IP Library Granted Patent US 12,235,923
Granted Patent B2
US 12,235,923 · App. 16/937,208 · Granted Feb 25, 2025

Intelligently generating and managing third-party sources within a contextual hub

Inventors: Hudson Arnold (San Francisco, CA); Thomas Kleinpeter (Kirkland, WA); Terrence McArdle (New York, NY); Kristoffer Mendoza (San Francisco, CA)
Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
G06F16/957G06F9/451G06F16/954G06F16/9558G06F16/9562G06F16/958G06N5/04G06N20/00H04L67/125H04L67/535G06F3/0481
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,235,923
App. No.
16/937,208
Granted
Feb 25, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present disclosure is directed toward systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for generating contextual hubs for organizing and presenting web-accessible content from third-party sources. In particular, the systems described herein can organize and manage within a contextual hub. For instance, the disclosed systems may perform actions on tabs based on analyzing usage signals associated with the tabs. Furthermore, the disclosed systems can organize contextually related content within contextual hubs. The disclosed systems may also facilitate collaboration between users within a contextual hub by synchronizing interactions with content within a contextual hub.

Claims (75)

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

generate a contextual hub comprising a digital space that provides access for a plurality of user accounts to web-accessible content;

provide, for display on a client device associated with a user account from among the plurality of user accounts associated with the contextual hub, a user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprising:

a group space including selectable elements for content items within a group web index indicating a collective history of web-accessible content accessed by the plurality of user accounts;

a private space including selectable elements for content items accessed privately by the user account;

a first presence icon placed relative to a first selectable element of a first content item within the group web index, the first presence icon indicating that a first co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts is currently viewing the first content item; and

a second presence icon placed relative to a second selectable element of a second content item within the group web index, the second presence icon indicating that a second co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts has previously viewed but is not currently viewing the second content item;

provide, to the client device associated with the user account, access to a third-party web page from a plurality of third-party web pages based on receiving an indication of a selection of a link corresponding to the third-party web page from within the contextual hub; and

based on providing access to the third-party web page, modify the contextual hub to include a reference of the third-party web page within the group space to make the reference accessible by the plurality of user accounts via the contextual hub.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

provide the first presence icon and the second presence icon for display within the group space of the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprises a graphical user interface that provides access to group content items and private content items, wherein:

a first group content item within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprises a website designated as group-accessible;

a second group content item within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprises a file stored within a cloud-based content management system and designated as group-accessible;

a first private content item within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprises a website designated as privately accessible by the user account; and

a second private content item within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub comprises a file stored within the cloud-based content management system designated as privately accessible by the user account.

4. The system as recited in claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

provide, for display within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub, a group browsing element selectable to initiate group browsing sessions for multiple user accounts of the plurality of user accounts;

receive, from the client device, an indication of a user interaction selecting the group browsing element within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub; and

in response to the user interaction, initiate a group browsing session for multiple user accounts to link browsing events across multiple user accounts for transferring browsing events performed by the user account at the client device to other client devices associated with other user accounts within the group browsing session.

5. The system as recited in claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

add, to the group space within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub, a first link corresponding to a first web page based on receiving an indication to add the first web page from the client device; and

add, to the group space within the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub, a second link corresponding to a second web page based on receiving an indication to add the second web page from an additional client device associated with an additional user account of the plurality of user accounts.

6. The system as recited in claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

generate the first presence icon to visually reflect an identity of the first co-user account; and

generate the second presence icon to visually reflect an identity of the second co-user account.

7. A method comprising:

generating a contextual hub comprising a digital space that provides access for a plurality of user accounts to web-accessible content;

providing, for display on a client device associated with a user account from among the plurality of user accounts associated with the contextual hub, a user-specific version of the contextual hub depicting comprising:

a group space including selectable elements for content items within a group web index indicating a collective history of web-accessible content accessed by the plurality of user accounts;

a private space including selectable elements for content items accessed privately by the user account;

a first presence icon placed relative to a first selectable element of a first content item within the group web index, the first presence icon indicating that a first co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts is currently viewing the first content item; and

a second presence icon placed relative to a second selectable element of a second content item within the group web index, the second presence icon indicating that a second co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts has previously viewed but is not currently viewing the second content item;

