Patent ID: 8185829

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in a data processing system for rating exchangeable gestures in a virtual world application, said computer-implemented method comprising: making a gesture owned by a first user of said virtual world application available to a second user of said virtual world application, wherein execution of the gesture triggers a specific type of animation of an avatar on a display; in response to the avatar performing the specific type of animation, populating the display with a rating window, wherein the rating window prompts the second user to select and transmit a rating for the gesture; responsive to said second user providing the rating of said gesture: storing said rating in a repository of said first user; determining a rating metric of said gesture using said rating received from said second user; and communicating said rating metric to a third user of said virtual world application; and in response to the third user selecting the gesture, transmitting the gesture to the third user, wherein the third user selects the gesture based on the rating metric; identifying a keyword that is typed into the virtual world application, wherein identification of the keyword causes the avatar on the display to perform the specific type of animation; and populating the rating window with the keyword in order to identify the gesture that is being rated.