U.S. Pat. No. 10,898,815

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various techniques relating to viewer-generated stream clips and streamer-generated video items are described herein. In particular, in some examples, a stream of video content, for example corresponding to a video game, may be transmitted to a number of viewers. The video content may be provided by a streamer, which is user that provides video content that is streamed to viewers. In some examples, the streamer may transmit the video content to a video streaming service. The video streaming service may then, in turn, transmit the video content to a number of viewers. For example, a streamer may be a video game player that captures and transmits video of a game that he or she is playing. The video streaming service may, in turn, transmit the video of the game to a number of viewers. In some examples, the video content may be transmitted to viewers and played using live streaming techniques. For example, video content of an event (e.g., video game) may be transmitted to viewers, and at least part of the video content may be played while the event is still occurring (e.g., while the video game is still being played by the streamer), albeit with some small amounts latency between the time that video content is captured by the provider and the time that the video is eventually played to viewers.

In some examples, viewers of a video stream may generate a number of video stream clips including recordings of different portions of the video stream. These clips may, in turn, be viewed and shared amongst any number of other viewers. In some examples, certain clips may be particularly desirable for viewers. For example, in some cases, the most frequently viewed and shared video clips may be desirable, as the frequent viewing and sharing of these clips suggests that they include video that is enjoyable and/or interesting to large numbers of viewers. However, it is currently difficult for clip viewers to determine which clips are the most desirable to view. In particular, a video streaming service may sometimes transmit large quantities of video streams, each with large quantities of respective stream clips, thereby creating a large pool of available stream clips. Moreover, information about the available stream clips is often limited, leaving viewers with no efficient way to determine which of the many available clips are most suitable for them.

As described herein, in some examples, a video streaming service may compute popularity measures for available video clips. Each popularity measure may indicate a respective popularity of a corresponding video clip. For example, in some cases, the popularity measures may include popularity scores that are a function of, or otherwise related to, popularity, such as with more popular clips having higher scores and less popular clips having lower scores. In some examples, the video streaming service may track various actions associated with each video clip. The tracked actions may include actions such as playing of a video clip, sharing of a video clip, submission of comments (including text, chat, audio, icons, graphics, emotes, likes, etc.) associated with the video clip, and the like. The video streaming service may collect and store data indicative of the tracked actions and associated information, such as times at which the actions occurred, associated users, related actions or events, and the like. The tracked actions may then be used to determine the popularity measures. For example, in some cases, a popularity measure may be determined based at least in pan on a frequency (i.e., amount divided by time) with which a respective video clip is played and/or shared within one or more time periods, such as a previous hour, day or week. Also, in some examples, a popularity measure may be determined based at least in part on an amount and/or frequency of comments submitted in association with a respective video clip. In addition to tracked actions, the popularity measure may also be based on other factors, such as a quantity of viewers or other characteristics of a streamer that provided the video from which the video clip was generated. Moreover, in some examples, popularity measures may be weighted, for example to give priority (e.g., a higher score) to clips that have certain desired characteristics, such as clips that show certain game titles and/or game features, clips show certain features of the video streaming service (e.g. technical features/options that the video streaming service wishes to publicize or raise awareness of), and the like.

The popularity measures may be used to select and provide video clips to viewers. In some examples, video clips may also be selected for viewers based on other factors, such as contents and/or characteristics of the video clips. For example, in some cases, video clip requestors may specify preferred game titles and/or streamers from which to provide video clips. Also, in some examples, video clip creators may provide keywords, a representative thumbnail image, and/or other information that describes or otherwise relates to the contents of the video clips. In some examples, the keywords may describe various emotions or contexts of the clips, such as happy, sad, exciting, dangerous, attractive, calm, violent, expert, winning, losing, turning point, and the like. These emotions or contexts may be matched to desired emotions or contexts that a user may specify, such as when requesting or searching for desired video clips. Also, in some examples, emotions and or contexts of a video clip may be determined based on other information, such as chat, emotes and other comments associated with the video clip, the representative thumbnail image, and the like. Any combination of image, speech/audio, text or other data recognition analyses may be performed on comments, representative thumbnails and/or other data associated with the video clips, as well as the video clips themselves, to determine emotions or contexts associated with the video clips.

In some examples, some of the available video clips may include a common portion of a video stream from which they are generated, thereby wholly or partially overlapping one another. In some cases, when it is determined that two or more clips overlap one another, such as by a threshold amount and/or percentage of time, the collected data associated with those clips may be merged or otherwise combined. For example, consider a scenario in which a first and a second video clip substantially overlap one another such that they mostly include identical portions of a video stream. Now suppose that the first video clip has received ten-thousand views in the last hour, while the second video clip has received only five views in the last hour. In this scenario, because these video clips include substantially the same content, it may be presumed that the low frequency of the viewing of the second video clip (in comparison to the much higher frequency of the viewing of the first video clip) is primarily due merely to a lack of awareness or publicity of the second video clip in the viewing community. Thus, in some examples, although the second video clip did not have high viewership, the viewership data for the first and second clip may be merged such that the higher viewership of the first video clip is also attributed to the second video clip, thereby potentially resulting in a much higher popularity score for the second video clip than if its viewership data had not been merged with the first video clip. Also, in some examples, other data regarding the first and second video clips may also be merged, such as keywords and other emotion or context data, chat, emote and other comment data, and the like.

Thus, popularity measures and other video clip selection techniques may provide a number of advantages. For example, these techniques may allow users of the video streaming service to discover additional streamers, thereby enhancing the user's experience, encouraging greater use of the video streaming service, and further promoting the streamer to additional viewers. Additionally, the popularity measures may allow creators of popular video clips to be recognized and rewarded, thereby incentivizing them to continue to generate popular clips and to further engage with the video streaming service. Furthermore, popular video clips may often showcase particular features of the video streaming service, thereby allowing additional exposure of these features and encouraging their use by viewers.

In some examples, one or more video clips may be included in a video item that may be provided to viewers. For example, in some cases, a video item may include a daily, weekly or other highlight reel of popular video clips for a particular streamer and/or game title, in some cases tailored to particular emotions or other contexts that may be desired by a particular viewer. In addition to video clips, a video item may also include secondary content, such as advertisements, notifications and the like, thereby providing additional incentive to the streaming service to provide the video items to viewers. Also, in some examples, when a video item is viewed, the creators of the video clips that are included in the viewed content item may receive a return from the video streaming service, such as a reward or recognition from the video streaming service. This may provide a further incentive for viewers to benefit from generation of video clips.

