Gathering and contributing content across diverse sources

摘要

A content unification system is described herein that aligns related content from various sources into one unified stream. The system leverages tagging (e.g., hashtags or other added metadata associated with content) to filter and connect related content across sites, formats, and sources. One component of the system is a user-friendly and customizable “dash board” view of the various topics, called a “tagboard”. Tagboards can be quickly and easily created by users and can be embedded on any website. Users can interact with various content sources such as blogs, forums, or services without leaving the tagboard they are viewing. The content unification system provides users the tools to make the web efficient, increase user interaction, and increase the signal to noise ratio. The system also allows site owners and publishers to monetize their traffic better by directing advertisements to their content in real time.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method in a content unification system to gather data from various sources in response to a retrieval request, the method comprising:
receiving a request to retrieve data related to a particular data classification; identifying one or more data sources from which to retrieve data to satisfy the request to retrieve data; retrieving data from each of the identified data sources, wherein the data includes content potentially related to the particular classification identified in the request; identifying one or more classifications associated with the retrieved data; converting the retrieved data to a normalized format by removing information from the data that affects redisplay of the data; associating metadata with each retrieved data item that describes which data source each data item originated from and one or more data classifications identified as associated with each data item; and storing the normalized data and associated metadata in a data store for subsequent retrieval, wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.