Patent ID: 6954543

Claim:
An automated metadata discovery, assignment, and submission system, comprising: a photosharing service coupled to a network through a server, the server storing metadata fields; and at least one client computer capable of communicating with the server over the network, the client computer storing a plurality digital files and an automation application, wherein, when executed the automation application is functional for; establishing communication with the photosharing service, downloading the metadata fields, automatically analyzing the content of a first file and assigning one or metadata values to the downloaded metadata fields based on the analysis, automatically discovering any pre-existing metadata values associated with the file and using the metadata values to populate corresponding downloaded metadata fields, displaying both the pre-existing and automatically assigned metadata values to the user for viewing and editing, recording the metadata values assigned to the file for use with a next image, and uploading the file and the metadata values to the photosharing service for storage.