Patent Grant
7856472
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-implemented techniques for assisting in the completion of text inputted by a user and, more particularly, to identifying candidate text to input into a text field based on text typed by a user into the text field.
2. Related Art
Computer software has long been used to reduce the effort that computer users need to expend to provide textual input. For example, conventional word processing software typically supports macros, which may be pre-defined by the software vendor and/or defined by the user, for replacing a short text string typed by the user with a longer text string, thereby eliminating the need for the user to manually type the longer text string. For example, consider a macro which defines the text “Sincerely yours” as a replacement for the text “sy”. When the user types “sy”, the word processor may automatically replace “sy” with “Sincerely yours”.
The word processor may maintain multiple macros, each of which defines a mapping between source text (the text typed by the user) and replacement text. As the user types, the word processor determines whether the text most recently typed by the user matches the source text of any existing macro. If such a match is found, the word processor replaces the typed source text with the corresponding replacement text defined by the macro. This feature is implemented, for example, in the widely used Microsoft Word word processor as part of the “AutoCorrect” feature.
Another technique that some computer software uses to reduce the number of keystrokes required to be typed by the user is the following. As the user types, the software attempts to match the most-recently typed text against text previously typed by the user in the same context. For example, in some web browsers, as the user types the web address (URL) of a web site in the address bar, the web browser attempts to match the address being typed by the user with addresses previously typed by the user. As the user types, the web browser displays a list of matches.
For example, assume that the user has previously typed “www.google.com”, “www.books.com”, “www.booksamillion.com”, and “www.booksense.com” into the address bar. If the user next begins typing “www” into the address bar, the web browser may display all four previously-typed addresses below the address bar, because “www” matches the beginning of all such addresses.
If the user continues to type “www.books”, the web browser will eliminate “ww.google.com” from the list of possible matches because it no longer matches the text being typed by the user. The list will still, however, display “www.books.com”, “www.booksamillion.com”, and “www.booksense.com” in the list, because all three of these previously-typed addresses match the text being typed by the user. As the user continues to type, any address having leading text that does not match the typed text will be eliminated from the list of potential matches.
At any point, the user may select one of the addresses in the list of possible matches (such as by using a mouse to click on the address or by using the arrow and ENTER keys on the keyboard), thereby causing the selected address to be entered into the address bar, and thereby eliminating the need for the user to manually type the entire address. This can save the user significant time and effort, particularly when the address selected is very long. This feature has been used more generally in various other kinds of software requiring the user to type text into the same form fields on multiple occasions.
Users stand to benefit from additional features which reduce the number of keystrokes required to be made by the user.
A computer program assists in the completion of text input provided by a user. For example, the computer program may maintain a list of n-tuples (where n>1), each of which includes n text strings. For example, each n-tuple may include a stock ticker symbol and the name of a company having that stock ticker symbol. As the user types each character, the program determines whether the text typed by the user so far matches any of the text strings in the n-tuples. The program provides the user with an indication of whether any matches have been found, such as by displaying a list of the n-tuples having text matching the text typed by the user so far. The program then allows the user to select one of the matching n-tuples. The program uses text (such as a stock ticker symbol) from the user's selection to complete the text input.
Referring to
In general, the window 300 shown in
The web page 306 is an example of a “source” web page as that term is used herein. The message table 302 may include summaries of messages originally posted to more than one source web page. The web page 300, therefore, provides an aggregation service which aggregates messages from a plurality of web-based message boards. The web page 300, therefore, is referred to herein as an “aggregation” web page.
Having described certain general features of particular embodiments of the present invention, techniques that may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention will now be disclosed. Referring to
Furthermore, although only three external message boards 102a, 102b, and 102m are shown in
A single message board, such as a web-based financial message board, may include a plurality of topics, each of which may include a plurality of threads or sub-topics. For ease of illustration and explanation, each of the message boards 102a-m is illustrated in
The aggregation system 100 also includes a message board aggregation server 112 and a corresponding message board 114 (which includes set 116 of messages 118a-n). The message board 114 is managed by the aggregation server 112 or by the same entity that manages the aggregation server. Therefore, the message board 114 will be referred to herein as an “internal” message board, while the message boards 102a-m will be referred to herein as “external” message boards in relation to the aggregation server 112. As will be described in more detail below, the aggregation server 112 aggregates messages from two or more of the message boards 102a-m and 114, and displays content from the aggregated messages in the web page 300.
