Patent ID: 8346798

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of identifying a published playlist comprising: receiving, by at least one processing unit and from a searching entity, search criteria representing a desire to identify a playlist by a search, the search comprising a search of user-defined playlist descriptor information; accessing, by the at least one processing unit, a playlist storage, said playlist storage comprising user published and unpublished playlists, some or all of said published and unpublished playlists each comprising title, artist and genre information for each of the playlist's media files in a plurality of playlist fields, each playlist further comprising a title field containing a title of the playlist and another playlist field containing said user-defined playlist descriptor information, said playlist field containing said user-defined playlist descriptor information comprising user-provided text describing one or more of the user's understanding, perception, and feelings toward the playlist in addition to and different from said title field containing said title of the playlist; searching, by the at least one processing unit, for published playlists of said playlist storage, said search comprising searching one or more playlist fields including searching the user-defined playlist descriptor field containing said user-defined playlist descriptor information to identify a desired playlist result set comprising user published playlists with user-defined playlist descriptor information relevant to said search criteria, at least one field of the one or more fields having an assigned weight for use in determining which user published playlists to include in the playlist result set; communicating, by the at least one processing unit, said desired playlist result set to said searching entity, wherein said desired playlist result set comprises a playlist identifier comprising a pointer, metadata associated with said desired playlist results set, and a permission level for accessing said desired playlist results, wherein said permission level is associated with an online media service; and synchronizing, upon receiving an edit to said playlist, said user-defined playlist descriptor information and said associated playlist information with said playlist storage.