An abstract straight from the patent filing (which can be viewed here), explains in detail how a separate activity stream could work:
The way I see it is if a user has granted the permission of an app, this app could push information about the user activity of that service onto the activity stream. For example, I could be watching a YouTube video, that may display on the stream that I'm currently watching that video, and so on.Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques that may enable user activity information to be automatically generated and shared with other users of a social network. In one example, a method of automatically publishing, to one or more social network services, information about user activities regarding media content items includes receiving user activity information regarding a media content item, wherein a user is a member of one or more social network services, and the user activity information is generated in response to one or more activities taken by the user with respect to the media content item.
The method may also include receiving an indication of one or more users of the one or more social network services to whom the user activity information is to be made accessible, and automatically publishing the user activity information to the one or more social network services.
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| An example of how a media activity stream could work, straight from the patent |
The patent, first spotted by the eagle-eyed internet marketing consultant +Bill Slawski who heads SEO by the Sea, shares his thoughts:
The patent might not even come to light, and if so, possibly not for a while yet. If this does see release, I would expect that sharing would be as granular as the other features on Google+, users would have the ability to select which circles they'd like to share the information with, if at all.
Below are some more examples that are included in the patent, of how the feature could look and work:
"...This media feed could be a stand alone application that could be associated with our choice of social networks, and given the examples of “Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn” as some possible choices of networks, and people whom we might want to share this kind of information with...
...This stream of reported activity would enable you to take actions in addition to just watching a stream of what other people are doing. For instance, you could “+1″ someone’s activity, or if audio or video was being played, you could watch or listen to the whole thing or to a preview. If an app of some type is involved, you could click on a play button which could bring you to a page where you could learn more about the app."I can imagine not everyone will be so happy to hear about the possibility of such a feature, and this type of sharing may have been one of the reasons they switched from Facebook in the first place.
The patent might not even come to light, and if so, possibly not for a while yet. If this does see release, I would expect that sharing would be as granular as the other features on Google+, users would have the ability to select which circles they'd like to share the information with, if at all.
Below are some more examples that are included in the patent, of how the feature could look and work:
Personally, I'd love to see something like this come to Google+. New users of Google+ would be able to see that there is plenty of activity going on, and would help dispel claims that the platform is a "ghost town" with the help of an immediate stream of actions from across Google's products and services.