(19) United States
(12) Patent Application Publication (io) Pub. No.: US 2005/0004985 Al
Stochosky (43) Pub. Date: Jan. 6,2005
(76) Inventor: Michael Stochosky, San Francisco, CA (US)
Correspondence Address:
FENWICK & WEST LLP
SILICON VALLEY CENTER
801 CALIFORNIA STREET
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94041 (US)
(21) Appl. No.: 10/781,029
(22) Filed: Feb. 17, 2004
Related U.S. Application Data
(63) Continuation-in-part of application No. 10/612,632, filed on Jul. 1, 2003.
Publication Classification
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 15/16
A system and method to allow a user of instant messaging chat modules in a network to share identity-based activity of the certain user and/or related information with contacts. For example, the user's instant messenger contacts may view recent active content, ongoing and recent online activity, etc., of another user. A sender peer includes an application module to activate a media content file from a content repository, or perform online activities through an activity server. The sender peer also includes a chat module, which detects identity-based activity and sends related indications to a recipient peer. The recipient peer includes a chat module to display identity-based activity based on the indications and an application module to activate related content files. A content enhancement server provides supplemental content information for display at the recipient peer and content previews. The content enhancement server also enables a transaction related to the content file such as a purchase of an MP3 copy of the content.
