Subscription control panel Number:7,412,534 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent

Title: Subscription control panel

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for centrally managing subscriptions to feeds accessible at different locations on a network. A subscription server is provided that a user can log in to from any of the user's rendering devices and use to manage subscriptions to feeds, including subscribing to feeds, listening to episodes of feeds, downloading episodes to a rendering device, and rating and reviewing episodes. The user's history of actions with respect to feeds is tracked and stored on the subscription server. The user can then access this history via user interfaces generated by the subscription server to determine what actions the user has performed in the past.

Patent Number: 7,412,534 Issued on 08/12/2008 to Tsang,   et al.

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Inventors:	Tsang; Audrey Y. (San Francisco, CA), Fukuda; Matt (San Francisco, CA), Wascovich; Dan J. (San Francisco, CA), Ott, IV; Edward Stanley (Palo Alto, CA), Hayashi; Nathanael Joe (Piedmont, CA)
Assignee:	Yahoo! Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA)
Appl. No.:	11/346,847
Filed:	February 2, 2006

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Related U.S. Patent Documents

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	Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
	60750724	Dec., 2005
	60722600	Sep., 2005

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Current U.S. Class:	709/231 ; 709/226
Current International Class:	G06F 15/16 (20060101); G06F 12/00 (20060101)
Field of Search:	709/223,224,226,229,250,219,231 707/10,100

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Primary Examiner: Maung; Zarni
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Greenberg Traurig, LLP DeCarlo; James J.

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Parent Case Text

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RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/722,600, filed Sep. 30, 2005, which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference. This application also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/750,724, filed Dec. 14, 2005, which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

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Claims

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What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising: a subscription engine implemented on a server configured to communicate with rendering devices over a network, the subscription engine configured to receive feed subscription requests from a user via a first rendering device in communication with the server; and a subscription data store in communication with the server, the subscription data store comprising subscription information associated with the user, wherein the subscription information identifies one or more feeds that the user is currently subscribed to and comprises user-generated directions received by the server, the feeds being accessible at remote computing devices; wherein each of the subscription requests comprises a request to monitor the feed for the addition of new episodes, the new episodes being accessible at one or more remote computing devices, and wherein the subscription information identifies a list of currently subscribed feeds based on feed subscription requests received by the server from the user, a history of episodes rendered by the user as a result of render requests received by the server from the user, and display information to selectively display subscription information.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the subscription engine is further configured to generate, based on the subscription information and the one or more feeds accessible at remote computers, an interface for display on the rendering device to the user, wherein the interface identifies at least one feed the user being currently subscribed to and includes at least one render control that allows a user to cause an episode of the at least one feed to be rendered on the rendering device, and wherein user selection of the at least one render control causes render data to be stored in the subscription data store as subscription information associated with the user.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface for display on the rendering device to the user further comprises an unsubscribe control associated with the at least one feed, a user selection of the unsubscribe control causing subscription information associated with the user in the subscription data store to be updated to indicate that the user is no longer subscribed to the at least one feed associated with the selected unsubscribe control.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the subscription engine is further configured to generate and transmit information to a browser on the rendering device, the information being interpretable by the browser of the rendering device to retrieve an episode from a remote computing device and render the episode to the user.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the interface for display on the rendering device is a web page generated by the subscription engine and transmitted to a browser on the rendering device for interpretation and display.

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Description

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A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Multimedia data files, or media files, are data structures that may include audio, video or other content stored as data in accordance with a container format. A container format is a file format that can contain various types of data, possible compressed a standardized and known manner. The container format allows a rendering device to identify, and if necessary, interleave, the different data types for proper rendering. Some container formats can contain only audio data, while other container formation can support audio, video, subtitles, chapters and metadata along with synchronization information needed to play back the various data streams together. For example, an audio file format is a container format for storing audio data. There are many audio-only container formats including known in the art including WAV, AIFF, FLAC, WMA, and MP3. In addition, there are now a number of container formats for use with combined audio, video and other content including AVI, MOV, MPEG-2 TS, MP4, ASF, and RealMedia to name but a few.

