This invention relates to the field of presentation of information on the Internet and, in particular, to systems and methods for visually selecting information.
The Internet is a global network of computer systems and websites. These computer systems include a variety of documents, files, databases, and the like, which include information covering a variety of topics. Internet users are more frequently using the Internet as a source for information. In particular, Internet users are using the Internet as a source of news information, displacing conventional newspapers as their source for news information.
Typically, webpages display information and links to other webpages or websites. If a user wants to access the links, the user must move their mouse pointer over the link, and mouse click at least once or twice. Moreover, once at the linked webpage, the user must select the back button to return to the original webpage.
In the case of news information, users are typically presented with a website listing the titles of several representative articles, without any additional information. If a user wants to learn more about a story associated with a title, the user typically must select the article's title, a link, and is redirected to a webpage having the entire news article. The user is not able to access an abstract or other relevant information about the article, without accessing the entire article.
Systems and methods for presenting electronic information are disclosed herein.
In one embodiment, the method includes clustering news information according to a topic to create topic clusters, each topic cluster having a plurality of news information objects associated with the topic cluster; presenting at least one of the news information objects associated with the topic clusters in a user interface, each presenting news information object having a selectable portion; and receiving a user selection of the at least one of the news information objects, the user selection being a mouse over of the selectable portion.
The method may also include presenting the user with news information associated with the selected topic clusters.
The method may also include associating a news information object with a topic cluster.
The topic cluster may be part of a topic chain, and the news information object may be associated with the topic chain.
The news information object may consist essentially of a representative image and a representative title.
The mouse over may include detecting a pointer over the news information object for a predetermined amount of time.
The method may also include presenting comprises presenting the user with an article from a selected topic cluster.
The news information object may be an anchor. The news information object may be a link to a webpage.
In another embodiment, the method includes allowing a user to access a collection of images, each image associated with at least one news article; receiving a user selection of an image from the collection of images, wherein the user selection is a mouse over of the image; and presenting the user with a plurality of news objects associated with the selected object.
Each image in the collection of images may be associated with a representative title, the user selecting either or both of the one or more images or representative titles.
The method may also include presenting comprises presenting an abstract of a selected news article and a link to access the entire article.
The mouse over may include detecting a pointer over the image for a predetermined amount of time.
The plurality of news objects may be images.
The image may be an anchor. The image may be a link to a webpage.
In yet another embodiment, the method may include providing a first webpage having a selectable object therein, the selectable object being a link to a second webpage; receiving a user selection of the selectable object, the user selection being a mouse over of the selectable object; and providing the second webpage to the user in response to the user selection.
The second webpage may be presented in a new window.
The user may be automatically redirected from the first webpage to the second webpage in response to the user selection.
The mouse over may include detecting a pointer over the selectable object for a predetermined amount of time.
The first webpage and second webpage may be associated with the same website. The first webpage may be associated with a first website and the second webpage may be associated with a second website.
The invention is described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention related to clickless selection of links, data, etc. in a website. Clickless selection, as described herein, may be used in any application for which a “point and click” selection is typically used.
The Internet is made up of different web pages stored in a distributed set of independent servers. Each web page can contain one or more links to other web pages. The Internet has been traditionally described as a direct graph WG=(WN,WE), where nodes WN represent the web pages and direct edges WE represent the oriented hyperlink between pages. Each edge is annotated by an anchor. The anchor is defined as the text portion surrounding a hyperlink. Users can navigate among pages using a browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and selecting the anchors. As described above, users have conventionally been required to point to the anchor with a mouse and click the mouse button to make a selection (i.e., point and click or double click selections)
In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the user can select the anchors without clicking the anchors by moving the mouse over the link. The mouse is represented by a mouse pointer. The pointer or mouse is positioned over the anchor for a predetermined amount of time. The predetermined amount of time may be several seconds. For example, the predetermined amount of time may be any time or range of times between about 1 second and 30 seconds. It will be appreciated that the amount of time may be smaller than 1 second or greater than 30 seconds.
When a user mouses over an anchor on a webpage, the user is redirected to the hyperlink associated with the anchor. In one embodiment, the user is redirected to the hyperlink associated with the anchor using a pop-up window in response to a mouse over selection.
The server 12 is connected to the search engine 14. The search engine 14 is connected to the plurality of client systems 18 via the network 16. The server 20 is in communication with the database 22 which is in communication with the indexer 24. The indexer 24 is in communication with the crawler 26. The crawler 26 is capable of communicating with the plurality of client systems 18 via the network 16 as well.
The web search server 20 is typically a computer system, and may be an HTTP server. It is envisioned that the search engine 14 may be located at the web search server 20. The web search server 20 typically includes at least processing logic and memory.
The indexer 24 is typically a software program which is used to create an index, which is then stored in storage media. The index is typically a table of alphanumeric terms with a corresponding list of the related documents or the location of the related documents (e.g., a pointer). An exemplary pointer is a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The indexer 24 may build a hash table, in which a numerical value is attached to each of the terms. The database 22 is stored in a storage media, which typically includes the documents which are indexed by the indexer 24. The index may be included in the same storage media as the database 22 or in a different storage media. The storage media may be volatile or non-volatile memory that includes, for example, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices and zip drives.
