Method and apparatus for selectively sharing and passively tracking communication device experiences

Abstract

The present invention includes methods and devices for passively tracking and selectively sharing user experiences with communication devices, including computers, web-enabled telephones, and PDAs. User rating or comments on their experiences can be captured. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method of sharing computer user experiences, including:
 communicating with a registration server to register a user, for automatic client-side collection of computer usage experiences for future sharing, wherein the computer usage experiences include one or more of browsing URLs or visiting a location with a location-aware device that records the visited location;   accessing one or more of the user's messaging buddy lists and selecting one or more buddies with whom to share the automatically collected computer usage experiences;   defining categories of computer usage experiences to be shared with particular selected buddies;   tracking automatically on the client-side at least a portion of the user's computer usage experiences and reporting the user's computer usage experiences to a tracking server to be published to the particular buddies in accordance with their defined categories of sharing.   
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the registration server and the tracking server are a single server. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the registration server and the tracking server are distinct servers. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering the user excludes collection of the user's e-mail address. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering the user excludes collection of the user's actual name. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering the user excludes collection of the user's physical address. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering the user excludes collection of any information that identities a user in a manner adapted to direct marketing. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein registering the user further includes establishing an anonymous unique identifier for the user. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein reporting the tracking data includes reporting the anonymous unique identifier. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by AOL's Instant Messenger software. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by MSN Messenger software. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by Yahoo! Messenger software. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by America Online's ICQ software. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by Odigo's instant messenger software. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by Jabber's instant messenger software. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rights of the buddies are defined by content category of the user's computer usage. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rights of the buddies are defined by appearance of one or more keywords on pages corresponding to URLs viewed. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rights of the buddies are defined by activity type of the user's computer usage. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user utilizes a computer and tracking is carried out by a module resident on the computer. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tracking is carried out by a device placed between a computer utilized by the user and an access point to the Internet. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computer usage experience tracked is filtered before it is reported to the tracking server. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computer usage reported is filtered after it is reported to the tracking server and before it is posted for the buddies to access. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the messaging buddy list is maintained by an instant messenger software. 
     
     
       24. The method of claim I, further including sending tracking data regarding one of a user's computer usage experiences to one or more buddies. 
     
     
       25. The method of  claim 1 , further including categorizing at least a portion of the tracking data by content and sorting the tracking data by content category. 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 1 , further including categorizing at least a portion of the tracking data by content and making the tracking data searchable by content category and date range. 
     
     
       27. The method of  claim 1 , wherein posting further includes providing annotation tools for associating notes with individual tracking data entries. 
     
     
       28. The method of  claim 1 , wherein posting further includes providing annotation tools for associating ratings with individual tracking data entries. 
     
     
       29. The method of  claim 1 , wherein posting further includes indexing text portions of at least a portion of pages reported from tracking the user's Internet usage. 
     
     
       30. The method of  claim 29 , wherein text indexing is limited to pages reported from tracking as having been annotated or forwarded by the user. 
     
     
       31. A method of sharing Internet browsing experiences, including:
 tracking automatically with a client-side application at least a portion of a user's Internet usage and reporting the tracking data to a server;   categorizing at least a portion of the reported tracking data by content category;   presenting to the user a history of the reported tracking data, with tools for searching and forwarding the tracking data;   receiving from the user data identifying of one or more persons on the user's buddy lists and authorizing the persons to receive tracking data;   responsive to a user request, sending one or more entries from the history of the reported tracking data to the authorized persons.   
     
     
       32. A method of sharing computer user experiences, including:
 registering a user with a registration server to collect and share visited location data using a client-side application collected while visiting a location with a location-aware device that records the visited location;   accessing one or more of the user's messaging buddy lists to identify one or more buddies with whom the tracking data may be shared;   defining rights of the buddies to access the visited location data;   posting at least a portion of the user's visited location data for the buddies to access according to their defined rights.   
     
