Web-based system for digital videos

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for adding and displaying interactive annotations for existing online hosted videos. A graphical annotation interface allows the creation of annotations and association of the annotations with a video. Annotations may be of different types and have different functionality, such as altering the appearance and/or behavior of an existing video, e.g. by supplementing it with text, allowing linking to other videos or web pages, or pausing playback of the video. Authentication of a user desiring to perform annotation of a video may be performed in various manners, such as by checking a uniform resource locator (URL) against an existing list, checking a user identifier against an access list, and the like. As a result of authentication, a user is accorded the appropriate annotation abilities, such as full annotation, no annotation, or annotation restricted to a particular temporal or spatial portion of the video.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 displaying on a client device a first video provided by a video hosting server;   displaying on the client device an annotation with the first video; and   responsive to a user selection of the annotation, displaying on the client device a second video provided by the video hosting server different than the first video, the second video displayed starting at a playback time associated with the annotation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation specifies a URL encoding an identifier of the second video and encoding the playback time. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the URL is provided during creation of the annotation by a user of the video hosting server. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the playback time is at a beginning point of the second video. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the playback time is not at a beginning point of the second video. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation is associated with a time range of the first video during which the annotation is displayed. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the annotation is provided by the video hosting server to the client device for display. 
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 displaying on a client device a video provided by a video hosting server;   displaying on the client device an annotation with the video; and   responsive to a user selection of the annotation at a first playback time of the video, displaying on the client device the video at a second playback time associated with the annotation.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the annotation specifies a URL encoding an identifier of the video and encoding the second playback time. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the URL is provided during creation of the annotation by a user of the video hosting server. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the annotation is associated with a time range of the video during which the annotation is displayed. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the annotation is provided by the video hosting server to the client device for display. 
     
     
         13 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions that configure one or more processors to perform steps comprising:
 displaying on a client device a first video provided by a video hosting server;   displaying on the client device an annotation with the first video; and   responsive to a user selection of the annotation, displaying on the client device a second video provided by the video hosting server different than the first video, the second video displayed starting at a playback time associated with the annotation.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the annotation specifies a URL encoding an identifier of the second video and encoding the playback time. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 14 , wherein the URL is provided during creation of the annotation by a user of the video hosting server. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the playback time is at a beginning point of the second video. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the playback time is not at a beginning point of the second video. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the annotation is associated with a time range of the first video during which the annotation is displayed. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 13 , wherein the annotation is provided by the video hosting server to the client device for display.