Referring again to
In the particular example illustrated in
The user 142 selects other input parameters (such as the number of messages to be retrieved) (step 203). As described in more detail below, the aggregation server 112 may store the other input parameters in a set of other preferences 126.
The user 142 selects a particular message board topic to view (step 204). The user 142 may, for example, make this selection by identifying a particular company, such as by typing the company's name or stock ticker symbol in text field 312 and clicking button 314. This is only one of many ways in which the user may select a message board topic to view.
Furthermore, in the embodiment illustrated in
The user's message board selection is transmitted by the web browser 140 over the Internet 138 to the message board aggregation server 112. In response to receiving the user's selection, the aggregation server 112 retrieves information derived from messages in the selected source message board(s) having the selected topic (step 206). In the embodiment illustrated in
Note further that any subset of the external message boards 102a-m may be selectable as a source by the user 142. Such a subset may, for example, consist of all of the external message boards 102a-m, any one of the message boards 102a-m, or any combination of fewer than all of the message boards 102a-m.
The information extracted from the selected source message board(s) by the aggregation server may include any of a variety of information that may be of interest to the user 142. Examples of information that may be extracted from each on-topic message in the selected message board(s) includes, but is not limited to the message title, author, ID, sentiment, time of writing, web page source, person being replied to, and message statistics (e.g., the number of times others have recommended the message, or a rating of the popularity of the message).
At any time during performance of the method 200 illustrated in
The particular selection of fields allowed in the embodiment illustrated in
At any time during performance of the method 200 illustrated in
The aggregation server 112 keeps track of: (1) the source message board(s) selected by the user 142 in source selections 1-20; (2) the topic (e.g., company) selected by the user 142 in topic selection 121; (3) the field(s) selected by the user 142 in field selections 122; (4) the sort order 124 selected by the user 142 in sort order 124; and (5) any other preferences 126 specified by the user 142.
The aggregation server 112 includes an aggregation engine 128, which generates message content units 132 based on the information extracted in step 206 and the user preferences described above (step 212). For example, the message content units 132 may include a content unit for each message that matches the topic selection 121 (e.g., company) in any of the source message board(s) indicated by the source selection(s) 120. Each of the message content units 132 may include information only for the fields specified by the field selections 122, but this is not required. The message content units 132 may, for example, include extracted information for fields other than those specified by the field selections. The message content units 132 may include all of the information that was extracted in step 206.
As will be described in more detail below, the information in the message content units 132 forms the basis for the information displayed in the message table 302 on the web page 300 (
The aggregation engine 128, therefore, provides message content 130 corresponding to the currently-selected message summary in the message table 302 (step 214). The aggregation engine 128 may, for example, provide the content 130 in the form of HTML and/or other web content by copying the content 130 from its source message board (e.g., one of the external message boards 102a-m or the internal message board 114). The content 130 may either be copied to a storage medium local to the aggregation server 112, or merely passed as a reference to the client web browser 140, which may retrieve the message content 130 directly from its source and display it in the frame 308, without using the aggregation server 112 to serve the content 130 to the user 142.
The aggregation server 112 includes a web page generator 134, which produces an aggregated web page 136 (including HTML and/or other web content) that includes both the message content units 132 and the message content 130 (or a link to the message content 130) (step 216). The aggregated web page 136 may, for example, include a first frame for displaying a table including information from the message content units 132, and a second frame for displaying the message content 130.
The aggregation server 112 transmits the aggregated web page 136 to the web browser 140 over the Internet (step 218). The web browser 140 displays a window (such as the window 300 shown in
As described above, the message content units 132 that are downloaded by the web browser 140 to the local machine of the user 142 may include more information than is displayed in the table 302. The table 302 may, for example, be designed to display only the information that is considered most important to the user 142, such as the title, author, and/or timestamp of the aggregated messages. The user 142 may, however, read a particular one of the message summaries in the table 302 and desire to obtain additional information about the corresponding message. Although the user 142 could obtain such additional information by clicking on the message summary, thereby causing the corresponding message web content to be displayed in the frame 308, this requires the web browser 140 to download and render additional web content. Acquiring additional information about many messages in this way may therefore be tedious and time-consuming.