Media files accessible over a network are increasingly being used to deliver content to mass audiences. For example, one emerging way of periodically delivering content to consumers is through podcasting.

Podcasting is a method of publishing digital media, typically audio programs, via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a series of new files (e.g., MP3 audio files) as they become available over time. The word "podcasting" became popular in late 2004, largely due to automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers. Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a "feed" (such as RSS, discussed below, and Atom) to monitor for and/or deliver a file. A feed in this context refers to an electronic means, such as a file containing a list of media files, that can be easily interpreted to identify new files in the list as the files are added over time. Thus, one is said to subscribe to a feed because as new files are added to the list, the subscriber is notified of the new file and, in some cases, the new file is automatically delivered to the subscriber.

Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated media, such as "radio shows," and gives broadcast news, radio, and television programs a new distribution method. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using "podcatching" software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically. Most podcatching software enables the user to copy podcasts to portable music players. Most digital audio player or computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts. From the earliest RSS-enclosure tests, feeds have been used to deliver video files as well as audio. By 2005 some aggregators and mobile devices could receive and play video, although the "podcast" name remains most associated with audio. Other names are sometimes used for casting other forms of media, such as blogcasting for text and vcasting or vodcasting for video. For the purposes of this application, podcast is used in its most general sense to refer to a feed of new files in any format (e.g., .MP3, .MPEG, .WAV, .JPG) and containing any content (e.g., text-based, audible, visual or some combination) that can be subscribed to. Also, for the purposes of this discussion an individual podcast feed may be alternately referred to as a series. Each distinct new file in a series or feed may be referred to as an individual episode of the series.

Podcasting is supported by underlying feed formats, of which RSS is but one example. RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by (among other things) news websites and weblogs. The abbreviation is alternately used to refer to the following recognized standards: Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91); RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0); and Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0).

Feed formats, such as the RSS formats, often allow the feed creator (referred to as the publisher) to include web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other meta-data. This information may be associated with different episodes of the feed, thus allowing an easy way to provide at least some summary information to the subscriber so that a subscriber does not have to render each episode to determine if it contains information of interest. This information may be delivered within an XML feed file, a webfeed, an RSS stream, or RSS channel.

The technology behind podcasting allows a client to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds or feeds in other formats; these are typically sites that change or add content regularly. To use this technology the client needs some type of aggregation service or aggregator. The aggregator allows a client to subscribe to the podcasts that the client wants to monitor or to get updates (i.e. future media files in the feed) on. Unlike typical subscriptions to pulp-based newspapers and magazines, your RSS subscriptions are free, but they typically only provide a line or two of each article or post along with a link to the media file that contains the episode (e.g., the full text article, audio file or video file).

In addition to facilitating syndication, a feed allows a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using an aggregator.

Feeds, including RSS feeds, are widely used by the weblog community to share the latest episodes' headlines or their full text, and even attached multimedia files. In mid 2000, use of RSS for podcasting text spread to many major news organizations, including Reuters, CNN and the BBC, until under various usage agreements, providers allow other websites to incorporate their "syndicated" headline or headline-and-short-summary feeds. Feeds are now used for many purposes, including marketing, bug-reports, or any other activity involving periodic updates or publications.

A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check feeds, such as RSS-enabled webpages, on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. It is now common to find RSS feeds on major web sites, as well as many smaller ones. Client-side readers and aggregators are typically constructed as standalone programs or extensions to existing programs like web browsers. Such programs are available for various operating systems.

Podcasting has become a very popular and accepted media delivery paradigm. This success has caused the number and variety of podcasts available to clients to grow exponentially. Potential podcast consumers are now confronted with the problems of how to find podcasts, how to organize and manage their podcast subscriptions; and how to listen to episodes efficiently and easily. Podcast publishers are also confronted with problems including how to effectively market their podcasts, how to generate income from their podcasts, how to easily create and disseminate podcasts, how to support different feed formats and device needs, and how to manage bandwidth and storage costs.