As also described herein, in some examples, video items may be generated by streamers, such as may include selected portions of video of streamers playing particular game titles. Specifically, in some examples, a streamer may be a video game player and may participate in a first video game session for a particular game title. Video content may be captured and recorded that includes video of the first video game session. In some examples, in addition to only game video, the captured video content may include video of the streamer, such as video of the streamer's face while participating in the first game session, as well as potentially corresponding game audio and audio of the streamer speaking and commenting on game action. In some examples, the streamer's participation in the first video game session may be part of a campaign or program where the streamer is incentivized to play the particular game title in order to generate publicity and interest in the particular game title. Upon completion of the first video game session, the streamer may select a desired portion (e.g., 5, 15 or 30 second portions or other durations) of the video content of the first video game session for inclusion in a streamer-generated video item. In some examples, the streamer may select the desired portion based on the popularity measures described above, such as by selecting a portion of the video content that is included in a clip with a high popularity score. The high popularity score of such a clip may suggest that the respective portion of the video content includes video that is interesting and exciting to viewers. In some examples, upon selection of the video content portion, the video content portion may pass through an approval process, such as whereby a publisher of the video game title, the video streaming service, and potentially other entities may be permitted to review and approve or reject the video content portion, for example to allow these entities to ensure brand safety and for other reasons. The selected video content portion may then be included in a streamer-generated video item.

The streamer-generated video item may be played to viewers through various contexts. For example, the video item may be played to viewers in association with (e.g., as a pre-roll and/or post-roll) other video streams of other streamers playing the same game title that is included in the video item. As another example, the video item may be played on a directory page for game title that may be provided by the video streaming service. As yet another example, the video item may be played on selected external (i.e., non-video streaming service) websites.

In some examples, a video item generated by a particular streamer may be displayed to viewers only during times when that particular streamer is participating in an active game session—and, in some cases, only when participating in an active game session of the same video game title that is included in the video item. Moreover, in some examples, the streamer's participation in an active game session may be detected dynamically by the video streaming service, thereby allowing the streamer the flexibility to start and stop playing at any time and not requiring that the streamer to play only in specific reserved or other pre-arranged time periods. Additionally, in some examples, viewers of the video item may provide input (e.g. right-click, etc.) that allows viewers to request to receive a live stream of the streamer's active game session that it is being played simultaneously with the display of the video item. For example, the video item may be displayed in combination with a control that receives a viewer's input and responsively triggers transmission of the live stream of the streamer's active game session to the viewer. Thus, by allowing viewers to access a live stream of the streamer, the streamer-generated video item may allow efficient targeting and linkage of viewers with streamers and game titles. This may benefit viewers, such as by allowing viewers to easily discover additional streamers and/or game titles that may be of interest to the viewers. Additionally, this may benefit streamers, such as by allowing streamers to build their fan bases and attract larger amounts of viewers. Furthermore, this may benefit game publishers, such as by allowing game publishers to gain additional exposure and publicity for their games. Also, this may benefit the video streaming service, such as by allowing the video streaming service to raise awareness of streamers and game titles carried by the service and to potentially gain a return from game publishers in exchange for showing streamer-generated video items that showcase their games. Moreover, by showing streamer-generated video items only when respective streamers are actively streaming a live game session, the video items are intelligently targeted to live streamers, thereby enhancing the level of interaction between viewers and the streamers to which they are introduced and linked.

In some examples, when a viewer is linked to a streamer via a streamer-generated video item, the streamer may be given a return when a viewer acquires an executable instance of the video game title that is shown in the video item and the live stream to which the viewer is linked. For example, in some cases, the live stream may be displayed in combination with a control that allows the viewer to acquire the game title, such as by linking the viewer to a purchase page for the game title. In other examples, the viewer's acquisition of game title may be tied to the streamer in other ways, such as by acquiring the game title within a specified time period of viewing the streamer play the game title, by having the viewer enter an identifier or promotional code associated with the streamer when acquiring the game title, or in other ways. In this way, the streamer may be further incentivized to create video items and to play and publicize a game title.

Referring now toFIG. 1, an example video clip popularity measuring system will now be described in detail. In particular, as shown inFIG. 1, a video stream130may be transmitted from a streamer110to a video streaming service120, which, in turn, may transmit the video content to a number of viewers140. The video stream130may be transmitted from streamer110to video streaming service120and, in turn, from video streaming service120to viewers140over one or more communications networks, for example one or more local area networks (LAN's) and/or one or more wide area networks (WAN's), such as the Internet. Additionally, video stream130may be transmitted from streamer110to video streaming service120and, in turn, from video streaming service120to viewers140using streaming transmission techniques, in which portions of transmitted content are received and played while subsequent portions of the transmitted content are being transmitted. A video stream, as used herein, refers to video content that is transmitted using streaming transmission techniques. Video streaming service120includes transmission components121, such as encoders, edge servers, and the like.

In some examples, the video stream130may include video of a live event, such as a video game, sporting event, news event, or other live event. In one specific example, streamer110may be a video game player and may provide video captured from a video game that he or she is playing. In some examples, in addition to only game video, the video stream130may include or be combined with video of streamer110, such as video of the streamer's face while playing a game, as well as corresponding game audio, audio of the streamer110speaking and commenting on game action, and other additional video and audio. In some examples, the video stream130may be transmitted to a video player and played using live streaming techniques. For example, a video stream130of an event (e.g., a video game) may be transmitted to a video player, and at least part of the video content item100may played by the video player while the event is still occurring (e.g., while the video game is still being played by one or more game players), albeit with some small amounts of latency between the time that the video is captured by the streamer110and the time that the video is eventually played for viewers140. In some examples, streamer110may capture video using screen capture software, one or more cameras, and/or other video capture components.

As shown inFIG. 1, viewers140may generate viewer clips131A-D including recordings of different portions of the video stream130. As should be appreciated, althoughFIG. 1shows four clips131A-D, any number of different clips of the same or different durations covering the same or different portions of a video stream may be generated in accordance with the techniques described herein. The clips131A-D may be viewed and shared amongst viewers140of video stream130as well as other viewers. In the example ofFIG. 1, video streaming service120includes clip services150, which manages video clips created by viewers of the video streaming service, including clips131A-D. In particular, in this example, clip services150includes a clip library151that may store created and submitted clips, including clips131A-D.

Clip services150may also include clip metadata152, which may include data that describes the clips stored in the clip library151. For example, in some cases, video clip creators may provide keywords, a representative thumbnail image, and/or other information that describes or otherwise relates to the contents of the video clips. In some examples, the keywords may describe various emotions or contexts of the clips, such as happy, sad, exciting, dangerous, attractive, calm, violent, expert, winning, losing, turning point, and the like. Also, in some examples, emotions and or contexts of a video clip may be determined based on other information, such as chat, emotes and other comments associated with the video clip, the representative thumbnail image, and the like. Any combination of image, speech/audio, text or other data recognition analyses may be performed on comments, representative thumbnails and/or other data associated with the video clips, as well as the video clips themselves, to determine emotions or contexts associated with the video clips. This emotion or context information and other information describing the video clips may be stored in clip metadata152. In some examples, clip metadata152may also include an identification or other indication of a streamer, game title, and other information about the stream from which each respective video clip is created, as well as potentially information about the streamer (e.g., number of viewers, channel identifier, etc.) and game title (e.g., publisher, level, etc.). Clip metadata152may also include information such as a start time and/or end time of the video clip, a clip duration, a time and/or date when the clip was made, information about the viewer that created the clip, and other information.