The crawler 26 is a software program or software robot, which is typically used to build lists of the information found on web sites. Another common term for the crawler 26 is a spider. The crawler 26 typically searches web sites on the Internet and keeps track of the information located in its search and the location of the information.
The network 16 is a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), a telephone network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), an intranet, the Internet, or combinations thereof.
The plurality of client systems 18 may be mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDA), cell phones, and the like. The plurality of client systems 18 are capable of being connected to the network 16. Web sites may also be located on the client systems 18. The web application 28a-f is typically an Internet browser or other software. It will be appreciated that the number of client systems 18 is not limited to the number shown.
The databases 30a-d are stored in storage media located at the server 20. The storage media may be volatile or non-volatile memory that includes, for example, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices and zip drives. It will be appreciated that a smaller number or greater number of databases may be provided than those illustrated.
In use, the crawler 26 crawls websites, such as the websites of the plurality of client systems 18, to locate information on the web. The crawler 26 employs software robots to build lists of the information. The crawler 26 may include one or more crawlers to search the web. The crawler 26 typically extracts the information and stores it in the database 22. The indexer 24 creates an index of the information stored in the database 22. Alternatively, if a database 22 is not used, the indexer 24 creates an index of the located information and the location of the information on the Internet (typically a URL).
When a user of one of the plurality of client systems 18 enters a search on the web application 28, the search is communicated to the search engine 14 over the network 16. The search engine 14 communicates the search to the server 20 at the search system 12. The server 20 accesses the index and/or database to provide a search result, which is communicated to the user via the search engine 14 and network 16.
If a user of one of the plurality of client systems 18 accesses the news information interface 32 through the web search application 28, the search engine 14 still communicates the search to the server 20, which provides a search result. The search result may be obtained from either or both the web index and a dedicated news information index. The search result is typically searchable news information. As will be described hereinafter, the news information is searchable using a search query, such as a keyword or natural language search, or using a browser.
In one embodiment, the search engine may be a news engine. A news engine is a search engine specialized in searching and browsing news articles, blog postings and related user comments. As discussed above, the articles and other related news information may be located by crawling of web pages or documents available on the Internet. In addition, pull technologies, such as RSS, Atom feeds, XML and the like may be used to locate the news information. News information can also be obtained through direct submission by users or companies. News information may include news articles, blogs, RSS/Atom feeds, video news, photographs, audio content, a stream of textual information enriched with other media content, or any other media content. Each article may have one or more multimedia elements associated therewith. Exemplary multimedia elements include images, videos, audio content and the like. Each article may also be classified under a category. Exemplary categories include World, National Stories, Politics, Business, Sports, Entertainment, Science, Health, Technology, and the like. In one embodiment, the news information is classified by the search engine into categories by a classifier.
In embodiments wherein the search engine is a news search engine, the crawler 26 may search the web for news information and store the news information and/or properties of the news information in index and/or database, and/or in a dedicated news index and/or news database (not shown). It will be appreciated that different crawlers may be provided for different types of news information. In one embodiment, a separate crawler is provided for each of news articles, blogs, etc.
Searchable news information, as will be described hereinafter, may be stored in one or more of databases 30a-d. The news information interface 32 may be connected to the server, one or more databases 30a-d having news information stored therein, database 22 and/or indexer 24. In one embodiment, each database 30a-d includes news information in a particular category or classification. In another embodiment, each database 30a-d includes different types of news information (e.g., articles, blogs, images, etc.).
In one embodiment, the news search system is one aspect of a multi-purpose search system. In another embodiment, the news search system may be an independent search system. In one embodiment, the news search system includes a dedicated news crawler, news indexer, news database, news server, and the like, with the news interface being directly connected to the news search system.
The method 40 begins at block 42, where a crawler, such as crawler 16 (
In one embodiment, temporal clustering is carried out on daily basis. In this case, the chains of previous days may be consolidated and stored off-line for efficiency reasons. The clusters formed for the current day may be created every m minutes, for example, and dynamically merged with the offline chains.
Each of the clusters and/or chains is typically stored in the external memory. Typically, the external memory includes a database, such as one or more of databases 30a-d, and/or an index, as described hereinabove.
The temporal information used to cluster the information is typically the publication date and/or time, posting date and/or time, clustering date and/or time (i.e., when the news information is clustered) or crawling date and/or time (i.e., when the news information is located, indexed and/or stored by the crawler).
The process for clustering a stream of information typically occurs periodically. The process for classifying a stream of information may also occur periodically. The crawler 26 typically locates more news information each time it searches the Internet; thus, the above process may occur concurrently with crawling. Alternatively, a window of time ω, such as an hour, a day, a week, etc. is selected for clustering. It will also be appreciated that news stories in different categories may be clustered at different periods of time and, thus, different periods of time can be selected for different news categories. For example, business news is typically updated more frequently than world news; thus, the time increment for clustering business news may be more frequent (e.g., every five minutes) than the time increment for clustering world news (e.g., every hour).