Alternatively, the web page 300 allows the user 142 to quickly obtain additional summary information about any message listed in the table 302 by, for example, moving and holding (“hovering”) the mouse cursor over the message's summary. For example, in the case illustrated in
Because the additional summary information has been preloaded by the web browser 140 in the process of downloading the message content units 132 from the aggregation server 112, the web browser 140 may generate and display the tooltip essentially instantaneously, and without again accessing the server 112. This allows the user 142 to quickly browse such additional information for many messages listed in the table 302 quickly and easily, simply by moving the mouse cursor over the corresponding message summaries.
The aggregation of messages from multiple message boards at multiple URLs into a single rich web page, including content initially is hidden and that may be displayed essentially instantaneously by the web browser client 140 without the need to make an additional access to the server 112, is made convenient by the increasing availability of broadband connectivity to users. Such broadband connectivity increasingly is available not only through wired networks at home and in the workplace but also through wireless networks accessible using mobile computing devices. By making it feasible for the client web browser 140 to download content-rich web pages without causing the user 142 to incur a significant delay before the web page is displayed, broadband connections allow the web browser 140 to provide a degree of interactivity in web pages that approaches or even matches that previously available only in client-side applications.
Note that the use of a tooltip is provided merely as an example and does not constitute a limitation of the present invention. Rather, the additional summary information may be provided in other forms, such as in a static object (e.g., a text box) on the web page 300. Furthermore, the user 142 may cause the additional summary information to be displayed using actions other than hovering, such as clicking or pressing a hotkey.
The tooltip, or other graphical user interface element that is used to display additional summary information, may be variable in size. For example, the web page 300 may allow the user 142 to select from among three sizes: small, large, and very large. The very large size may be particularly useful for users who are visually impaired. Such a feature may make it possible for visually impaired users to benefit from the features of the web page 300, without requiring the design of the web page (e.g., the font size of text in the table) to change.
Furthermore, the web page 300 may be implemented such that selecting (e.g., hovering or clicking) one of the message summaries in the table 302 always causes the corresponding message to be displayed in the frame 308, while the additional summary information (e.g., tooltip) is displayed. Although there may be some delay in loading and displaying the full message in the frame 308, the user 142 may view the additional summary information essentially immediately, thereby enabling the user 142 to decide quickly whether to wait for the remainder of the message to load or to move on to the next message summary.
The web page 300 may allow the user 142 to post additional messages to any of the source message boards. For example, in the embodiment illustrated in
Similarly, the web page 300 may include a “Reply Message” button (not shown in
Message summaries in the message table 302 may be sorted in any manner. For example, the summaries may be sorted by time of posting by default. The user 142 may, however, sort these messages in other ways (e.g., by message title, message author, message ID, message sentiment, message web page source, person being replied to). If the message table 302 includes message summaries derived from multiple source message boards, the message table 302 may nonetheless display the summaries in an aggregated sorted list. For example, the summaries may be sorted by time of posting, in which case message summaries corresponding to messages from different source message boards may be interwoven with each other according to the times at which they were posted. This feature provides the user 142 with a unified view of messages across multiple message boards.
Among the advantages of the invention are one or more of the following. The features of the web page 300 illustrated in
Furthermore, the techniques disclosed herein make it possible to read and write messages from and to multiple message board sources. Writing messages can be performed either from the web page 300, or at the original message board source in the frame 308. This saves the user 142 time in comparison to reading and writing multiple message boards using distinct web browser windows for each message board.
