Shared annotation system and method

Abstract

The invention relates generally shared annotation systems. More particularly, the invention provides a method for automatically navigating a document in a display having at least a first portion and a second portion, the method comprising: receiving an annotation related to the document, the annotation generated by a user at a first client; associating the annotation with a first indication in the document; receiving, from a user at a second client, an input to navigate a first portion of a display at the second client, the input causing the first indication to be displayed in the first portion of the display; and in response to the input, automatically displaying the annotation in a second portion of the display at the second client.

1 . A method for automatically navigating a document in a web page, the method comprising: 
 separating a web page into at least a first display Portion and a second display portion;    displaying in the first display portion of the web page a document along with annotation indications;    receiving multiple annotations related to the document, the annotations generated by different users with different user computers, the annotations displayed in the second display portion of the web page;    associating the annotations with the annotation indications in the document displayed in the first display portion of the web page; and    receiving, from a user, an input to navigate to one of the annotations in the second display portion, and in response to the input, automatically scrolling the document in the first display portion the input causing the annotation indication associated with the annotation to be displayed in the first display portion of the web page.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 allowing different users to submit different annotations wherein the different annotations are associated with related portions of the document; and    combining the annotation indications in the first display Portion of the web page that are associated with the related portions of the document such that the combined annotation indications correspond to the different annotations displayed in the second display portion of the web page.    
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the combining of the annotation indications overlaps the annotation indications.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the document comprises an electronic book.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the document comprises a digital photo album containing one or more digital photos.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising selectively filtering the annotations based on user input.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein selectively filtering the annotations is based upon at least one of the group consisting of a list of user friends, individual user selection, ratings from other users, and annotation type.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the document comprises a multimedia document.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a text annotation.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the text annotation comprises a comment related to the document.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a graphical annotation.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the graphical annotation comprises a photograph.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises an audio annotation.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a video annotation.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a multimedia annotation.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a discussion group related to the document.  
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the input comprises an input to scroll the first display portion of the web page.  
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the input comprises an input to navigate to a portion of the document containing the first indication.  
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first indication comprises a graphical indication.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first indication comprises an icon.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving an annotation comprises receiving form data submitted by the user at a first user computer.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein receiving form data comprises receiving HTML form data.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein associating one or more annotations with one of the annotation indications in the document comprises: 
 identifying a portion of the document to which the annotation relates; and    associating the annotation indication with the portion of the document to which the annotation relates.    
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the annotation comprises a discussion group related to the portion of the document.  
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 23 , the method further comprising adding the annotation to a data structure stored in memory, the data structure comprising a list of annotations relating to portions of one or more documents.  
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the list of annotations comprises a list of bookmarks.  
   
   
       27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein selecting an annotation from the list of bookmarks displays, in the first display portion of the web page, at least a portion of a document to which the annotation is related and displays at least the selected annotation in the second display portion of the web page.  
   
   
       28 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein associating the annotation indication comprises embedding the annotation indication in the portion of the document to which the annotation relates.  
   
   
       29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein embedding the annotation indication comprises: 
 receiving location data related to the portion of the document;    processing the location data to determine a first location within the document relative to a location of the portion within the document; and    generating a new version of the document, the new version of the document containing the annotation indication embedded at the first location.    
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the location data comprises on or more from the group comprising: a document identifier, a section identifier, a chapter identifier, a bookmark identifier, a portion length, and a portion offset.  
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 29 , the method further comprising replacing a first version of the document stored in memory with the new version of the document.  
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein replacing a first version of the document comprises overwriting a first version of the document.  
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving an annotation comprises receiving an annotation related to an image contained in the document.  
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein receiving an annotation related to an image comprises receiving information identifying one or more subjects of the image.  
   
   
       35 . The method of  claim 34 , the method further comprising associating the one or more subjects with the image.  
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein associating the one or more subjects with the image comprises updating a data structure stored in memory, the data structure storing associations between one or more images and one or more subjects of the one or more images.  
   
   
       37 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation comprises a commercial offer.  
   