As described above, in some examples, certain clips in clip library151may be particularly desirable for viewers. For example, in some cases, the most frequently viewed and shared video clips may be desirable, as the frequent viewing and sharing of these clips suggests that they include video that is enjoyable and/or interesting to large numbers of viewers. However, it is currently difficult for clip viewers to determine which clips are the most desirable to view. In particular, video streaming service120may sometimes transmit large quantities of video streams, each with large quantities of respective stream clips, thereby creating a large pool of available stream clips. Thus, to help viewers find desirable clips and for other reasons, clip services150may compute popularity measures154for the available clips in the clip library151. Each popularity measure154may indicate a respective popularity of a corresponding video clip. For example, in some cases, the popularity measures may include popularity scores that am a function of, or otherwise related to, popularity, such as with more popular clips having higher scores and less popular clips having lower scores.

The popularity measures154may be determined based, at least in part, on tracked action data153. In some examples, the video streaming service120may track various actions associated with each video clip. The tracked actions may include actions such as playing of a video clip, sharing of a video clip, submission of comments (including text, chat, audio, icons, graphics, emotes, likes, etc.) associated with the video clip, and the like. The tracked action data153may include data indicative of the tracked actions and associated information, such as times at which the actions occurred, associated users, related actions or events, and the like. The tracked action data153may then be used to determine the popularity measures154. For example, in some cases, a popularity measure may be determined based at least in part on a frequency (i.e., amount divided by time) with which a respective video clip is played and/or shared within one or more time periods, such as a previous hour, day or week. Also, in some examples, a popularity measure may be determined based at least in part on an amount and/or frequency of comments submitted in association with a respective video clip. Furthermore, in some examples, a popularity measure may be determined based on actions of viewers that watch video clips. For example, if a viewer watches a video clip and then subsequently purchases a copy of the game title from which the video clip is taken, such as within a specified time period alter watching the video clip, then this may increase the popularity score for that video clip, for example because it indicates that the video clip showed the video game in a favorable manner. In yet other examples, the tracked action data153may include indications of how frequently video clips are made or extracted from other video clips. For example, in some cases, one or more secondary video clips may be made that include various portions of a single primary video clip from which they are extracted. The making of these secondary video clips from the primary video clip may indicate that the primary video clip has become popular among viewers—and may therefore increase a popularity score for the primary video clip. Also, in some examples, when secondary video clips are made from a primary video clip, the secondary video clips may potentially inherit the popularity score and/or other context data from the primary video clip from which they are created.

In some examples, in addition to tracked action data153, the popularity measures154may also be based on other factors, such as a quantity of viewers or other characteristics of a streamer that provided the video stream from which the video clip was generated. Moreover, in some examples, popularity measures may be weighted, for example to give priority (e.g., a higher score) to clips that have certain desired characteristics, such as clips that show certain game titles and/or game features, clips show certain features of the video streaming service (e.g. technical features/options that the video streaming service wishes to publicize or raise awareness of), and the like. The popularity measures154may be used to select and provide video clips to viewers. In some examples, video clips may also be selected for viewers based on other factors, such as information that may be stored in clip metadata152. For example, in some cases, video clips may be selected for viewers based on contents and/or characteristics of the video clips, such as may be determined from keywords, a representative thumbnail image, and/or other information that may be stored in clip metadata152. Also, in some examples, emotions and or contexts of a video clip may be determined based on other information, such as chat, emotes and other comments associated with the video clip, the representative thumbnail image, and the like. This information may be matched to desired emotions or contexts that a user may specify, such as when requesting or searching for desired video clips. Additionally, in some cases, video clip requestors may specify preferred game titles and/or streamers from which to provide video clips, and clip metadata152may store information about the streamers and game titles associated with stored clips as described above.

Referring now toFIG. 2, it is seen that, in some examples, some video clips may wholly or partially overlap one another. For example, as shown inFIG. 2, video clips131B and131C partially overlap one another such that they include a common stream portion201of the video stream130. In some cases, when it is determined that two or more clips overlap one another, such as video clips131B and131C, the collected data (e.g., tracked action data153, clip metadata152, etc.) associated with those clips may be merged or otherwise combined. In some examples, clip services150may determine when clips wholly or partially overlap one another based on their start times and end times, which may be relative to the timing of the video stream from which they are extracted, and which may be stored in clip metadata152. In some examples, in order to combine the collected data for the clips, the clips may be required to overlap one another by at least a threshold amount and/or percentage of time, such as a percentage of the total time duration of each clip.

As shown inFIG. 2, individual clip tracked action data202A-D may be collected for each individual clip131A-D, respectively. However, upon determining that clips131B and131C substantially overlap one another, clip services150may combine the individual tracked action data202B and202C (corresponding to individual clips131B and131C, respectively) into combined tracked action data203corresponding to both clips131B and131C. In some specific examples, viewership data (e.g., quantity and/or frequency of views) indicating higher viewership may be attributed to overlapping video clips with lower viewership. For example, suppose that the clip131B has received ten-thousand views in the last hour, while the clip131C has received only five views in the last hour. In this scenario, because clips131B and131C include substantially the same content (i.e., common stream portion201), it may be presumed that the low frequency of the viewing of the clip131C (in comparison to the much higher frequency of the viewing of the clip131B) is primarily due merely to a lack of awareness or publicity of clip131C in the viewing community. Thus, in some examples, although clip131C did not have high viewership, the viewership data for clips131B and131C may be merged such that the higher viewership of clip131B is also attributed to clip131C, thereby potentially resulting in a much higher popularity score for clip131C than if its tracked action data202C had not been merged with tracked action data202B for clip131B. Also, in some examples, other data regarding clips131B and131C may also be merged, such as keywords and other emotion or context data, chat, emote and other comment data, other clip metadata152, and the like.

Thus, as described above, popularity measures154, clip metadata152, tracked action data153and other information may be used to select clips from clip library151that may be of interest to various viewers. Referring now toFIG. 3, an example is shown in which a clip requestor310sends a clip request301to clip selection components155of clip services150. In some examples, the clip request301may indicate one or more clip characteristics302of a desired clip that the clip requestor wishes to obtain. As described above, in some examples, the clip characteristics302may include a preferred streamer, game title, level, game type, contexts (e.g., happy, sad, exciting, dangerous, attractive, calm, violent, expert, winning, losing, turning point, and the like), popularity score, minimum amount and/or frequency of views, date or time range, and many other characteristics. Upon receiving the clip request301, clip selection components155may recommend or otherwise select one or more selected clip(s)322from clip library151that match the characteristics302. In some examples, clip selection components may perform this selection based at least in part on popularity measures154, clip metadata152, and tracked action data153, such as using any combination of the techniques described in detail above. As should be appreciated, any number of different techniques may be employed to perform this selection, such as selecting one or more clips with a highest popularity measure154that match one or more of the clip characteristics302, by weighting one or more of the popularity measures154as described above, and/or using any combinations of these or other techniques.

