Method and apparatus for providing dynamic network content to target devices

• US 20050198353A1
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ZMR Communications Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ZMR Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Zmrzli, Robert
• Application Number:
  US10/888,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198353A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

A method for enabling wireless communications is provided. The method includes detecting one or more user actions when the user is browsing one or more network sites. One or more content items may be selected from the page based on the user interaction. The content items may be formatted for a specific end device based on the one or more content items. The content is directed to an end device that has wireless communication capabilities.

Claims

1. A method for enabling content delivery to a target device, the method comprising:

detecting one or more user actions of a user while one or more content resources from corresponding network sites are in a rendered state on a terminal operated by the user;

identifying, from the one or more user actions, one or more content items from at least one of the one or more content resources;

generating data corresponding to content for the target device based on the one or more content items; and

causing the data to be sent to the target device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting one or more user actions includes recording the user actions made through an interface that is provided to the user while the one or more content resources are rendered.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of recording the user actions made through an interface includes recording one or more of a pointer movement, a pointer selection, a string of one or more keyboard selections, a voice-input, and a click and drag of the pointer.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of recording the user actions includes recording one or more of an alphanumeric entry, menu selection, iconic selection, and display selection of at least a portion of a display.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of recording the user actions includes recording one or more of a log-in entry and a password entry.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting one or more user actions includes detecting one or more user-interactions with a browser while the browser presents the one or more content resources in a rendered state.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating data corresponding to content includes generating data corresponding to the text from the one or more content items.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of causing the data to be sent to the target device includes segmenting the text into data blocks of dimension specified by a transmission format.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmission format is for a wireless network.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmission format corresponds to a short message service (SMS) format.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of causing the data to be sent to the target device includes sending the data to a recipient specified for that user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of causing the data to be sent to the target device includes sending the data to a recipient that has previously been specified for at least one of that user and the one or more content resources.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of causing the data to be sent to the target device includes messaging the content in an SMS format to the specified target device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of causing the data to be sent to the target device includes messaging the content to the target device using an address of the target device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the one or more content items includes identifying dynamic data appearing in a region of a page provided at the one or more network sites.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing data representing the one or more user actions, and wherein the step of selecting one or more content items includes selecting the one or more content items at a later time using the data representing the one or more user actions.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of repeating, at multiple instances, the steps of identifying the one or more content items, generating data corresponding to content, and causing the data to be sent to the target device, wherein the step of repeating includes using the data representing the one or more user actions.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of repeating is performed at instances specified by the user.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of repeating includes using a schedule specified by the user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the schedule specifies one or more of a time, time period, day of week, day of month, or periodic interval.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of formatting the data corresponding to the content for the target device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of formatting the data includes formatting the data for an attribute of the target device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the attributes corresponds to one or more attributes selected from a set consisting of a manufacturer, a model type, a display size, a pixel resolution of the device, and a bandwidth used by the device.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating data corresponding to content is performed at a later instance specified by the user, and wherein the step of identifying the one or more content items is performed at a later instance after the one or more content items have moved on a corresponding page in the one or more content resources.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the one or more content items includes identifying the content items independent of a position of the one or more content items on the page.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of identifying the one or more content items includes maintaining a document object model rendition of the one or more content resources.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of identifying one or more content items includes identifying one or more nodes provided in the document object model rendition, wherein the one or more nodes correspond to the one or more content items.

68. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting one or more actions of a user from a network site includes detecting one or more actions on a domain of the network site.

28. A method for enabling content delivery to a target device, the method comprising:

recording one or more actions of a user concurrently with the user browsing one or more network sites to render content resources, wherein the content resources include a first content item;

storing a recipe that is based on the one or more actions; and

subsequently retrieving the first content item for the target device using the recipe.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of detecting a first user action for initiating the step of recording the one or more actions.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of recording the one or more actions includes initiating recording the one or more actions when the user is at a first site, and recording the user accessing one or more internal sites to the first page.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of recording the user accessing one or more internal sites includes recording the user entering an alphanumeric entry into a text entry field of a page that is provided from the home site.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the user entering the alphanumeric entry includes the user entering one or more of a login, a password, or an account number.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the user entering the alphanumeric entry includes the user entering any one of a ticker symbol, zip code or street address.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of recording one or more actions of a user concurrently with the user browsing one or more network sites includes providing a browser interface for the user to browse the one or more network sites, and to record the one or more actions using the browser interface.

35. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of storing information about the first content item in order to identify the content item at a subsequent time independent of the first content item'"'"'s position.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of storing information includes identifying a node corresponding to the first content item, and wherein the information includes one or more attributes of the node.