By providing features that are attractive and useful to frequent users of financial message boards, the techniques disclosed herein provide an opportunity to generate significant revenue from advertising. An example of a banner advertisement 332 for a financial services firm is shown on the web page 300 in
Furthermore, note that content other than an advertisement may occupy the space occupied by the advertisement 332 in
It is to be understood that although the invention has been described above in terms of particular embodiments, the foregoing embodiments are provided as illustrative only, and do not limit or define the scope of the invention. Various other embodiments, including but not limited to the following, are also within the scope of the claims. For example, elements and components described herein may be further divided into additional components or joined together to form fewer components for performing the same functions. In particular, the functions performed by the aggregation server 112 shown in
Although certain examples disclosed herein relate to financial message boards, the present invention is not limited to such examples. More generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be applied to any kind of messaging system, such as email and newsgroups, and to messaging systems containing messages whose content does not relate to finance. Furthermore, the techniques disclosed herein may be applied to aggregate content from web sites and other communications systems that are not designed as message boards. For example, the techniques disclosed herein may be used to aggregate news articles posted to news web sites, such as the web site for the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) or the Business Week (www.businessweek.com), even though such web sites are not designed as message boards to which members of the public may post messages. The term “message, as used herein, therefore, includes not only messages posted to message boards, but more generally to any unit of communication, such as an email message, a newsgroup posting, or a news article posted by an administrator to a news web site.
As described above, the aggregation server 112 extracts certain information from source message boards to produce the message content units 132. Examples of categories from which information may be derived include, but are not limited to: message title, message author, message identifier, message sentiment, message timestamp, message web address, message thread, message attribute (e.g., size), message link (links contained in the message), message keyword (keywords contained in the message), message recipient, and message statistics (e.g., the number of times others have recommended the message, or a rating of the popularity of the message). The user 142 may be allowed to sort the aggregated message summaries displayed in the message table 302 by, for example, any of the categories mentioned above.
Ease of visual cognition is key to a successful user interface. Various techniques may be combined with those described above to improve such ease of visual cognition. For example, message summaries in the table 302 may be color-coded or otherwise coded (such as by the use of distinct icons or words) according to their source or to any other attribute, such as according to any of the categories mentioned above. The table 302 may include any number of rows and columns. Columns may be assigned to message categories (attributes) in any way. For example, a single column may correspond to a single attribute or to multiple attributes. For example, in one embodiment, there are two columns: (1) title and (2) time and author.
The web browser 140 is not limited to any particular web browser application. The web browser 140 may, for example, be of any kind and operate on any kind of device (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, personal-digital assistant, or smart phone). Furthermore, although the network 138 in
The techniques described above may be implemented, for example, in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. The techniques described above may be implemented in one or more computer programs executing on a programmable computer including a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including, for example, volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device. Program code may be applied to input entered using the input device to perform the functions described and to generate output. The output may be provided to one or more output devices.
Each computer program within the scope of the claims below may be implemented in any programming language, such as assembly language, machine language, a high-level procedural programming language, or an object-oriented programming language. The programming language may, for example, be a compiled or interpreted programming language.
Each such computer program may be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution by a computer processor. Method steps of the invention may be performed by a computer processor executing a program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform functions of the invention by operating on input and generating output. Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, the processor receives instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions include, for example, all forms of non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices, including EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays). A computer can generally also receive programs and data from a storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or a removable disk. These elements will also be found in a conventional desktop or workstation computer as well as other computers suitable for executing computer programs implementing the methods described herein, which may be used in conjunction with any digital print engine or marking engine, display monitor, or other raster output device capable of producing color or gray scale pixels on paper, film, display screen, or other output medium.
Referring to
In the particular embodiment illustrated in
For purposes of the following discussion, however, assume that the text input field 402 is used to enter either the name of a company or the stock ticker symbol of the company. The program that provides the text input field 402 may maintain a list of ticker-name tuples. For example, one tuple may include the stock ticker symbol “AAP” and the name of the company having that stock ticker symbol, namely “Advance Auto Parts Inc.” Another tuple may, for example, include the stock ticker symbol “AAPH” and the name of the company having that stock ticker symbol, namely “American Petro-Hunter Inc.” Yet another tuple may, for example, include the stock ticker symbol “AAPL” and the name of the company having that stock ticker symbol, namely “Apple Computer Inc.”
