Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Gabriel Gottlieb

Kenneth S Reneris

Pradip Kumar Fatehpuria

Anand Muthurajan

Edward Mark Tecot

Ray Patch

Shannon C Hegg

Constantin Mihai

Joerg Raymond Brown

Sanjay Dhanraj Sahgal

Amit Ramraz

Deepa Rajagopal

Sampathkumar Ramakrishnan

Stacy L Yust

David Rothenberg

Detailed herein is a technology which, among other things, allows for storage and playback of interactive user elements in a television stream. In one approach to this technology, a content data stream, including a television program and a user experience element, is received. This content data stream is transformed, and the transformed data stream is examined, to identify which packets are associated with the user experience element. Those packets are then passed to a handler appropriate for the user experience element.

Extensible encoding for interactive experience elements

Various embodiments pertain to methods and systems for providing multi-source content in electronic program guides (EPGs). In at least some embodiments, various techniques can present the viewer with a user interface, such as a grid, that is efficiently and intelligently assembled and managed to foster a desirable user experience.

Methods and systems for providing multi-source content in electronic program guides

A mechanism is provided to a user which allows 'ubiquitous' searching&#x2014;searching of possibly heterogeneous search repositories. In one embodiment, this search mechanism is provided by means of a search framework underlying a web-based user interface. When a search request is made, the underlying search framework detects the search request and its associated parameters, associates the search request with the required search provider or providers while still exposing (through the search context) the full search functionality for all search providers currently configured with the search framework, dispatches the search requests, and handles the return of search results in a unified format. The search providers follow the search framework's interfaces through which the search framework can detect the search method offered by the search provider, and results format and option information.

Ubiquitous search framework

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Gabriel Gottlieb