   
       38 . The method of  claim 37 , wherein the commercial offer comprises an offer to purchase a product related to the document.  
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 38 , the method further comprising processing a request by a user at a client to purchase the product.  
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 39 , the method further comprising transmitting the product and the document to the user.  
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 1 , the method further comprising communicating, to a user at a client, an offer to purchase the document and a set of annotations related to the document.  
   
   
       42 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein the set of annotations related to the document comprises a set of annotations selected by the user.  
   
   
       43 . The method of  claim 41 , the method further comprising processing a user request to purchase the document and the set of annotations.  
   
   
       44 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein processing the user request comprises printing the document and set of annotations.  
   
   
       45 . The method of  claim 44 , comprising, for each annotation related to a portion of the document, printing the annotation and the related portion of the document on the same page.  
   
   
       46 . The method of  claim 43 , wherein processing the user request comprise transmitting the document and the set of annotations to the user.  
   
   
       47 . The method of  claim 1 , the method further comprising: 
 authenticating the user at a first client and authorizing the user at the first client to provide the annotation; and    authenticating the user at the second client and authorizing the user at the second client to navigate the document.    
   
   
       48 . A method for annotating a document located at a first server accessible by multiple users at remote clients, the method comprising: 
 separating a web page into at least a first display portion and a second display portion;    displaying in the first display portion of the web page a document along with annotation indications;    receiving at the first server annotation data related to the document, the annotation data generated by a first user and comprising annotation content and location data representing a location within the document for an annotation, wherein the annotation content is displayed in the second display portion of the web page;    the server updating the document by inserting an annotation indication of associated with the annotation in the document based on the location data wherein the annotation indication is displayed in the first display portion of the web page; and    in response to a request from a given user for the document, delivering the updated document with the annotation content and one or more instructional elements to the given user for use in causing the given user's client to automatically display the annotation content in the second display portion when the corresponding annotation indication is displayed on the given user's client.    
   
   
       49 . The method of  claim 48 , further comprising: 
 allowing different users to submit different annotations wherein the different annotations are associated with related portions of the document; and    combining the annotation indications in the first display portion of the web page that are associated with the related portions of the document such that the combined annotation indications correspond to the different annotations displayed in the second display portion of the web page.    
   
   
       50 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein the document contains text arranged in one or more paragraphs, and wherein receiving location data comprises receiving data identifying a given paragraph contained in the document.  
   
   
       51 . The method of  claim 50 , wherein receiving location data further comprises receiving data identifying an offset from the beginning of the given paragraph.  
   
   
       52 . The method of  claim 51 , wherein receiving location data further comprises receiving a selection length representing a length of text selected by the first user for annotation.  
   
   
       53 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein receiving annotation data comprises receiving form data submitted by the first user in a markup language.  
   
   
       54 . The method of  claim 48 , wherein updating the document comprises embedding the indication in the document.  
   
   
       55 . The method of  claim 54 , wherein embedding the indication comprise embedding the indication at a location in the document identified by the location data.  
   
   
       56 . The method of  claim 54 , wherein the document is structured in a markup language, and wherein embedding the indication comprises inserting indication data within a tag in the markup language.  
   
   
       57 . The method of  claim 48 , comprising: 
 receiving the first server second annotation related to the document, the second annotation data generated by a user other than the first user and comprising second annotation content and second location data representing a second location within the document for a second annotation.    the server updating the document by inserting a second indication of the second annotation in the document based on the second location data; and    in response to a request for the document from a given user, delivering the updated document to the given user with the annotation content and second annotation content and a plurality of instructional elements for use in causing the given user's client to display the annotation content or second annotation content when the indication or second indication, respectively, is displayed on the given user's client.    
   
   
       58 . A method for displaying a web page having one or more annotations, the method comprising: 
 displaying a web page with at least a first display portion and a second display portion;    a user at a first client receiving from a server the web page having an item of annotation content created by a users at a client, a corresponding annotation indication embedded at a location within the web page, and one or more instruction elements related o the indication;    a browser operating at the first client displaying the web page in the first display portion of the display and allowing the user to navigate within the first display portion so as to display different parts of the web page;    the browser displaying the annotation indication in the first display portion when the location within the web page is displayed in the first display portion of the display; and    the browser using the one or more instructional elements to cause the annotation content to be displayed in a second display portion of the display when the annotation indication is displayed in the first display portion and to remove the display of the annotation content when the annotation indication is not displayed in the first display portion.    
   