Currently client-side readers must download some or all of an episode to the rendering device before the subscriber can begin to render the episode. This requires a substantial amount of bandwidth, storage space on the rendering device, and is a potential security risk to the rendering device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for centrally managing subscriptions to feeds located and/or accessible at different locations on a network. A subscription server is provided that a user can log in to from any of the user's rendering devices and use to manage subscriptions to feeds, including subscribing to feeds, listening to episodes of feeds, downloading episodes to a rendering device, and rating and reviewing episodes. The user's history of actions with respect to feeds is tracked and stored on the subscription server. The user can then access this history via user interfaces generated by the subscription server to determine what actions the user has performed in the past.

In one example (which example is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive), the present invention may be considered a method for managing subscriptions to feeds. The method includes receiving, at a server computer, a subscription request from a user via a first rendering device. The subscription request is a request to receive notifications of episodes added to the feed in the future, the feed accessible at a remote computing device. In response to the request, subscription data is stored in a subscription data store accessible to the server computer in a way that the subscription data is associated with the user. The subscription data may identify the feed, which is accessible at the remote computing device, as a feed subscribed to by the user. After storage, the server transmits to the user's rendering device at least some subscription data for display to the user identifying the feed and indicating that the user is subscribed to the feed.

In one example (which example is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive), the present invention may be considered a graphical user interface generated by a server for display to a user via a rendering device. The graphical user interface displays a first list of feeds which identify one or more feeds accessible at remote computing devices that the user has subscribed to via a previous request to the server. The graphical user interface also includes a render control associated with at least one feed identified in the first list. User selection of the render control causes an episode of the feed, which is located on a remote computing device, to be rendered on the rendering device and render data to be saved on the server indicating that the user has rendered the episode. The graphical user interface also includes, associated with at least of the feeds in the first list, a notification indicating that an episode has been added to the feed since a previous generation of the graphical user interface by the server for display to the user.

In one example (which example is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive), the present invention may be considered a system for subscribing to feeds. The system includes a subscription engine on a subscription server adapted to communicate with rendering devices over a network. The subscription engine is adapted to receive feed subscription requests from a user via a first rendering device in communication with the server. The system also includes a subscription data store in communication with the server. The subscription data store contains subscription information associated with the user, wherein the subscription information identifies one or more feeds (which are actually located at, stored on, or accessible via remote computing devices on the network) that the user is currently subscribed to. In the system, each subscription request is a request to monitor the feed for the addition of new episodes, the new episodes located at one or more remote computing devices.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of at least one embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a high-level illustration of an embodiment of a high-level method of managing subscriptions to feeds on remote computing devices using a subscription server.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustrating an exemplary network architecture according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows the contents, in .XML, of an exemplary RSS feed file in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method of subscribing to a feed on remote computing devices using a subscription server.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method of unsubscribing to a feed on a remote computing device using a subscription server.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method of managing subscriptions to feeds on remote computing devices using a subscription server.

FIG. 7 is an embodiment of a user interface for a server-based subscription control panel.

FIG. 8 is an embodiment of a subscription history user interface for a server-based subscription control panel.

FIG. 9 is an embodiment of a tag history user interface for a server-based subscription control panel.

FIG. 10 is an embodiment of a tag cloud user interface for a server-based subscription control panel.

FIG. 11 is an embodiment 1100 of a user interface for a web player that is opened in response to pressing a listen button according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an alternative embodiment of a "My Subscriptions" user interface for a server-based subscription control panel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In general, the present invention relates to a system and method for delivering media over a network and for enhancing a user's experience in experiencing the media that is transferred over the network. In view of the aforementioned shortcomings in the art, it would be advantageous if a system was available wherein a user had complete and unfettered access to all podcasts that he or she has subscribed to, regardless of what particular user device that the subscription is delivered to, and a means for managing those subscriptions easily.

Reference will now be made in detail to illustrative embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a high-level illustration of an embodiment of a method of managing subscriptions to feeds on remote computing devices using a subscription server. In the embodiment, a subscription server, in response to a user request, provides a list of feeds to that can be subscribed to in provide feed operation 12. In the embodiment, the user request may be received from a computing device in communication with the subscription server. The user's computing device may also be a rendering device, i.e., a device capable of rendering a media file, media data streamed from the subscription server or media data obtained from some other source.

