Patent ID: 8230456

Claim:
A method for providing one or more content items to a user, the method comprising: setting a context for a client device operated by the user; for each of a plurality of buddies associated with the user as indicated in a user profile, setting a context for a client device operated by each of the plurality of buddies, the plurality of buddies in a social network of the user, wherein the plurality of buddies are identified from one or more instant messaging services to which the user has subscribed and to which the user has indicated this subscription in the user profile, the context includes at least one of a particular action being performed, a location from where that action is being performed, on what type of client device the action is being performed, and wherein the context is at least one of: a first level context comprising playing one or more online gaming applications, displaying one or more items of television content, and displaying one or more web pages, and a second level context comprising at least one detailed level context of the first level context; retrieving one or more representations of the context of the plurality of buddies; displaying the one or more representations of the context of the plurality of buddies as icons in the first level context on the client device in conjunction with the context of the client device; receiving a selection of a representation of a context of a given buddy from the one or more representations; setting the context of the client device to the selected context of the given buddy, the user simultaneously participating in both the context of the client device and the context of the given buddy; and displaying at the client device an interface screen for the user to participate in the selected context of the given buddy, the interface screen displaying the one or more representations, wherein the selected representation is modified from an icon in the first level context to an icon of a second level context of the given buddy with regard to the selected context and one or more representations of at least one other of the plurality of buddies participating in a context other than the selected context remain displayed as icons in the first level context.