Patent ID: 8266652

Claim:
A computing device, comprising: a memory storing computer instructions; and a controller coupled with the memory, wherein the controller responsive to executing the computer instructions performs operations comprising: transmitting a client program having a graphical user interface to a media device operating in an interactive television network, wherein the client program presents an overlay that superimposes onto media content received by the media device and enables the media device to associate a user-generated comment with the media content received at the media device, wherein the overlay includes a time line with an annotation representative of the user generated comment; receiving at least one of a plurality of user-generated comments and media content in a temporal vicinity of the plurality of user-generated comments via the client program; receive a request to transmit to a recipient device a portion of the plurality of user-generated comments or the media content in the temporal vicinity of the plurality of user-generated comments; transmitting to the recipient device one of the portion or one or more links to the portion; identifying a cluster of user-generated comments associated with the media content; and transmitting the cluster of user-generated comments to a group of recipient devices responsive to a determination that the cluster exceeds a threshold number of comments.