Upon selecting the selected clip(s)322, the clip selection components155may provide one or more video items that include the selected clip(s)322. In the example ofFIG. 3, the selected clip(s)322are included in a single video item320. However, in some cases, selected clips may be distributed across multiple video items and/or may be combined into a single video item in response to clip request301. In some cases, video item320may include a daily, weekly or other highlight reel of popular video clips for a particular streamer and/or game title, in some cases tailored to particular emotions or other contexts that may be desired by clip requestor310. In this example, in addition to video clip(s)322, video item320also includes secondary content321, such as advertisements, notifications and the like, thereby providing additional incentive to the streaming service to provide the video item320to clip requestor310. In the example ofFIG. 3, clip return components340, such as may be operated by video streaming service120and/or other parties, may track the viewing of video items to provide returns (e.g., rewards, recognitions, etc.) to clip creators based on the viewing of the video items. In this example, when video item320is viewed by clip requestor310, one or more clip creator(s)350of the selected video clip(s)322that are included in video item320may receive a return341from the clip return components340. This may provide a further incentive for clip creators to benefit from generation of video clips. In some examples, the selected clip(s)322may include video that is included in two or more overlapping clips (such as clips131B and131C ofFIG. 2). For example, the selected clip(s)322could include a clip that includes common stream portion201ofFIG. 2, which is included in both clip131B and clip131C. In this scenario, the return341may be allocated to the creator of clip131B and clip131C (if they are made by different creators) in a variety of different ways. For example, the creator of clip131B and the creator of clip131C may each receive a separate return341- or a single return341may potentially be split or shared between the creator of clip131B and the creator of clip131C, such as evenly split or according to another selected distribution.

Thus, as described above with reference toFIGS. 1-3, video clips may be generated by stream viewers and may be included in video items that are provided to other viewers based on a popularity measure and/or various other factors. As also described herein, in some examples, video items may be generated by streamers, such as may include selected portions of video of streamers playing particular game titles. Referring now toFIGS. 4-6, some examples of streamer-generated video items will now be described in detail. Specifically, as shown inFIG. 4, a streamer110may provide video content430to video content viewers431via video streaming service120. In the example ofFIG. 4, video content430is transmitted from streamer110to video streaming service120and in turn, from video streaming service120to video content viewers431over one or more communications networks, for example one or more local area networks (LAN's) and/or one or more wide area networks (WAN's), such as the Internet. Additionally, video content430may be transmitted from streamer110to video streaming service120and, in turn, from video streaming service120to video content viewers431using streaming transmission techniques.

In some examples, streamer110may be a video game player and may participate in a first video game session for a particular game title. Video content430may include captured and recorded video of the first video game session. In some examples, in addition to only game video, the video content430may include or be combined with video of streamer110, such as video of the streamer's face while participating in the first game session, as well as corresponding game audio, audio of the streamer speaking and commenting on game action, and other additional video and audio. In some examples, the streamer's participation in the first video game session may be part of a campaign or program where the streamer is incentivized to play the particular game title in order to generate publicity and interest in the particular game title.

As shown inFIG. 4, upon completion of the first video game session, streamer110may select a desired video content portion410(e.g., 5, 15 or 30 second portions or other durations) from the video content430of the first video game session for inclusion in a streamer-generated video item411. In some examples, the streamer may select the video content portion410from the video content430based on the popularity measures described above, such as by selecting a portion of the video content430that is included in a clip with a high popularity score. The high popularity score of such a clip may suggest that the respective portion of the video content includes video that is interesting and exciting to viewers. In some examples, upon selection of the video content portion410by the streamer110, the video content portion410may pass through an approval process413, such as whereby a game publisher405of the video game title, the video streaming service120, and potentially other entities may be permitted to review and approve or reject the video content portion410, such as to allow these entities to ensure brand safety and for other reasons. The selected video content portion410may then be included in the streamer-generated video item411. In some examples, in addition to the selected video content portion410, the streamer-generated video item may include other data or content, such as advertisements, notifications, and the like.

The streamer-generated video item411may be provided to video item viewers432, such as through various display contexts420. For example, the video item may be played to viewers in association with (e.g., as a pre-roll and/or post-roll) other video streams of other streamers playing the same game title that is included in the streamer-generated video item411. As another example, the streamer-generated video item411may be included in a directory page for the game title that may be provided by the video streaming service120. As yet another example, the video item may be played on selected external (i.e., non-video streaming service) websites. As should be appreciated, any combinations of these and/or other display contexts may be employed.

Referring now toFIGS. 5A-5B, some examples of intelligent timing control for streamer-generated video item411will now be described in detail. In particular, in some examples, streamer-generated video item411, which is generated by streamer110, may be displayed to video item viewers432only during times when streamer110is transmitting content, such as when the streamer is actively transmitting video game content or potentially other content (e.g. music, other video and/or audio content, etc.). In the example of FIG. SA, it is seen that, during a time period501A, streamer110is not transmitting content. As shown, display status502indicates that, during time period501A, streamer-generated video item411is not displayed to viewers. By contrast, during a subsequent time period511A, streamer110transmits content (e.g., video game content, music, other video and/or audio content, etc.), such as may be transmitted from the streamer to the video streaming service120and, in turn, to one or more viewers. As shown, display status512indicates that, during time period511A, streamer-generated video item411is displayed to one or more viewers, such as via any of the example display contexts420described in detail above. Subsequently, during a later time period521A, streamer110ceases to transmit the content. As shown, display status522indicates that, during time period521A, streamer-generated video item411is not displayed to viewers.

In some examples, as a further refinement of the intelligent timing control described herein, streamer-generated video item411may be displayed to video item viewers432only during times when streamer110is participating in an active game session of the same video game title that is included in the streamer-generated video item411. In the example ofFIG. 5B, it is seen that, during a time period501B, streamer511is not participating in an active game session of the same video game title that is included in the streamer-generated video item411. As shown, display status502indicates that, during time period501B, streamer-generated video item411is not displayed to viewers. By contrast, during a subsequent time period511B, streamer110joins and participates in an active game session of the same video game title that is included in the streamer-generated video item411, such as may be transmitted via video streaming service120. As shown, display status512indicates that, during time period511B, streamer-generated video item411is displayed to one or more viewers, such as via any of the example display contexts420described in detail above. Subsequently, during a later time period521B, streamer110disconnects from the active game session and is no longer participating in any active game sessions of the same video game title that is included in the streamer-generated video item411. As shown, display status522indicates that, during time period521B, streamer-generated video item411is not displayed to viewers.