   
       59 . The method of  claim 58 , wherein the first and second display portions comprise a split screen display.  
   
   
       60 . The method of  claim 58 , wherein the browser allows the user to navigate tin the web page by jumping to the indication using a link.  
   
   
       61 . A method for automatically navigating a document in a display having at least a first display portion and a second display portion, the method comprising: 
 displaying a web page with at least a first display portion and a second display portion;    receiving a plurality of annotations related to the document, the annotations generated by a plurality of users at first client;    associating each annotation with an annotation indication in the document;    displaying in the first display portion of the web page, the document and associated indications of annotations;    displaying in the second display portion of the web page, annotations corresponding to the indications:    receiving, from a user at a second client, an input to navigate the plurality of annotations in the second display portion, the input causing a first annotation of the plurality of annotations to be displayed in the second display portion, and    in response to the input, automatically displaying, in the first display portion at the second client, the indication associated with the displayed first annotation.    
   
   
       62 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein associating each annotation with an indication in the document comprises: 
 identifying a portion of the document to which the annotation relates; and    associating the indication with the portion of the document to which the annotation relates.    
   
   
       63 . The method of  claim 62 , wherein automatically displaying the indication comprises displaying the indication with the portion of the document to which the annotation relates.  
   
   
       64 . The method of  claim 63 , comprising adding each annotation to a data structure stored in memory, the data structured comprising a list of annotations relating to portions of one or more documents.  
   
   
       65 . The method of  claim 64 , comprising storing the list of annotations on a server remotely located from and communicatively coupled to the first and second clients.  
   
   
       66 . The method of  claim 65 , wherein the list of annotations comprises a list of bookmarks.  
   
   
       67 . The method of  claim 66 , wherein selecting an annotation from the list of bookmarks displays, in the first display portion, at least a portion of a document to which the annotation is related and displays at least the selected annotation in the second display portion.  
   
   
       68 . The method of  claim 62 , wherein associating the indication comprises embedding the indication in the portion of the document to which the annotation relates.  
   
   
       69 . The method of  claim 68 , wherein embedding the first indication comprises: 
 receiving location data related to the portion of the document;    processing the location data to determine a first location within the document relative to a location of the portion within the document; and    generating a new version of the document, the new version of the document containing the indication embedded at the first location.    
   
   
       70 . The method of  claim 69 , wherein the location data comprises one or more from the group comprising: a document identifier, a section identifier, a chapter identifier, a bookmark identifier, a portion length, and a portion offset.  
   
   
       71 . The method of  claim 69 , further comprising replacing a first version of the document stored in memory with the new version of the document.  
   
   
       72 . The method of  claim 71 , wherein replacing a first version of the document comprises overwriting a first version of the document.  
   
   
       73 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein receiving annotations comprise receiving an annotation related to an image contained in the document.  
   
   
       74 . The method of  claim 73 , wherein receiving an annotation related to an image comprises receiving information identifying one or more subjects of the image.  
   
   
       75 . The method of  claim 74 , the method further comprising associating the one or more subjects with the image.  
   
   
       76 . The method of  claim 75 , wherein associating the one or more subjects with the image comprise updating a data structure stored in memory, the data structure storing associations between one or more images and one or more subjects of the one or more images.  
   
   
       77 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein the display comprises a browser window.  
   
   
       78 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein the document comprise a web page.  
   
   
       79 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein the document comprises a web page.  
   
   
       80 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein the annotation comprises a text annotation.  
   
   
       81 . The method of  claim 80 , wherein the text annotation comprises a comment related to them document.  
   
   
       82 . The method of  claim 61 , wherein the annotation comprises a graphical annotation.  
   
   
       83 . The method of  claim 82 , wherein the graphical annotation comprises a photograph.