A clustering algorithm is used to cluster the information. An exemplary clustering algorithm is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/417,405, filed May 3, 2006, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In one embodiment, the news information is clustered according to a selected window of time ω. New clusters can be periodically linked to chains or new topic clusters can be identified periodically. The new clusters are compared to other clusters to discover similarities in topic. When similarities are found among clusters in different time windows, the clusters are linked together to form a chain or are added to a preexisting chain. This comparison with clusters in previous time windows can stop if no similar information is found for a period of time proportional to the extension of the current cluster or to an extension of the chain. The chain of clusters is organized in a hierarchy according to the temporal information of each cluster: the most recent cluster is typically displayed at the top of the chain and the oldest cluster is typically displayed at the bottom of the chain.
Clusters may be represented by visual and nonvisual information or objects. In one embodiment, the clusters are represented by a multimedia element or visual or nonvisual information or objects associated with the news information. For example, the visual information may include an image or video associated with the cluster. The nonvisual information may be a title for the cluster. The title of the cluster may be the complete title of an article in the cluster, a substring of the title of a cluster's article, a novel title automatically generated using the titles of the articles in the cluster, or the like. In one embodiment, the clustering algorithm includes associating the visual and/or nonvisual information with the cluster. It will be appreciated that a chain may be similarly represented by visual and nonvisual information.
The illustrated user interface 60 includes a search box 62 and a list of selectable news categories 64.
The search box 62 may also include a selectable button 66. Users of the user interface 60 enter a search query into the search box 62 and select the selectable button 66 to search for news information related to the search query. The search query may be, for example, a keyword search or a natural language search.
The list of selectable news categories 64 may include selectable links 68 corresponding to each of the categories in the list of selectable news categories 64. Users of the user interface 60 select one of the selectable links 68 from the list of selectable news categories 64 to link to browsable news information relating to the selected news category. It will be appreciated that any number or type of news categories may be presented to a user for selection. For example, the illustrated news categories 64 include top stories, world, U.S., business, sports, science, technology, health, politics, entertainment and offbeat news.
In
A plurality of images 88 are shown in the main portion 84. The images 88 also have text 90 associated therewith. Each of these images 88 and corresponding text 90 is associated with a news article, news cluster or news article. The images 88, text 90, and associated news article, cluster or chain are from the selected category, corresponding to the selected tab 86.
The interface 80 provides a visual interface. The visual interface includes a collection of images (or videos) associated with the articles, cluster, and/or chain. The visual information may also include some text therewith, such as a title of the article, cluster, and/or chain, or certain keywords associated with the visual information.
In use, a user reviews the images 88 and text 90 in the interface 80. The user can select the images 88 and text 90 if the user wants to access more information about the corresponding story (e.g., article, cluster or chain). The user can also select images 88 from different categories by selecting the tab 86 to access images 88 associated with the selected category.
As discussed above, articles may be clustered into clusters and/or chains. A cluster of articles or a chain of articles are articles written about a common topic, and a chain is an ordered set of clusters of articles with the same topic as the article/cluster with which the chain is associated.
Each story or topic may be represented by multiple objects. These objects may include a representative title, a snippet of the main article, an authoritative multimedia object (e.g., image, video, audio content) associated with the cluster, a cluster of related news article(s), an authoritative title of past clusters of related news articles, a cluster of related blogs and/or blog postings, authoritative entities (e.g., people, companies, places, events, etc.) involved in the story, comments posted by users on the topic, and the like.
In one embodiment, when the user selects an image from the collection of images 88, a window 90 is presented over the images 88, as shown in
In one embodiment, the user selects an image by mouse-ing over the image 88. A mouse over occurs when a user holds a mouse pointer over the image for a predetermined amount of time. For example, the user may be required to hold the pointer over the image for 5 seconds to access the news information associated with a particular image. It will be appreciated that the actual amount of time may be any value or range of values between about 1 second and 30 seconds, less than 1 second or greater than 30 seconds. Thus, the user is able to select an image without clicking a button on the mouse or touch pad. The selection is, therefore, clickless.
In one embodiment, each image 88 in the user interface 80 of
The illustrated window 90 includes the cluster or chain information associated with the selected image, such as the associated news articles, past correlated clusters, blog postings, user comments, images, videos and sounds (i.e., news information associated with, for example, a cluster). For example, in
In
Each of the news information objects 92-106 may also be selected. In one embodiment, the news information objects 92-106 are also selected without clicking (i.e., mouse over). For example, if a user selects a title from a selected cluster, the user may be then access the entire article. In another example, if a user selects a link associated with a person related to the cluster, the user may then access a description of the person. It will be appreciated that each of the title, articles images, people, etc., can be selected via a mouse over to access the information without clicking.
It will be appreciated that a mouse over is also applicable to holding a pointer associated with a touchpad-based system (i.e., computers without a mouse) over a link or anchor for a predetermined amount of time, as described above.
As shown in
The foregoing description with attached drawings is only illustrative of possible embodiments of the described method and should only be construed as such. Other persons of ordinary skill in the art will realize that many other specific embodiments are possible that fall within the scope and spirit of the present idea. The scope of the invention is indicated by the following claims rather than by the foregoing description. Any and all modifications which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the following claims are to be considered within their scope.