Patent ID: 7853661

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: establishing, using an instant messaging application, communication with one or more bots using a presence based network and a presence server that maintains and updates real-time statuses associated with a plurality of contacts corresponding to a plurality of online users, each of the one or more bots being an executable application hosted on the presence server that are configured to: reside as contacts in the instant messaging application; engage in a human-like conversation with the plurality of online users; leverage use of the presence based network to determine media consumption habits of the plurality of contacts; provide recommendations to one or more of the plurality of online users based at least on the media consumption habits of the plurality of contacts; purchase content associated with the recommendations on behalf of the plurality of online users when a specified price point of the content is reached; and help the plurality of contacts manage safety viewing habits by generating notifications to one or more third persons of a time and program content being viewed by at least one of the plurality of online users; enabling a user to remotely interact, via the one or more bots, with a device on which media is to be consumed by the user; accessing, via the one or more bots, information associated with the media consumption habits of one or more of the plurality of contacts; leveraging the information accessed to produce a media consumption recommendation for the user; generating a notification to be sent to the user, the notification comprising the media consumption recommendation; sending the notification to a remote computing device associated with the user; receiving a remote media selection responsive to the media consumption recommendation; purchasing the remote media selection on behalf of the user; notifying the user of the remote media selection purchase; and programming the device to consume media content associated with the remote media selection.