     
       33. A method of operation of a location-aware cellular phone device comprising:
 sending registration information to a registration server from the location-aware cellular phone device;   enabling access to one or more lists of other users to identify one or more other users with whom visited geographic location data is to be shared;   enabling definition of access rights for the one or more other users to access the visited geographic location data;   collecting the visited geographic location data for geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device using a client-side application, the visited geographic location data comprising a plurality of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device, each geographic location visited time-stamped with a time of visit, the geographic locations visited automatically and passively recorded by the location-aware cellular phone device using a satellite-based location-fixing protocol and a detection network directory; and   reporting information indicating the visited geographic location data collected by the location-aware cellular phone device.   
     
     
       34. The method of claim 33 wherein enabling the definition of the access rights for the one or more other users comprises receiving, via a user interface of the location aware cellular phone device, input that defines at least one user of the one or more other users from the one or more lists of other users that is to have access to the visited geographic location data. 
     
     
       35. The method of claim 33 wherein reporting the information indicating the visited geographic location data comprises automatically and passively reporting the information indicating the visited geographic location data. 
     
     
       36. The method of claim 33 wherein the definition of the access rights for the one or more other users to access the visited geographic location data comprises, for each other user of at least a subset of the one or more other users, receiving, via a user interface of the location-aware cellular phone device, input that defines one or more categories of the visited geographic location data to be shared with the other user. 
     
     
       37. The method of claim 33 wherein the definition of the access rights for the one or more other users to access the visited geographic location data comprises, for each category of at least a subset of a plurality of categories of the visited geographic location data, receiving, via a user interface of the location-aware cellular phone device, input that defines at least one other user of the one or more other users to have access to the category of the visited geographic location data. 
     
     
       38. The method of claim 33 wherein reporting the information indicating the visited geographic location data comprises reporting the information indicating the visited geographic location data to the registration server. 
     
     
       39. The method of claim 33 wherein the one or more lists of other users comprises an Instant Messaging buddy list of a user of the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       40. The method of claim 33 wherein the one or more lists of other users comprises a contact list maintained by the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       41. The method of claim 33 wherein the one or more lists of other users comprises an e-mail contact list of a user of the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       42. The method of claim 33 wherein the visited geographic location data further defines ratings assigned to one or more of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       43. The method of claim 33 wherein the visited geographic location data further defines comments on one or more of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       44. The method of claim 33 wherein the visited geographic location data further defines emoticons assigned to one or more of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device. 
     
     
       45. The method of claim 33, further comprising:
 enabling receipt and display of advertising information.   
     
     
       46. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a location-aware cellular phone device that is configured for being registered with a registration server to:
 enable access to one or more lists of other users to identify one or more other users with whom visited geographic location data is to be shared;   enable definition of access rights for the one or more other users to enable access to the visited geographic location data;   collect the visited geographic location data for geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device using a client-side application, the visited geographic location data comprising a plurality of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device, each geographic location visited time-stamped with a time of visit, the geographic locations visited automatically and passively recorded by the location-aware cellular phone device using a satellite-based location-fixing protocol and a detection network directory; and   report information indicating the visited geographic location data to a tracking server.   
     
     
       47. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 46 where in order to report the information indicating the visited geographic location data, the software further instructs the controller of the location-aware cellular phone device to automatically and passively report the information indicating the visited geographic location data. 
     
     
       48. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a location-aware cellular phone device that has registered with a registration server to:
 enable identification of one or more other users with whom visited geographic location data is to be shared from one or more lists of other users;   enable definition of access rights for the one or more other users to allow for access to the visited geographic location data;   collect the visited geographic location data for geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device using a client-side application, the visited geographic location data comprising a plurality of the geographic locations visited by the location-aware cellular phone device, each geographic location visited time-stamped with a time of visit, the geographic locations visited automatically and passively recorded by the location-aware cellular phone device using a satellite-based location-fixing protocol and a detection network directory; and   report information indicating the visited geographic location data.