Additionally, in some examples, a viewer of the streamer-generated video item411may provide input (e.g. right-click, etc.) that allows the viewer to receive a live stream of the streamer's active game session or other transmitted content that it is being played simultaneously with the display of the streamer-generated video item411. For example, the video item may be displayed in combination with a control that receives a viewer's input and responsively triggers transmission of the live stream of the streamer's active game session or other transmitted content to the viewer. As shown in bothFIGS. 5A and 5B, at a time513during the display of the streamer generated video item411, input may be received from the viewer to request a live stream of the streamer's active game session. Responsive to this input, video streaming service120may provide a live stream of the streamer's transmitted content (during time period514A ofFIG. 5A) or a live stream of the streamer's active game session (during time period514B ofFIG. 5B) to the viewer. Thus, by allowing viewers to access a live stream of the streamer110, the streamer-generated video item411may allow efficient targeting and linkage of viewers with streamer110and the game title or other content being played therein. This may benefit viewers, such as by allowing viewers to easily discover additional streamers and/or game titles that may be of interest to the viewers. Additionally, this may benefit streamers, such as by allowing streamers to build their fan bases and attract larger amounts of viewers. Furthermore, this may benefit game publishers, such as by allowing game publishers to gain additional exposure and publicity for their games. Also, this may benefit the video streaming service120, such as by allowing the video streaming service120to raise awareness of streamers and game titles carried by the service and to potentially gain a return from game publishers in exchange for showing streamer-generated video items that showcase their games. Moreover, by showing streamer-generated video items only when respective streamers are actively streaming a live game session, the video items are intelligently targeted to live streamers, thereby enhancing the level of interaction between viewers and the streamers to which they are introduced and linked.

Referring now toFIG. 6, some examples of game title acquisition from a streamer's active game session will now be described in detail. In particular, in some examples, when a viewer is linked to a streamer's live stream via a streamer-generated video item, the streamer may be given a return when the viewer acquires an executable instance of the video game title that is shown in the streamer-generated video item and the live stream to which the viewer is linked. For example, as shown inFIG. 6, a viewer610may be linked to a streamer's active game session612via streamer-generated video item411as described above. At some point during the transmission of the streamer's active game session612, a game title acquisition621occurs, whereby the viewer610acquires an executable instance of the video game title that is shown in the streamer-generated video item411and the streamer's active game session612. For example, a stream of the streamer's active game session612may be displayed in combination with a control that allows the viewer610to acquire the game title, such as by linking the viewer to a purchase page for the game title. In this example, a notification of the game title acquisition621may be provided to acquisition return components640, which, in turn, provide a return341to the streamer110, such as a reward or recognition from the video streaming service120. In this way, the streamer110may be further incentivized to create streamer-generated video items and to play and publicize a game title. In the particular example ofFIG. 6, game title acquisition621occurs during the streamer's active game session612. In other examples, however, the viewer's acquisition of a game title may be tied to the streamer110in other ways, such as by acquiring the game title within a specified time period after the streamer's active game session612ends, by having the viewer610enter an identifier or promotional code associated with the streamer110when acquiring the game title, or in other ways.

Referring now toFIG. 7, an example process for control of viewer-generated stream clips will now be described in detail. In particular, the process ofFIG. 7is initiated at operation710, at which actions associated with a plurality of video stream clips generated from portions of one or more video streams are tracked. As described above, the one or more video streams may be transmitted to viewers over one or more communications networks, and the video stream clips may be generated and created by the viewers of the streams. The one or more video streams may include video of one or more video game sessions played by a streamer. The tracked actions may include actions such as playing of a video stream clip, and the tracking may therefore include determining occurrences of playbacks of the video stream clips. The tracked actions may include actions such as sharing of a video clip, submission of comments (including text, chat, audio, icons, graphics, emotes, likes, etc.) associated with the video clip, and the like. The video streaming service may collect and store data indicative of the tracked actions and associated information, such as times at which the actions occurred, associated users, related actions or events, and the like. The video streaming service may also collect and store other data regarding the video clips, such as start and end time data, data about the streamers that provide the streams from which the clips are extracted, data about contents of comments, keywords and other information indicative of contents of the video clips, and the like.

As described in detail above, such as with reference toFIG. 2, some video clips may overlap one another by including a common portion of a video stream from which they are extracted. Operations712and714are operations that may optionally be performed for these overlapping video clips. In particular, at operation712, it is determined that a first video stream clip and a second video stream clip of the plurality of video stream clips both include a common portion of a first video stream of the one or more video streams. For example, as described above, timing data regarding start times, end times and/or durations of video stream clips may be collected and stored. In some examples, these start times, end times and other timing data may be relative to a frame number, elapsed duration, or other timing information for a stream from which the clips are extracted. The collected and stored timing data for the video stream clips, such as start times and end times, may be used to determine when two or more video clips overlap one another by including a common portion of a video stream from which they are extracted.

At operation714, first tracked action data associated with the first video stream clip and second tracked action data associated with the second video stream clip are combined into combined tracked action data associated with both the first video stream clip and the second video stream clip. For example, in some cases, the first video stream clip may have a first amount of tracked views and the second video stream clip may have a second amount of tracked views that is higher than the first amount of tracked views, and the combining performed at operation714may include attributing the second amount of tracked views to the first video stream. Some specific examples of this and other combinations are described in detail above with respect toFIG. 2and are not repeated here. In addition to tracked action data, other data for overlapping video clips may also be combined, such as contents of comments, keywords, other context data, and the like.

At operation716, a plurality of popularity measures associated with the plurality of video stream clips are determined based at least in part on the tracking of operation710. For example, for cases in which a first video clip overlaps with a second video clip, a popularity measure corresponding to the first video clip may be determined based at least in part on the combined tracked action data (e.g., as in the examples of operations712and714). By contrast, in some cases where a first video clip does not overlap with other video clips, a popularity measure for the first video clip may be based on tracked action data for only the first video clip. In some examples, the popularity measures may be based at least in part on amounts and/or frequencies of playbacks of the video stream clips within one or more time periods, such as a previous hour, day or week. Also, in some examples, the popularity measures may be based at least in part on amounts of occurrences of sharing of the plurality of video stream clips, amounts of viewers of streamers that provide the plurality of video clips, or amounts of comments associated with the plurality of video clips. Moreover, in some examples, popularity measures may be weighted, for example to give priority (e.g., a higher score) to clips that have certain desired characteristics, such as clips that show certain game titles and/or game features, clips show certain features of the video streaming service (e.g. technical features/options that the video streaming service wishes to publicize or raise awareness of), and the like.