The provide feed operation 12 may include generating and transmitting a graphical user interface (GUI) to the user's computing device from which the user may select to subscribe to a feed or listen to an episode of a feed, as will be described in greater detail below.

Through user selections of controls (such as buttons) on the GUI, the user's computing device transmits a request to the subscription server which is received in a receive feed request operation 14. The receive feed request operation 14 may include receiving a request to subscribe to a feed, which may cause the subscription server to transmit information (such as a .pcast file) to the user's rendering device that causes the rendering device to subscribe directly to the feed. In an embodiment, the receive feed request operation 14 may also include receiving other requests related to any feed including already subscribed feeds, such as to unsubscribe to a feed, to listen to an episode of a feed or to provide additional information about a feed to the subscription server such as review and or a rating of a feed or episode.

In response to the receive feed request operation 14, the subscription server stores the user's requests, selections, provided information, etc. in a subscription data store in a way that associates the information with the particular user in a store subscription history operation 16. For example, a user may have first logged into the subscription server by providing a user name and a password. Using this information, the subsequent information received in user requests can be associated with the user. Thus, the subscription server stores a history of the user's actions with respect to the user's consumption of feeds and episodes.

Using this information, the subscription server is then able to provide to the user a feed control panel in a provide subscription control operation 18. The feed control panel allows the user to review and manage the user's current subscriptions and subscription history, e.g., the history of actions related to feeds such as subscription requests, listening and downloading of episodes, rating and reviewing, etc. A user may access the subscription control panel periodically to determine if any new episodes have been added to any currently subscribed feeds. Furthermore, from the control panel the user may render new episodes and easily find and re-render past episodes from the user's history. In addition, the user's consumption history may be made available to the user so that the user is aware of what episodes the user has already consumed.

The subscription control panel may also be used on an ongoing basis to manage the subscriptions, by subscribing to additional feeds, remove subscriptions listed in the subscription control panel, or unsubscribing to current subscriptions. For example, in subscribe operation 20, a user has selected via the subscription control panel user interface to subscribe to a selected feed. In the subscribe operation 20, the user may then be prompted as to what device the user wishes to have subscribed to the feed. In response to a user selection of a device, the subscription server performs the actions necessary to cause the selected device to subscribe to the selected feed. For example, if the selected device is a user's personal rendering device, then a .pcast file (discussed in greater detail below) may be generated and transmitted to the rendering device thereby causing the rendering device to subscribe to the feed by adding the feed to the rendering device's subscription list. Alternatively, the user may select to have the subscription added to the user's account on the subscription server, e.g., by receiving a request to add the feed to the user's "My Yahoo!" account. In this embodiment, the subscription server updates the user's account information to indicate subscription to the selected feed.

FIG. 2 illustrates an architecture of one embodiment of the present invention in schematic form. As can be seen in FIG. 2, a system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown. In general the system 100 allows users to experience, share, render and otherwise utilize different media. Although numerous exemplary embodiments will be discussed in terms of music and/or audio files, this invention can also be utilized with any form of audio, video, digital or analog media content, as well as any other media file type now known or to become known.

Each user utilizes a processor 103, such as personal computer (PC), web enabled cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or the like, coupled to the Internet 104 by any one of a number of known manners. Furthermore, each processor 103 preferably includes an Internet browser (not shown), such as that offered by Microsoft Corporation under the trade name INTERNET EXPLORER, or that offered by Netscape Corp. under the trade name NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR, or the software or hardware equivalent of the aforementioned components that enable networked intercommunication between users and service providers and/or among users. Each processor also includes a media engine 106 that, among other functions to be further described, provides the ability to render media data or convert information or data into a perceptible form and manage media related information or data so that user may personalize their experience with various media. Media engine 106 may be incorporated into processor 103 by a vendor of processor 103, or obtained as a separate component from a media engine provider or in some other art recognized manner. As will be further described below, it is contemplated that media engine 106 may be a software application, or a software/firmware combination, or a software/firmware/hardware combination, as a matter of design choice, that serves as a central media manager for a user and facilitates the management of all manner of media files and services that the user might wish to access either through a computer or a personal portable device or through network devices available at various locations via a network. As used herein, the term media file is used generically to refer to an item containing media data, as well as any associated metadata and/or network location information for that item.