In the particular example illustrated in
If the program determines that the text typed by the user so far matches any of the text in a particular tuple, the program may indicate such a match to the user. For example, if the program determines that the text typed by the user so far matches either the stock ticker symbol or the company name of a particular tuple, the program may indicate to the user that a match has been found. If matches are found with text in multiple tuples, the program may indicate to the user that multiple matches have been found.
In the particular embodiment illustrated in
Furthermore, the subset of each text item in the list that matches the input text may be visually emphasized. For example, in
In the particular example illustrated in
Referring to
Once a list of matching tuples has been displayed (such as any of the lists 406a-c illustrated in
The techniques disclosed herein may be used to reduce the number of keystrokes required to be input by the user. This may save the user effort and enable the user to use the corresponding computer program more quickly. For example, in comparison, conventional financial portal web sites typically provide a “symbol lookup” feature that allows a user to find the stock ticker symbol for a company by typing the company's name, and then clicking on a “find” button. Examples of existing financial portal web sites, some of which provide some form of “symbol lookup” feature, but which do not include the kind of lookup features disclosed herein, include: http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/common/find.asp?NextPage=/detail/stock quote, http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup, http://money.cnn.com/quote/lookup/index.html, http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/quotes/lookup.asp, http://clearstation.etrade.com/cgi-bin/symbol search, http://www.marketcenter.com/std/search.action, http://www.marketcenter.com/std/toolbox.jsp, http://www.quote.com/qc/lookup/symbol search.aspx, http://www.wallstreettape.com/charts/custom/symbol-lookup.asp, http://online.wsj.com/public/us, http://online.barrons.com/public/main, http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/symbollookup/symbollookup.asp, http://www.esignalcentral.com/support/symbol/default.asp, http://www.hoovers.com/free/, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/tkrlookup, http://www2.barchart.com/lookup.asp, http://stockcharts.com/index.html, http://tools.thestreet.com/tsc/quotes.html?pg=qcn&, http://www.earningswhispers.com/tickerlookup.asp, http://www.whispernumber.com/index.jsp, http://www.google.com, http://quote.morningstar.com/TickerLookup.html, http://www.fool.com, http://www.siliconinvestor.com, http://www.investorshub.com, http://www.ragingbull.com, http://www.boardcentral.com, http://www.briefing.com/, http://www.newyorktimes.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com, http://www.boston.com, http://www.ft.com, http://news.bbc.co.uk/, http://www.inc.com, http://www.forbes.com, http://www.fortune.com, http://research.businessweek.com/ticker/create_ticker.asp, http://www.etrade.com, http://www.ameritrade.com, http://www.schwab.com, http://www.scottrade.com, http://www.sharebuilder.com, and http://www.vanguard.com, http://seekingalpha.com/, http://portfolios.abcnews.go.com/guotes/getQuote, http://www.investorvillage.com/home.asp, http://www.tickertech.com/cgi/?a=lookup, http://www.investors.com/symbol.asp, http://www.cboe.com/DelayedQuote/Symbol.aspx, http://personal.fidelity.com/research/stocks/content/stocksind ex.shtml?bar=c, http://www.quicken.com/investments/tsl/, http://www.globeinvestor.com/static/hubs/lookup.html, http://www.usatoday.com/money/search-tips.htm, http://stockhouse.com/, http://www.thelion.com/, http://www.island.com/, http://www.zacks.com/, http://www.troweprice.com/common/indexHtml3/0,0,htmlid=38,00.html, http://www.amex.com/?href=/quickquote/SymbolLookup.jsp, http://www.nasdaq.com, http://www.nyse.com/, http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/, http://www.euronext.com, http://www.tsx.com/, http://www.asx.com.au/, http://www.advfn.com, http://www.mldirect.ml.com, http://www.foxnews.com/business/index.html, http://www.quickandreilly.com/, http://www.economist.com/index.html, http://www.kiplinger.com/, http://www.pennystock.com/, http://www.wallstreetselect.com/, http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, http://www.edgar-online.com/, http://freeedgar.com/, http://www.thedeal.com, http://www.investools.com, http://www.activetradermag.com/, http://www.traders.com/, and http://www.ipohome.com.