At operation718, the first video stream clip of the plurality of video stream clips is provided, to a user, based at least in part on a respective first popularity measure of the plurality of popularity measures. For example, in some cases the first video stream clip may be provided to the user because it has a high or highest popularity score and/or is above a threshold popularity score. Also, in some examples, the first video stream clip may be provided to the user because it has a highest popularity score among video stream clips that match certain criteria or characteristics specified by the user. For example, in some cases, video clip requestors may specify preferred game tides and/or streamers from which to provide video clips. Also, in some examples, the first video stream clip may be provided to the user based in part on contents of at least one of comments or keywords associated with the first video stream clip, such as may be used to determine emotions or contexts of the first video clip. These emotions or contexts may be matched to desired emotions or contexts that a user may specify, such as when requesting or searching for desired video clips.

At operation720, a return (e.g., reward, etc.) is provided to a creator of the first video stream clip based at least in part on a playing of the first video stream clip. For example, as described above, both the first video stream clip and secondary video content (e.g., advertising, etc.) may be inserted into a video item, and the providing of the first video stream clip to the user at operation718may include providing the video item to the user. A return may then be provided to a creator of the first video stream clip when the video item including the first vide stream clip is played for the viewer. Additionally, in some example, the video item may include a combination of multiple video stream clips from multiple different clip creators (e.g., a highlight reel), and the return may in some cases be split between the multiple different clip creators when the video item is played for the viewer.

Referring now toFIG. 8, an example process for control of streamer-generated video items will now be described in detail. The process ofFIG. 8is initiated at operation810, at which a selection of a portion of video content for inclusion in a video item is received from a user, such as streamer110ofFIG. 4. For example, as shown inFIG. 4, streamer110may select video content portion410from video content430, and this selection may be received by the video streaming service120. As described above, the video content includes video of the user playing a first video game session. In some examples, in addition to only game video, the video content may include or be combined with video of the streamer, such as video of the streamer's face while participating in the first game session, as well as corresponding game audio, audio of the streamer speaking and commenting on game action, and other additional video and audio. In some examples, the portion of the video content for inclusion in the video item may be selected based at least in part on a quantity of times that one or more video clips that include the portion are played. For example, as described above, frequent playing of a video clip may result in a high popularity score for the video clip, which may indicate to a streamer that a portion of video content that includes the video clip may be interesting or exciting for viewers. In some examples, the portion of video content may be approved by a publisher of a video game title played in the first video game session and/or a streaming service that streams the video content.

At operation812, it is determined that the user is playing a second video game session. For example, the streamer110may provide a video stream of the second video game session to the video streaming service120for transmission to subscribers of the video streaming service120. Video streaming service120may, therefore, determine that the streamer is playing a second video game session based on receiving and transmitting the video stream of the second video game session. In some cases, operation812may include determining that the user is playing any video game session regardless of game title. As a further refinement, in some cases, operation812may include determining that the user is playing a video game session of a same video game title that is played in the first video game session, for example as described above with reference toFIG. 5B. Moreover, in some examples, the streamer's participation in the second game session may be detected dynamically by the video streaming service at operation812, thereby allowing the streamer the flexibility to start and stop playing at any time and not requiring that the streamer to play only in specific reserved or other pre-arranged time periods.

At operation814, the video item is provided for display to a viewer during at least part of a time that the user is playing the second video game session. For example, as shown inFIG. 4, the video item may be displayed in various display contexts. In some examples, operation814may include playing the video item in association with another video stream of a same game title that is played in the first video game session (e.g., as a pre-roll or post-roll) or playing the video item on a directory page of the same game title that is played in the first video game session. Additionally, in some examples, operation814may include playing the video item on an external (i.e., non-video streaming service) website or in other display contexts.

At operation816, a video stream including video of the user playing at least part of the second video game session is provided to the viewer in response to input from the viewer. As described above, in some examples, the input from the viewer may include input provided via the video item. For example, the video item may be displayed in combination with a control that receives a viewer's input (e.g., right-click, etc.) and responsively triggers transmission of the live stream of the streamer's active game session to the viewer.

At operation818, it is determined that the viewer acquires, in association with the video stream, an executable instance of a video game title that is played in the second video game session. In some examples, the video stream may be displayed in combination with a control that allows the viewer to acquire the game title, such as by linking the viewer to a purchase page for the game title. In some cases, operation818may include determining that the viewer acquires the executable instance of the video game title that is played in the second video game session during playing of the video stream or within a selected time period after the playing of the video stream. Also, in some cases, operation818may include determining that the viewer provides an identifier or code associated with the user/streamer when acquiring the executable instance of the video game title. At operation820, a return is provided to the user based at least in part on acquiring of the executable instance of the video game title by the viewer. For example, in some cases, the return may include a reward or recognition that is provided to a streamer and that serves as an additional incentive to create streamer-generated video items.

It is noted that, althoughFIG. 8relates a scenario in which the streamer selects a portion of video content for inclusion in a video item, there may be some scenarios in which the streamer may select a portion of any type of content—and not necessarily only video or video game content. For example, the streamer may select portions of music or other audio and/or video content for inclusion in a content item. Additionally, such a content item need not necessarily be displayed only during times when the streamer is transmitting video game content. For example, a content item may be displayed during times when the streamer is transmitting music and other audio and/or video content (such as described above with respect toFIG. 5A). In these scenarios, operation810may include receiving, from a first user, a selection of a portion of first content for inclusion in a content item. Operation812may include determining that the first user is transmitting second content. Operation814may include providing, during at least part of a time that the first user is transmitting the second content, the content item for display to a second user. Operation816may include, in response to input from the second user, providing, to the second user, a content stream including at least part of the second content. These and other variations and examples may be employed as part of the techniques described herein.

An example system for transmitting and providing data will now be described in detail. In particular,FIG. 9illustrates an example computing environment in which the embodiments described herein may be implemented.FIG. 9is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a data center85that can provide computing resources to users70aand70b(which may be referred herein singularly as user70or in the plural as users70) via user computers72aand72b(which may be referred herein singularly as computer72or in the plural as computers72) via a communications network73. Data center85may be configured to provide computing resources for executing applications on a permanent or an as-needed basis. The computing resources provided by data center85may include various types of resources, such as gateway resources, load balancing resources, routing resources, networking resources, computing resources, volatile and non-volatile memory resources, content delivery resources, data processing resources, data storage resources, data communication resources and the like. Each type of computing resource may be available in a number of specific configurations. For example, data processing resources may be available as virtual machine instances that may be configured to provide various web services. In addition, combinations of resources may be made available via a network and may be configured as one or more web services. The instances may be configured to execute applications, including web services, such as application services, media services, database services, processing services, gateway services, storage services, routing services, security services, encryption services, load balancing services, application services and the like. These services may be configurable with set or custom applications and may be configurable in size, execution, cost, latency, type, duration, accessibility and in any other dimension. These web services may be configured as available infrastructure for one or more clients and can include one or more applications configured as a platform or as software for one or more clients. These web services may be made available via one or more communications protocols. These communications protocols may include, for example, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or non-HTTP protocols. These communications protocols may also include, for example, more reliable transport layer protocols, such as transmission control protocol (TCP), and less reliable transport layer protocols, such as user datagram protocol (UDP). Data storage resources may include file storage devices, block storage devices and the like.

