, the query related to one or more content items is a search term, provided in free text, attributes and/or other criteria, for which a match is sought in the meta data, including the name of the content item. Alternatively, a query may relate to clicking, on the smart phone 500 or another user equipment (tablet, personal computer, or similar), a reference to a specific content item, for example provided as an icon. Such icon may be provided pro-actively to the user based on preferences of the user. Such preferences may be explicitly indicated in the user profile as stored on the harddisk 320 of the social media network server 300. Alternatively or additionally, preferences may be copied from relations. An assumption for this is that in particular in this scenario, people chose to relate to one another because they have similar interests.

Alternatively or additionally, a user preference profile is created or amended upon users performing certain actions in relation to certain content items. Such action may be searching for specific content items, like voice over IP applications, commenting on certain content items, like books in the thriller genre, downloading games from a specific publisher, other, or a combination thereof. Also not performing such actions may be added to a profile. For example, if search results or results of other queries returned comprise a lot of results related to baby care and a user does not perform any action on these results, this may be taken into account in the user profile. As a result, search results may be filtered automatically or by means of a manual action to filter out all results related to baby care. It is noted that a search result may result in comprising content items related to baby care when most relations of the user have babies and are interested in content items.

Expressions such as "comprise", "include", "incorporate", "contain", "is" and "have" are to be construed in a non-exclusive manner when interpreting the description and its associated claims, namely construed to allow for other items or components which are not explicitly defined also to be present. Reference to the singular is also to be construed in be a reference to the plural and vice versa. In the description above, it will be understood that when an element such as layer, region or substrate is referred to as being "on", "onto" or "connected to" another element, the element is either directly on or connected to the other element, or intervening elements may also be present.

Furthermore, the invention may also be embodied with less components than provided in the embodiments described here, wherein one component carries out multiple functions. Just as well may the invention be embodied using more elements than depicted in Figure 1 , wherein functions carried out by one component in the embodiment provided are distributed over multiple components.

A person skilled in the art will readily appreciate that various parameters disclosed in the description may be modified and that various embodiments disclosed and/or claimed may be combined without departing from the scope of the invention.

It is stipulated that the reference signs in the claims do not limit the scope of the claims, but are merely inserted to enhance the legibility of the claims.