The techniques disclosed herein may also provide the user with a beneficial degree of flexibility. For example, the techniques disclosed herein provide the user with the flexibility to type either a stock ticker symbol or a company name, depending on the user's preference, or depending on which of the two the user remembers most easily. The user, therefore, is not limited to a particular mode of input dictated by the program. This may make the program easily usable by different classes of users, such as both those users who are sophisticated stock traders (and therefore likely to remember stock ticker symbols) and less sophisticated users (who are likely to remember company names rather than symbols). More generally, the techniques disclosed herein reduce the need for the user to rely on his memory to provide necessary textual input.
It is to be understood that although the invention has been described above in terms of particular embodiments, the foregoing embodiments are provided as illustrative only, and do not limit or define the scope of the invention. Various other embodiments, including but not limited to the following, are also within the scope of the claims. For example, elements and components described herein may be further divided into additional components or joined together to form fewer components for performing the same functions.
Although certain examples described herein use stock ticker symbol and company name as the categories of text strings stored in n-tuples, the techniques disclosed herein may be applied to text strings representing any categories of content. For example, company sector (or other means of categorizing a company) is another example of a category of content to which the techniques disclosed herein may be applied.
Although particular examples disclosed herein involve the use of pairs of text strings, such pairs are merely special cases of n-tuples, in which n=2. The techniques disclosed herein may be applied more generally, to n-tuples where n>1. Furthermore, the text in the tuples may be of any kind and have any relationship to each other. For example, although stock ticker symbols typically have some textual similarity to the corresponding company names, this is not required. For example, an n-tuple may include a person's name and the person's street address, in which case there may be no textual similarity between the various text strings in the n-tuple.
In certain examples disclosed herein, the text typed by the user is matched against the beginning (leading characters) of text in the n-tuples. This is not, however, a requirement of the present invention. Rather, matching may be performed by comparing any subset of the text typed by the user against any subset of the n-tuple text. Furthermore, matching need not be performed against all elements in an n-tuple, or in the same manner against all elements in an n-tuple. For example, if n=3, matching may be performed against two rather than three of the text strings in the n-tuple.
Although certain examples disclosed herein provide the user with an indication of matches by displaying a list of all text in matching n-tuples, this is not a requirement of the present invention. Rather, matches may be displayed in a form other than a list. Furthermore, displayed matches need not display all of the text in matching tuples. The user may be allowed to select a matching tuple using any kind of input mechanism.
Any kind of computer program may implement the techniques disclosed herein. For example, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented in a web site displayed by a web browser.
Although the concept of an n-tuple is used herein, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented without storing data in structures organized as n-tuples. Rather, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented using any kind of data structure, such as linked lists. The data against which the user input is matched may be pre-stored, downloaded over a network connection, generated on-the-fly, or produced, stored, and processed in any suitable manner.
The techniques described above may be implemented, for example, in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. The techniques described above may be implemented in one or more computer programs executing on a programmable computer including a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including, for example, volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device. Program code may be applied to input entered using the input device to perform the functions described and to generate output. The output may be provided to one or more output devices.
Each computer program within the scope of the claims below may be implemented in any programming language, such as assembly language, machine language, a high-level procedural programming language, or an object-oriented programming language. The programming language may, for example, be a compiled or interpreted programming language.
Each such computer program may be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution by a computer processor. Method steps of the invention may be performed by a computer processor executing a program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform functions of the invention by operating on input and generating output. Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, the processor receives instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions include, for example, all forms of non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices, including EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays). A computer can generally also receive programs and data from a storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or a removable disk. These elements will also be found in a conventional desktop or workstation computer as well as other computers suitable for executing computer programs implementing the methods described herein, which may be used in conjunction with any digital print engine or marking engine, display monitor, or other raster output device capable of producing color or gray scale pixels on paper, film, display screen, or other output medium.
