STREAMING MEDIA BUFFER POINTS REFLECTING USER BEHAVIOR AND INTERESTS

1 - 15 . (canceled)

16 . A computer program product including computer usable program code embodied on a tangible computer usable storage medium, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for identifying multiple seek points within a stream of media data streamed from a media source to a media player;

computer usable program code for buffering a segment of the stream of media data at each of the multiple seek points;

computer usable program code for providing a graphical user interface illustrating the positions of the multiple seek points along a progress bar and identifying, for each of the multiple seek points, the source that provided the seek point;

computer usable program code for monitoring for user input selecting a seek point from among the multiple seek points; and

computer usable program code for setting the selected seek point as a current playback point.

17 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the multiple seek points are provided by at least two different sources, and wherein at least one of the sources is external to a device that operates the media player.

18 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein, for each of the multiple seek points, the source of the seek point is identified by an appearance that is unique to the source that provided the seek point.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the appearance that is unique to the source or type of source includes color, wherein a different color is used for each source.

20 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the appearance that is unique to the source or type of source includes icons, wherein a different icon is used for each source.

21 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the source that provided the seek point is identified by including a text description of the source.

22 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the at least one of the sources that is external to a device that operates the media player is another user identified in a contact list designated by the user.

23 . The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the at least one of the sources that is external to a device that operates the media player is a third party media source, and wherein the seek point received from the third party media source is based upon popularity of seek points for the particular stream of media data.

24 . The computer program product of claim 16 , further comprising:

computer usable program code for developing a user profile including past use of seek points in the media player.

25 . The computer program product of claim 24 , wherein the user profile identifies a segment length of a media stream that the user frequently watches, the method further comprising:

computer usable program code for setting a buffer length for one or more of the seek points based upon the segment length identified in the user profile.

26 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the user profile identifies how often a user skips an earlier seek point for a later seek point, the method further comprising:

setting a buffer length for one or more of the seek points based upon how often the user skips an earlier seek point for a later seek point in the user profile.

27 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the user profile identifies at least one of the multiple seek points.

28 . The method of claim 26 , wherein the user profile identifies one or more points of a media stream that are typically of interest to the user.

29 . The method of claim 26 , wherein the user profile identifies one or more points of a media stream that the user typically skips.