Patent ID: 7853967

Claim:
A system for processing a hierarchical user history data structure embodied in a machine readable medium, the system comprising: a processor configured to process data in the hierarchical user history data structure; and a memory for storing the processed data, wherein the hierarchical user history data structure comprises: a user information element including information for identifying a user; and a first user action list and a separate, second user action list that are respective first and second structural elements at the same level in the hierarchical user history data structure for separately recording different first and second user action types of the user's multimedia consumption, wherein the first user action list records prior or current user actions corresponding to the first user action type that includes playing content from multimedia streams and the second user action list records prior or current user actions corresponding to the second user action type that includes skipping content portions of the multimedia streams, each of the first and second user action lists including a respective list of user action data items, wherein each user action data item in the first user action list includes a content reference identifier of a multimedia program which has been played by the user, and wherein each user action data item in the second user action list includes a content reference identifier that identifies a multimedia program a portion of which has been skipped by the user, and wherein each content reference identifier enables access to content related metadata that is not provided in the hierarchical user history data structure.