Processor 103 also may include storage of local media files 110 and/or other plug-in programs that are run through or interact with the media engine 106. Processor 103 also may be connectable to one or more devices 114 such as a compact disc player and/or other external media file player, commonly referred to as an MP3 player, such as the type sold under the trade name IPOD by Apple Computer, Inc., that is used to portably store and play media files.

Additionally, processor 103 may contain Digital Rights Management software (DRM) 105 that protects the copyrights and other intellectual property rights of the user's media files by enabling secure distribution and/or preventing or hampering illegal distribution of the media files. In one embodiment, DRM 105 encrypts or decrypts the media files for controlled access by authorized users, or alternatively for marking the content with a digital watermark or similar method so that the content can not be freely distributed. Media engine 106 preferably uses the DRM information to ensure that the media files being experienced through media engine 106 are not copied to or shared with users that are unauthorized to listen to or view the content.

The processor 103 includes the software necessary to subscribe to podcasts. In the embodiment shown, the processor 103 includes a subscription file 160. A subscription file 160 may be written in XML or may conform to some standard subscription file format such as Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML). The subscription file 160 maintains information that identifies what podcasts the user has subscribed to. The subscription file 160 may include a list of feeds 152 and the feed locations.

The processor 103 may also include a subscription manager 162. The subscription manager 162 can perform the podcatching functions of an aggregator and can periodically poll the feeds identified in the subscription file 160 to determine if new episodes of the podcast are available. Upon determination that a new episode is available, the subscription manager 162 may notify the user or may automatically download the episode to the processor.

As will be discussed in greater detail below the system 100 also includes subscription server 118. In addition to serving media over the Internet 104 to the user, subscription server 118 also preferably includes a media database 120, which stores or communicates with storage of various metadata attributes of each particular piece of media. Database 120 may be distributed over multiple servers or locations. Other servers 130 make other content and services available and may provide administrative services such as managing user logon, service access permission, digital rights management, and other services made available through a service provider. Although some of the embodiments of the invention are described in terms of music, embodiments can also encompass any form of streaming or non-streaming media including but not limited to news, entertainment, sports events, web page or perceptible audio or video content. It should be also be understood that although the present invention is described in terms of media content and specifically audio content, the scope of the present invention encompasses any content or media format heretofore or hereafter known.

The subscription server 118 also includes a database 170 of user information. The user information database 170 includes information about users that is collected from users or generated by the subscription server 118 as the user interacts with the subscription server 118. In one embodiment, the user information database 170 includes user information such as user name, gender, e-mail and other addresses, user preferences, etc. that the user may provide to the subscription server 118. In addition, the server 118 may collect information such as what podcasts the user has subscribed to, what searches the user has performed, how the user has rated various podcasts, etc. In effect, any information related to the user and the podcasts that user subscribes to that is available to the subscription server 118 may be stored in the user information database 170.

For example, in one embodiment a user may use the subscription server as a central manager of the user's subscriptions, instead of having multiple devices 103, each subscribed to different feeds. In this embodiment, all subscription information associated with the user is stored in the user information database 170, including the list of feeds that the user is currently subscribed to. This subscription information is updated over time to reflect user actions such as subscribing to new feeds, unsubscribing to feed, and listening to various episodes of feeds.

The user information database 170 may also include information about a user's devices 114. The information allows the subscription server 118 to identify the device and differentiate it from the processor 103. Furthermore, it is anticipated that a single user may have multiple different processors 103 and each processor 103 may be associated with different information. For example, a user may subscribe to a news podcast on a mobile device such as a smart phone 103 or similar Internet connected mobile device 103 and may subscribe to a gaming podcast on a home computer 103. The user information database 170 contains all this information. In one embodiment, the user information database 170 may include the same information contained in the processor's subscription file 160 for each processor 103 associated with the user. The user information database 170 may even include one or more files in the OPML file format for each user.