providing, to the client device associated with the user account, access to a third-party web page from a plurality of third-party web pages based on receiving an indication of a selection of a link corresponding to the third-party web page from within the contextual hub; and

based on providing access to the third-party web page, modifying the contextual hub to include a reference of the third-party web page within the group space to make the reference accessible by the plurality of user accounts via the contextual hub.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving, from the client device associated with the user account, an annotation at the third-party web page accessed via a selectable element within the group space of the contextual hub; and

based on adding a reference to the third-party web page to the group space of the contextual hub for access by the plurality of user accounts, providing the annotation for display at a second client device associated with a second user account.

9. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising receiving an indication of a user interaction with a content item included within the group space of the contextual hub, wherein the user interaction comprises at least one of:

viewing the content item; or

adding an annotation to the content item.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , further comprising providing, for display at a second client device associated with a second user account of the plurality of user accounts with access to the contextual hub, a notification indicating the user interaction of the user account with the content item.

11. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

providing the first presence icon and the second presence icon for display within the group space of the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub.

12. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

providing, for display within the contextual hub, a URL search element together with a group browsing element;

in response to a user interaction selecting the group browsing element, switching from a private browsing mode to a group browsing mode; and

based on switching from the private browsing mode to the group browsing mode, automatically adding a content item resulting from a search entered via the URL search element to the group space within the contextual hub.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 , wherein switching from the private browsing mode to the group browsing mode comprises modifying processing of input entered via the URL search element to switch from accessing private content items via the URL search element to accessing group content items via the URL search element.

14. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving, via a search element within the contextual hub, a group search request; and

generating a plurality of search results from the group web index based on the group search request.

15. The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving, via a search element within the contextual hub, a private search request; and

generating a plurality of search results from a private web index based on the private search request.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:

generate a contextual hub comprising a digital space that provides access for a plurality of user accounts to web-accessible content;

provide, for display on a client device associated with a user account from among the plurality of user accounts associated with the contextual hub, a user-specific version of the contextual hub comprising:

a group space including selectable elements for content items within a group web index indicating a collective history of web-accessible content accessed by the plurality of user accounts;

a private space including selectable elements for content items accessed privately by the user account;

a first presence icon placed relative to a first selectable element of a first content item within the group web index, the first presence icon indicating that a first co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts is currently viewing the first content item; and

a second presence icon placed relative to a second selectable element of a second content item within the group web index, the second presence icon indicating that a second co-user account from among the plurality of user accounts has previously viewed but is not currently viewing the second content item;

provide, to the client device associated with the user account, access to a third-party web page from a plurality of third-party web pages based on receiving an indication of a section of a link corresponding to the third-party web page from within the contextual hub; and

based on providing access to the third-party web page, modify the contextual hub to include a reference of the third-party web page within the group space to make the reference accessible by the plurality of user accounts via the contextual hub.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 16 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

receive, from the client device associated with the user account, an annotation corresponding to content on the third-party web page;

determine a pixel location of the content annotated on the third-party web page; and

provide, based on the annotation and the pixel location, and further based on providing access to the third-party web page to the plurality of user accounts via the contextual hub, the annotation as an overlay on the third-party web page for display at a second client device associated with a second user account from among the plurality of user accounts.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 16 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to provide the first presence icon and the second presence icon for display within the group space of the user-account-specific version of the contextual hub.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 16 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

add a first web page to the group space of the contextual hub based on receiving an indication to add the first web page from the client device; and

add a second web page to the group space of the contextual hub based on receiving an indication to add the second web page from a second client device associated with a second user account of the plurality of user accounts.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 16 , wherein the third-party web page is part of a contextual grouping of third-party web pages.

Assignments (4)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 13, 2024
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DROPBOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 069635/0332 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 12, 2024
From: DROPBOX, INC.
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 069604/0611 →
PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 10, 2021
From: DROPBOX, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 055670/0219 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 23, 2020
From: ARNOLD, HUDSON; KLEINPETER, THOMAS; MCARDLE, TERRENCE; MENDOZA, KRISTOFFER
To: DROPBOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 053297/0076 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63036402 · Jun 8, 2020
Related Publication 20210382951A1 · Dec 9, 2021
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