Digital Magazine Server Aggregating Cross-Platform Content Interactions

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users of conventional online services are unable to readily view interactions with content items, such as comments, across multiple online platforms where the content item is posted, as they need to manually access each platform to see interactions from other users.

Innovation Solution

A digital magazine server aggregates interactions with content items from multiple platforms, including comments and shares, and presents them to users in a centralized interface, allowing global interactions to be viewed and filtered based on user-specific criteria.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If users manually access each online platform to view interactions with a content item, then they can view interactions from that specific platform, but they cannot readily view interactions across multiple platforms and the process is time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteractions with content itemVSAvoidtime to access multiple platforms

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines interactions from multiple digital magazines and third-party systems into a single unified comment thread that is presented to the user in one location. Instead of requiring users to manually navigate to each platform (source magazine, additional magazines, third-party systems) to view interactions, the system aggregates all comments and interactions related to a content item into one consolidated view, thereby preventing information loss and saving user time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Loss of information

If users manually access each platform to view interactions, then they can see platform-specific interactions, but the operation becomes complex and inconvenient

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteractions with content itemVSAvoidprocess to view interactions

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges the operation of viewing interactions from multiple platforms into a single automated process. The digital magazine server automatically retrieves interactions from multiple sources (source digital magazine, additional digital magazines, and third-party systems) and presents them in a unified comment thread, eliminating the need for users to perform multiple manual access operations across different platforms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs self-service by automatically aggregating and presenting interactions from multiple platforms without requiring user intervention. When a user views a content item, the server automatically gathers all related interactions from various sources and displays them in a consolidated manner, making the process convenient and eliminating manual platform navigation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Loss of information

If the system aggregates interactions from multiple platforms, then users can view comprehensive interactions in one place, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteractions with content itemVSAvoidsystem to aggregate interactions

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a digital magazine server as an intermediary between users and multiple digital magazines/third-party systems. The server handles the complexity of aggregating interactions from various sources by implementing interaction identification logic that automatically retrieves and consolidates comments from the source digital magazine, additional digital magazines, and third-party systems. This intermediary approach centralizes the complexity within the server while keeping the user interface simple and unified.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

4Loss of information

If the system retrieves interactions from multiple sources, then comprehensive interaction data is available, but the data retrieval process becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteractions with content itemVSAvoidinteractions across platforms

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The digital magazine server acts as an intermediary that simplifies the detection and measurement of interactions across multiple platforms. The server implements interaction identification logic that automatically detects interactions from the source digital magazine, additional digital magazines, and third-party systems by using content item identifiers to match and aggregate interactions. This intermediary approach consolidates the complexity of detecting interactions from multiple sources into a unified process managed by the server.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS10489473B2Generating information describing interactions with a content item presented in multiple collections of content

Publication Date: 2019.11.26 FLIPBOARD INC

AI summary

A digital magazine server receives user interactions with content items presented to users via various digital magazines. The digital magazine server retrieves interactions associated with a content item that are also associated with multiple digital magazines. From the retrieved interactions, the digital magazine server generates information describing global interactions with a content item that are associated with multiple digital magazines. The digital magazine server may filter interactions with the content item that are associated with different digital magazines based on characteristics of the interactions and the information describing global interactions with the content item generated based on the filtered interactions.