Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Aol Inc.

Tarquin Consulting Co., LLC

Aol Llc, a Deleware Limited Liability Company

Shailesh Prakash

Stephen E Loomis

Mangesh Madhukar Gondhalekar

Rajesh Viswanathan

James Patrick Van Huysse

Cameo Dawn Carlson

David S Bill

Thomas F Bergstraesser

Ellis Marshall Verosub

Kong-Kat Wong

Kamal Acharya

Sanjeev Tenneti

Mackenzie Steele

Chong I Ka

Todd Pringle

Adam Milligan

Helen Jean Cuncannan

Michael P Gordon

Solomon D Goldfarb

A song and ad scheduler supporting clip-based and stream-based scheduling of multimedia items generates several hours of schedule in advance. Having multiple channel capability, the scheduler uses as inputs: the channel, associated playlists, rotation pattern for the channel, and associated programming rules to produce a schedule of multimedia items for the channel. Initially, the scheduler produces a schedule for each channel of predetermined length; then it periodically revisits the channel to add more songs, keeping the schedule to the desired length. Length of the initial playlist is configurable. The scheduler uses a producer-consumer model for distributing work. Producer threads periodically scan the system for work to be done. When a producer thread encounters work to be done, e.g. adding to the schedule of a channel, the producer thread places a work request into a queue. Worker threads consume the work requests by fulfilling the requested work.

Multimedia scheduler

A vertical search engine may rank items based on both the quality of data associated with each item and the popularity of each item. The vertical search engine may access data associated with items from a variety of different sources, including feed sources and crawl sources. Data quality inputs are determined for each item based on the quality of the data associated with each respective item. In addition, popularity inputs are determined for each item based on user interest in each respective item. A global rankings score is then calculated for each item based on the data quality inputs and popularity inputs for each respective item. The global ranking score may be used to order search results for search queries in such a way that items from feed data and items from crawl data may be displayed in a unified manner, rather than being segregated by data source.

Consumer-focused results ordering

The digital content store provides users with an opportunity to purchase authorized usage of digital content, such as single or multiple music tracks, video, movies, and/or video games. The users can also buy license to a desired track for a fixed number of times, e.g. preferably the users can listen on three different machines simultaneously. Users can also burn a play list of X number of times, for example ten. The burn limit preferably applies to the play list, not the song. Mixed media capability is provided that allows the purchase of digital content and/or physical media. The digital content store system comprises a unique digital rights management system and a back-end enabling system that controls these digital rights.

Digital content store system

A song and ad scheduler supporting clip-based and stream-based scheduling of multimedia items generates several hours of schedule in advance. Having multiple channel capability, the scheduler uses as inputs: the channel, associated playlists associated, rotation pattern for the channel, and associated programming rules to produce a schedule of multimedia items for the channel. Initially, the scheduler produces a schedule for each channel of predetermined length; then it periodically revisits the channel to add more songs, keeping the schedule to the desired length. Length of the initial playlist is configurable. The scheduler uses a producer-consumer model for distributing work. Producer threads periodically scan the system for work to be done. When a producer thread encounters work to be done, e.g. adding to the schedule of a channel, the producer thread places a work request into a queue. Worker threads consume the work requests by fulfilling the requested work.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Shailesh Prakash