Patent ID: 8402506

Claim:
A computerized method of providing an informational alert to a user in communications with a client device configured to receive entertainment services or information services from a content distribution system, the method comprising: presenting an entertainment service or an information service on a client display to the user; determining a context of a user using the client display, the context comprising a notion of an action that a given user is performing at a given point in time; accessing instructions to display an informational alert object during said presenting of the entertainment service or the information service; determining a plurality of related users representing a social network in which the user is a member, based on user profile information and a degrees of relationships between users; displaying the informational alert object at the client device on the basis of the user profiles of the related users that represent the social network in which the user is a member and on the basis of the determined user context, the displaying being concurrent with said presenting of the entertainment service or the information service; and executing instructions to replace the informational alert object with an expanded view of the informational alert object when a request for the expanded view is received from the user.