Each type or configuration of computing resource may be available in different sizes, such as large resources-consisting of many processors, large amounts of memory and/or large storage capacity—and small resources-consisting of fewer processors, smaller amounts of memory and/or smaller storage capacity. Customers may choose to allocate a number of small processing resources as web servers and/or one large processing resource as a database server, for example.

Data center85may include servers76aand76b(which may be referred herein singularly as server76or in the plural as servers76) that provide computing resources. These resources may be available as bare metal resources or as virtual machine instances78a-d (which may be referred herein singularly as virtual machine instance78or in the plural as virtual machine instances78).

The availability of virtualization technologies for computing hardware has afforded benefits for providing large scale computing resources for customers and allowing computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared between multiple customers. For example, virtualization technologies may allow a physical computing device to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machine instances hosted by the physical computing device. A virtual machine instance may be a software emulation of a particular physical computing system that acts as a distinct logical computing system. Such a virtual machine instance provides isolation among multiple operating systems sharing a given physical computing resource. Furthermore, some virtualization technologies may provide virtual resources that span one or more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine instance with multiple virtual processors that span multiple distinct physical computing systems.

Referring toFIG. 9, communications network73may, for example, be a publicly accessible network of linked networks and possibly operated by various distinct parties, such as the Internet. In other embodiments, communications network73may be a private network, such as a corporate or university network that is wholly or partially inaccessible to non-privileged users. In still other embodiments, communications network73may include one or more private networks with access to and/or from the Internet.

Communication network73may provide access to computers72. User computers72may be computers utilized by users70or other customers of data center85. For instance, user computer72aor72bmay be a server, a desktop or laptop personal computer, a tablet computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an e-book reader, a game console, a set-top box or any other computing device capable of accessing data center85. User computer72aor72bmay connect directly to the Internet (e.g., via a cable modem or a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)). Although only two user computers72aand72bare depicted, it should be appreciated that there may be multiple user computers.

User computers72may also be utilized to configure aspects of the computing resources provided by data center85. In this regard, data center85might provide a gateway or web interface through which aspects of its operation may be configured through the use of a web browser application program executing on user computer72. Alternately, a stand-alone application program executing on user computer72might access an application programming interface (API) exposed by data center85for performing the configuration operations. Other mechanisms for configuring the operation of various web services available at data center85might also be utilized.

Servers76shown inFIG. 9may be servers configured appropriately for providing the computing resources described above and may provide computing resources for executing one or more web services and/or applications. In one embodiment, the computing resources may be virtual machine instances78. In the example of virtual machine instances, each of the servers76may be configured to execute an instance manager80aor80b(which may be referred herein singularly as instance manager80or in the plural as instance managers80) capable of executing the virtual machine instances78. The instance managers80may be a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or another type of program configured to enable the execution of virtual machine instances78on server76, for example. As discussed above, each of the virtual machine instances78may be configured to execute all or a portion of an application.

It should be appreciated that although the embodiments disclosed above discuss the context of virtual machine instances, other types of implementations can be utilized with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein. For example, the embodiments disclosed herein might also be utilized with computing systems that do not utilize virtual machine instances.

In the example data center85shown inFIG. 9, a router71may be utilized to interconnect the servers76aand76b. Router71may also be connected to gateway74, which is connected to communications network73. Router71may be connected to one or more load balancers, and alone or in combination may manage communications within networks in data center85, for example, by forwarding packets or other data communications as appropriate based on characteristics of such communications (e.g., header information including source and/or destination addresses, protocol identifiers, size, processing requirements, etc.) and/or the characteristics of the private network (e.g., routes based on network topology, etc.). It will be appreciated that, for the sake of simplicity, various aspects of the computing systems and other devices of this example are illustrated without showing certain conventional details. Additional computing systems and other devices may be interconnected in other embodiments and may be interconnected in different ways.

In the example data center85shown inFIG. 9, a server manager75is also employed to at least in part direct various communications to, from and/or between servers76aand76b. WhileFIG. 9depicts router71positioned between gateway74and server manager75, this is merely an exemplary configuration. In some cases, for example, server manager75may be positioned between gateway74and router71. Server manager75may, in some cases, examine portions of incoming communications from user computers72to determine one or more appropriate servers76to receive and/or process the incoming communications. Server manager75may determine appropriate servers to receive and/or process the incoming communications based on factors such as an identity, location or other attributes associated with user computers72, a nature of a task with which the communications are associated, a priority of a task with which the communications are associated, a duration of a task with which the communications are associated, a size and/or estimated resource usage of a task with which the communications are associated and many other factors. Server manager75may, for example, collect or otherwise have access to state information and other information associated with various tasks in order to, for example, assist in managing communications and other operations associated with such tasks.

It should be appreciated that the network topology illustrated inFIG. 9has been greatly simplified and that many more networks and networking devices may be utilized to interconnect the various computing systems disclosed herein. These network topologies and devices should be apparent to those skilled in the art.

It should also be appreciated that data center85described inFIG. 9is merely illustrative and that other implementations might be utilized. It should also be appreciated that a server, gateway or other computing device may comprise any combination of hardware or software that can interact and perform the described types of functionality, including without limitation: desktop or other computers, database servers, network storage devices and other network devices, PDAs, tablets, cellphones, wireless phones, pagers, electronic organizers, Internet appliances, television-based systems (e.g., using set top boxes and/or personal/digital video recorders) and various other consumer products that include appropriate communication capabilities.

In at least some embodiments, a server that implements a portion or all of one or more of the technologies described herein may include a computer system that includes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessible media.FIG. 10depicts a computer system that includes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessible media. In the illustrated embodiment, computing device15includes one or more processors10a,10band/or10n(which may be referred herein singularly as “a processor10” or in the plural as “the processors10”) coupled to a system memory20via an input/output (I/O) interface30. Computing device15further includes a network interface40coupled to IO interface30.

In various embodiments, computing device15may be a uniprocessor system including one processor10or a multiprocessor system including several processors10(e.g., two, four, eight or another suitable number). Processors10may be any suitable processors capable of executing instructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors10may be embedded processors implementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC or MIPS ISAs or any other suitable ISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of processors10may commonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.

System memory20may be configured to store instructions and data accessible by processor(s)10. In various embodiments, system memory20may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), nonvolatile/Flash-type memory or any other type of memory. In the illustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing one or more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and data described above, are shown stored within system memory20as code25and data26.

In one embodiment, I/O interface30may be configured to coordinate I/O traffic between processor10, system memory20and any peripherals in the device, including network interface40or other peripheral interfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface30may perform any necessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert data signals from one component (e.g., system memory20) into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g., processor10). In some embodiments, I/O interface30may include support for devices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, the function of/O interface30may be split into two or more separate components, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example. Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/O interface30, such as an interface to system memory20, may be incorporated directly into processor10.

