Patent ID: 8739037
Filing Date: 2014-05-27
Classification: G06F,G06N,G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: hosting a rules-based virtual world by a computer-based server system that manages avatars and on-line presences respectively corresponding to a plurality of users registered with the rules-based virtual world, wherein a user of the plurality of users interacts with other users of the plurality of users with virtual world content including their respective avatars and on-line presences via a client application that communicates with the computer-based server system; maintaining information about the user's level within the rules-based virtual world, wherein the user's level is based on a comparison of one or more attributes of the user and rules associated with the virtual world; allowing the user, while the user is not accessing the rules-based virtual world via a web browser that is separate from the client application, to surf the web and receive normal web content different from the virtual world content, wherein the normal web content is served from a website on the public Internet, and wherein the virtual world content is served from the server system that is separate and remote from the website; automatically capturing, using the client application, a request from the user to receive the normal web content; communicating the request from the client application to the computer-based server system; and automatically supplementing the normal web content that the user receives via the web browser with additional virtual world content from the rules-based virtual world via the client application based on the maintained information and in response to the request, thereby causing the user to simultaneously receive and render using the web browser the normal web content from the website and the additional virtual world content from the server system, the additional virtual world content including at least the avatar corresponding to the user.