In the embodiment shown, the subscription server 118 includes a feed database 174. The feed database 174 may include a list of podcasts known to the server 118. This list may be periodically refreshed as the server 118 searches for new feeds 152 and for feeds 152 that have been removed from access to the internet 104. Such a feed database 174 may not be necessary if the searching ability of the server 118 is sufficient to quickly provide user with updated and accurate feed information in response to a user search. The feed database 174 may include all of the information provided by the feed 152. In addition, the feed database 174 may include other information generated by the subscription server 118 or by users. Thus, the feed database 174 may contain information not known to or generated by the publisher of the feed 152.

In an embodiment, the feed database 174 includes additional information regarding feeds 152 in the form of "tags." A tag is a keyword chosen by a person accessing the subscription server 118 to describe a particular feed 152. The tag can be any word or combination of key strokes. Each tag submitted to the subscription server may be recorded in the feed database 172 and associated with the feed the tag describes. Tags may be associated with a particular feed 152 (e.g., a series tag) or associated with a specific media file 154 within the feed 152 (e.g., an episode tag). Tags will be discussed in greater detail below.

Since tags can be any keyword, a typical name for a category, such as "science" or "business," may also be used as a tag and in an embodiment the initial tags for a feed are automatically generated by taking the category designations from a feed and using them as the initial tags for the feed. However, note that tags are not a hierarchical category system that one "drills down" through. Tags are not hierarchically related as is required in the typical categorization scheme. Tags are also cumulative in that the number of users that identify a series or an episode with a specific tag are tracked. The relative importance of the specific tag as an accurate description of the associated content (i.e., series or episode) is based on the number of users that associated that tag with the content.

In an embodiment, consumers of feeds 152 are allowed to provide information to be associated with feeds or particular episodes. Thus the user after consuming data may rate an episode, say on a scale of 1-5 stars, write a review of the episode, and enter tags to be associated with the episode. All this consumer-generated data may be stored in the feed database 174 and associated with the appropriate episode for use in future searches.

In one embodiment, the search engine 172 creates a new entry in the feed database 174 for every feed 152 it finds. Initially, the entry contains some or all of the information provided by the feed 152. An automatic analysis may or may not be performed to match the feed 152 to known tags based on the information provided in the feed 152. For example, in an embodiment some RSS feeds include a category element and the categories listed in that element for the feed are automatically used as the initial tags for the feed. While this is not the intended use of the category element, it is used as an initial tag as a starting point for the generation of more accurate tags for the feed. Note that searches on terms that appear in the feed 152 will return that feed as a result, so it is not necessary to provide tags to a new entry for the search to work properly. Initially no ratings information or user reviews are associated with the new entry. The manager of the subscription server may solicit additional information from the publisher such as the publisher's recommended tags and any additional descriptive information that the publisher wishes to provide but did not provide in the feed 152 itself.

The feed database may also include such information as reviews of the quality of the feeds, including reviews of the series as a whole and reviews specific to each episode in a given feed 152. The review may be a rating such as a "star" rating and may include additional descriptions provided by users.

In addition to maintaining information specific to series and individual episodes within the series, the feed database 174 may also include information associated with publishers of the feeds, sponsors of the feeds, or people in the feeds.

The subscription server 118 includes a feed search engine 172. The feed search engine 172 provides a graphical user interface to users allowing the user to search for and subscribe to feeds 152 using the subscription server 118. The graphical user interface may be an .HTML page served to the processor 103 for display to the user via a browser. Alternatively the graphical user interface may be presented to the user through some other software on the processor 103. An example of a graphical user interface presented to a user by a browser is discussed with reference to FIG. 3. Through the graphical user interface, the feed search engine 172 receives user search criteria. The search engine 172 then uses these parameters to identify feeds 152 that meet the user's criteria. The search may involve an active search of Internet, a search of the feed database 174, or some combination of both 174. The search may include a search of the descriptions provided in the feed 152 of the series and each particular episode in the series. The search may also include a search of the tags and other information associated with feeds 152 listed in the feed database 174, but not provided by the feeds themselves. The results of the search are then displayed to the user via the graphical user interface.