A computer program provides a first set of representations (e.g., textual representations) of a first set of hyperlinks. In response to selection by a user of one of the first set of hyperlink representations (such as by clicking on or hovering a cursor over the representation), the program displays a second set of representations (e.g., graphical representations) of a second set of hyperlinks. The user may select one of the second set of representations, in response to which the program navigates to the destination of the hyperlink. The second set of representations may, for example, be logos of companies, and the second set of hyperlinks may be hyperlinks to the companies' web sites.
For example, referring to
In the embodiment illustrated in
The hyperlink representations 504a enable the user to access the underlying hyperlinks to external websites by hovering over selecting any of the hypertext 506a-h. The user may, for example, select a particular link either by clicking on one of the hypertext links 506a-h or by hovering a mouse cursor over one of the hypertext links 506a-h.
In response to receiving a selection of one of the hypertext links 5060a-h from the user, the web page 500 displays a second set of hyperlink representations 504b. In the particular example illustrated in
More specifically, in the embodiment illustrated in
Therefore, when the user selects (e.g., clicks on or hovers over) one of the second set of hyperlink representations 508a-1, the web browser displays the destination of the selected hyperlink in the frame 502b. For example, if the user selects hyperlink representation 508a (i.e., the logo of www.bigcharts.com), the web browser will navigate to and display the home page of www.bigcharts.com in frame 502b.
Different sets of hyperlinks are displayed as the user selects (e.g., clicks on or hovers over) different ones of the first set of hyperlinks 506a-h. For example, as shown in
The techniques just described may, for example, be implemented in conjunction with a message board aggregation web site of the kind disclosed in the patent application entitled, “Message Board Aggregator”, now issued under U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,795.
One advantage of the techniques disclosed herein is that hyperlink representations (e.g., the hyperlinks 504b and 504c) may be displayed to the user essentially instantaneously. Such techniques, therefore, provide the user with a method of scanning through links that is more intuitive and thus quicker for users than traditional techniques. Furthermore, the use of company logos or other graphical representations of hyperlinks facilitates the users experience, because it is likely that the user will already associate the company logo with the corresponding company name (attached to the hyperlink). The method is also visually more appealing than commonly used plain text methods.
It is to be understood that although the invention has been described above in terms of particular embodiments, the foregoing embodiments are provided as illustrative only, and do not limit or define the scope of the invention. Various other embodiments, including but not limited to the following, are also within the scope of the claims. For example, elements and components described herein may be further divided into additional components or joined together to form fewer components for performing the same functions. In particular, the functions performed by the aggregation server 112 shown in
The first set of hyperlinks 504a may be sorted into categories, sub-categories, and so on, in any manner. Alternatively, they may be unsorted. The hyperlinks that are displayed may be predetermined by the web page designer, determined by the user, or any combination thereof. The user may, for example, be provided with the ability to set up categories (and subcategories) comprising favorite website hyperlinks.
Any kind of computer program may implement the techniques disclosed herein. For example, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented in a web site displayed by a web browser.
The techniques described above may be implemented, for example, in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. The techniques described above may be implemented in one or more computer programs executing on a programmable computer including a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including, for example, volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device. Program code may be applied to input entered using the input device to perform the functions described and to generate output. The output may be provided to one or more output devices.
Each computer program within the scope of the claims below may be implemented in any programming language, such as assembly language, machine language, a high-level procedural programming language, or an object-oriented programming language. The programming language may, for example, be a compiled or interpreted programming language.
Each such computer program may be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution by a computer processor. Method steps of the invention may be performed by a computer processor executing a program tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium to perform functions of the invention by operating on input and generating output. Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors. Generally, the processor receives instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions include, for example, all forms of non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices, including EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays). A computer can generally also receive programs and data from a storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or a removable disk. These elements will also be found in a conventional desktop or workstation computer as well as other computers suitable for executing computer programs implementing the methods described herein, which may be used in conjunction with any digital print engine or marking engine, display monitor, or other raster output device capable of producing color or gray scale pixels on paper, film, display screen, or other output medium.
The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/384,957 filed Mar. 20, 2006, now issued under U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,795, which is incorporated herein by reference and which, in turn, incorporates by reference U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/784,141 filed Mar. 20, 2006 and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/784,140 filed Mar. 20, 2006, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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