Network interface40may be configured to allow data to be exchanged between computing device15and other device or devices60attached to a network or networks50, such as other computer systems or devices, for example, in various embodiments, network interface40may support communication via any suitable wired or wireless general data networks, such as types of Ethernet networks, for example. Additionally, network interface40may support communication via telecommunications/telephony networks, such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communications networks, via storage area networks such as Fibre Channel SANs (storage area networks) or via any other suitable type of network and/or protocol.

In some embodiments, system memory20may be one embodiment of a computer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions and data as described above for implementing embodiments of the corresponding methods and apparatus. However, in other embodiments, program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upon different types of computer-accessible media. Generally speaking, a computer-accessible medium may include non-transitory storage media or memory media, such as magnetic or optical media—e.g., disk or DVD/CD coupled to computing device15via I/O interface30. A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile or non-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM, etc.), ROM (read only memory) etc., that may be included in some embodiments of computing device15as system memory20or another type of memory. Further, a computer-accessible medium may include transmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic or digital signals conveyed via a communication medium, such as a network and/or a wireless link, such as those that may be implemented via network interface40.

A network set up by an entity, such as a company or a public sector organization, to provide one or more web services (such as various types of cloud-based computing or storage) accessible via the Internet and/or other networks to a distributed set of clients may be termed a provider network. Such a provider network may include numerous data centers hosting various resource pools, such as collections of physical and/or virtualized computer servers, storage devices, networking equipment and the like, needed to implement and distribute the infrastructure and web services offered by the provider network. The resources may in some embodiments be offered to clients in various units related to the web service, such as an amount of storage capacity for storage, processing capability for processing, as instances, as sets of related services and the like. A virtual computing instance may, for example, comprise one or more servers with a specified computational capacity (which may be specified by indicating the type and number of CPUs, the main memory size and so on) and a specified software stack (e.g., a particular version of an operating system, which may in turn run on top of a hypervisor).

A compute node, which may be referred to also as a computing node, may be implemented on a wide variety of computing environments, such as commodity-hardware computers, virtual machines, web services, computing clusters and computing appliances. Any of these computing devices or environments may, for convenience, be described as compute nodes.

A number of different types of computing devices may be used singly or in combination to implement the resources of the provider network in different embodiments, for example computer servers, storage devices, network devices and the like. In some embodiments a client or user may be provided direct access to a resource instance, e.g., by giving a user an administrator login and password. In other embodiments the provider network operator may allow clients to specify execution requirements for specified client applications and schedule execution of the applications on behalf of the client on execution platforms (such as application server instances, Java™ virtual machines (JVMs), general-purpose or special-purpose operating systems, platforms that support various interpreted or compiled programming languages such as Ruby, Perl, Python, C, C++ and the like or high-performance computing platforms) suitable for the applications, without, for example, requiring the client to access an instance or an execution platform directly. A given execution platform may utilize one or more resource instances in some implementations; in other implementations, multiple execution platforms may be mapped to a single resource instance.

In many environments, operators of provider networks that implement different types of virtualized computing, storage and/or other network-accessible functionality may allow customers to reserve or purchase access to resources in various resource acquisition modes. The computing resource provider may provide facilities for customers to select and launch the desired computing resources, deploy application components to the computing resources and maintain an application executing in the environment. In addition, the computing resource provider may provide further facilities for the customer to quickly and easily scale up or scale down the numbers and types of resources allocated to the application, either manually or through automatic scaling, as demand for or capacity requirements of the application change. The computing resources provided by the computing resource provider may be made available in discrete units, which may be referred to as instances. An instance may represent a physical server hardware platform, a virtual machine instance executing on a server or some combination of the two. Various types and configurations of instances may be made available, including different sizes of resources executing different operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and with various installed software applications, runtimes and the like. Instances may further be available in specific availability zones, representing a logical region, a fault tolerant region, a data center or other geographic location of the underlying computing hardware, for example. Instances may be copied within an availability zone or across availability zones to improve the redundancy of the instance, and instances may be migrated within a particular availability zone or across availability zones. As one example, the latency for client communications with a particular server in an availability zone may be less than the latency for client communications with a different server. As such, an instance may be migrated from the higher latency server to the lower latency server to improve the overall client experience.

In some embodiments the provider network may be organized into a plurality of geographical regions, and each region may include one or more availability zones. An availability zone (which may also be referred to as an availability container) in turn may comprise one or more distinct locations or data centers, configured in such a way that the resources in a given availability zone may be isolated or insulated from failures in other availability zones. That is, a failure in one availability zone may not be expected to result in a failure in any other availability zone. Thus, the availability profile of a resource instance is intended to be independent of the availability profile of a resource instance in a different availability zone. Clients may be able to protect their applications from failures at a single location by launching multiple application instances in respective availability zones. At the same time, in some implementations inexpensive and low latency network connectivity may be provided between resource instances that reside within the same geographical region (and network transmissions between resources of the same availability zone may be even faster).

As set forth above, content may be provided by a content provider to one or more clients. The term content, as used herein, refers to any presentable information, and the term content item, as used herein, refers to any collection of any such presentable information. A content provider may, for example, provide one or more content providing services for providing content to clients. The content providing services may reside on one or more servers. The content providing services may be scalable to meet the demands of one or more customers and may increase or decrease in capability based on the number and type of incoming client requests. Portions of content providing services may also be migrated to be placed in positions of reduced latency with requesting clients. For example, the content provider may determine an “edge” of a system or network associated with content providing services that is physically and/or logically closest to a particular client. The content provider may then, for example, “spin-up,” migrate resources or otherwise employ components associated with the determined edge for interacting with the particular client. Such an edge determination process may, in some cases, provide an efficient technique for identifying and employing components that are well suited to interact with a particular client, and may, in some embodiments, reduce the latency for communications between a content provider and one or more clients.

In addition, certain methods or process blocks may be omitted in some implementations. The methods and processes described herein are also not limited to any particular sequence, and the blocks or states relating thereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate. For example, described blocks or states may be performed in an order other than that specifically disclosed, or multiple blocks or states may be combined in a single block or state. The example blocks or states may be performed in serial, in parallel or in some other manner. Blocks or states may be added to or removed from the disclosed example embodiments.

It will also be appreciated that various items are illustrated as being stored in memory or on storage while being used, and that these items or portions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storage devices for purposes of memory management and data integrity. Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software modules and/or systems may execute in memory on another device and communicate with the illustrated computing systems via inter-computer communication. Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the systems and/or modules may be implemented or provided in other ways, such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standard integrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embedded controllers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the modules, systems and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as software instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such as a hard disk, a memory, a network or a portable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The systems, modules and data structures may also be transmitted as generated data signals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media, including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also take other forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some or all of the elements in the list.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in the foregoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature, characteristic, step, module or block is necessary or indispensable. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosed herein.