In one embodiment of the present invention, similar to the DRM software 105 located on the user's processor 103, the subscription server may maintain its own DRM software 158 which tracks the digital rights of media files located either in the media database 120 or stored on a user's processor. Thus, for example, before the subscription server 118 streams or serves up or transfers any media files to a user, it validates the rights designation of that particular piece of media and only serves streams or transfers the file if the user has the appropriate rights.

The system 100 also includes a number of servers 150 that publish podcasts. That is, the servers 150 include one or more feeds 152, such as RSS feeds, that are accessible through the network, in this case the Internet 104. The feeds 152, as will be described in greater detail below, include information about the feed (e.g., series information) as well as information about the various media files 154 (i.e., episodes) of the feed 152. The feed 152 also identifies the media files 154 so that they can be retrieved by a subscription manager on a processor 103. The media file 154 may reside on the podcast server 150 with the feed 152, or may be located on another server 156.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, each user's processor 103, the subscription server 118 and podcast servers 150, as well as the other servers 130, 156 are communicatively connected via the Internet 104. In alternate embodiments, different components of the system may be communicatively coupled differently, for example each may be coupled directly to each other wirelessly or by a local or wide area network (WAN) or the like. Additionally, functional components can be distributed so that certain functions of the media engine may be performed at subscription server 118, or vice versa, or distributed in modular fashion for operation at various locations throughout the system 100. Thus, the description herein of a function or component being associated with a particular device or component or location is merely exemplary.

The search engine also provides users with additional functionality and convenience not previously available. The user interface provided by the search engine to the user's processor 103 allows the user to subscribe to a displayed feed (via a subscribe button), listen to an episode of a displayed feed (via listen button), and obtain the complete information on the feed (via clicking on the hyperlinked title) from the same interface. A user need not know where the feed resides on the Internet. Furthermore, the user does not need to explicitly direct his computer to access the publisher's site to subscribe, listen or obtain additional information on a feed.

User selection of a subscribe button may result in the subscription file 160 on the user's processor 103 being updated, such as by the transmission of a ".pcast" file to the processor for execution by the subscription manager 162. User selection of a subscribe button will also cause data regarding the user's subscription to be stored in a subscription data store, such as in the user information database 170. Likewise, user selection of a listen button or any other interface element regarding feeds and episodes may also be stored in the subscription data store to provide an accurate history of the user's consumption of feeds, episodes and media files in general.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the subscription server 118 also includes a subscription engine 180. The subscription engine 180 can communicate with rendering devices, such as processors 103, over the network 104. The subscription engine is capable of receiving feed subscription requests from a user via a processor 103 and in response store data regarding subscriptions into a subscription data store. In one embodiment, subscription information is stored in the user information database 170 which acts as the subscription data store. Alternatively, a separate subscription database (not shown) may be used, which contains only subscription data and user data.

The information stored in the subscription data store will include, for each user, information identifying the feeds currently subscribed to by that user, metadata information associated with each those feeds and their constituent episodes (such as the published metadata about series and episodes, location of each file) and usage information such as whether the user has requested a particular episode to be downloaded to his processor 103 via a command received by the subscription server 118.

Note that in an embodiment all of the information in the subscription server is information generated via the user's interaction with the subscription server. Thus, any user actions directly with a remote server 154 regarding a podcast subscription will not be captured by the subscription server 118. While this may allow the information in the subscription server 118 and that on the user's processor(s) to diverge, it also allows a user with one or more processors 103 that do not support the ability to subscribe to feeds (e.g., a processor 103 that does not have a subscription manager 162 or a subscription file 160) to use the subscription engine 180 on the subscription server 118 to provide this functionality. The onus is then on the user to up