37. The method of claim 28, wherein the one or more attributes of the node include an attribute selected from a group consisting of a node size, a text contained in the node, how many sibling nodes the node has, how many children nodes that node has, and a dimension of the node.

38. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the particular content item includes retrieving the content item according to a schedule specified by the user.

39. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item includes repeatedly retrieving the content item.

40. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item includes representing the content item as text and sending data corresponding to the text to the target device.

41. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item for the target device includes formatting the first content item for the particular device.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein formatting the first content item includes formatting the content item based on an attribute of the target device.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the attribute corresponds to one or more attributes selected from a set consisting of a manufacturer, a model type, a display size, a pixel resolution of the device, and a bandwidth used by the device.

44. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item for the target device includes generating data corresponding to the first content item, and causing the data to be sent to the target device.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the step of causing data to be sent to the target device includes segmenting text data generated from the first content item into data blocks specified by a transmission format.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the transmission format is for a wireless network.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the transmission format corresponds to a short message service (SMS) format.

48. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item for the target device using the recipe includes locating the particular content on one or more pages provided at the one or more network sites after the first content item has moved.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item for the target device using the recipe includes locating the particular content on one or more pages provided at the one or more network sites independent of a position of the first content item.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the step of locating the first content item includes maintaining a document object model rendition of the one or more content resources.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising the step of identifying one or more nodes provided in the document object model rendition that correspond to the first content item.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of subsequently retrieving the first content item includes subsequently locating the node corresponding to the first content item.

53. A system for enabling a user to extract content from network sites, the system comprising:

one or more modules that are operable on a terminal of the user, wherein the one or more modules are configured to;

render network resources provided at one or more network sites on the terminal;

detect a series of one or more inputs from the user when the network resources are in a rendered state; and

record data corresponding to the input in order to enable subsequent identification of one or more content items provided by the given network resources at a later time.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein at least one of the one or more modules includes a browser component that renders the network resource.

55. The system of claim 53, wherein at least one of the one or more modules is configured to render network resource by interfacing with a browser on the terminal

56. The system of claim 54, wherein the browser component is a third-party, commercially available browser.

57. The system of claim 53, wherein at least one of the one or more modules is configured to maintain a document object model rendition of the given network resource in the rendered state.

58. The system of claim 57, wherein the document object model rendition maintains a hierarchy of nodes for the given network resource, and wherein at least one of the one or more modules is configured to associate the series of one or more inputs with one or more nodes in the hierarchy.

59. The system of claim 53, wherein at least one of the one or more modules is configured to detect, as at least one of the inputs in the series, one or more of a pointer movement, a pointer selection, a string of one or more keyboard selections, a voice-input, and a click and drag of the pointer.

60. A system for enabling content delivery to target devices operated by a plurality of users, the system comprising:

a shared memory that stores a plurality of recipes,

wherein each recipe contains instructions for identifying a set of one or more content items, wherein each set is included with network resources provided at a corresponding one or more network sites, and

wherein at least some of the plurality of recipes include instructions that are based on a given user'"'"'s browsing activity when a network resource of a corresponding content item is in a rendered state; and

one or more processors that make the shared memory available to the plurality of users.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein the given user'"'"'s browsing activity includes one or more of a pointer movement, a pointer selection, a string of one or more keyboard selections, a voice-input, and a click and drag of the pointer.

62. The system of claim 60, wherein the instructions for each recipe include identifying a specified content item from a plurality of content items that form a network resource provided at the corresponding one or more network sites for that recipe.

65. The method of claim 62, wherein the step of detecting one or more actions includes recording one or more of a pointer movement, a pointer selection, a string of one or more keyboard selections, a voice-input, and a click and drag of the pointer.

66. The method of claim 62, wherein the step of detecting one or more actions includes recording one or more of an alphanumeric entry, menu selection, iconic selection, and display selection of at least a portion of a display.

67. The method of claim 62, wherein the step of detecting one or more actions includes recording one or more of a log-in entry and a password entry.

63. A method for enabling content delivery-to a target device, the method comprising:

detecting one or more actions of a user from a network site that is providing one or more content resources to a terminal operated by the user;

identifying, from the one or more user actions, one or more content items from at least one of the one or more content resources;

generating data corresponding to content for the target device based on the one or more content items; and

causing the data to be sent to the target device.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the step of detecting one or more user actions includes recording the user actions made through an interface that is provided on the network site.

69. A computer-readable medium carrying instructions for enabling content delivery to a target device, wherein the instructions are executable by one or more processors in order to perform steps that include:

detecting one or more user actions of a user while one or more content resources from corresponding network sites are in a rendered state on a terminal operated by the user;

identifying, from the one or more user actions, one or more content items from at least one of the one or more content resources;

generating data corresponding to content for the target device based on the one or more content items; and

causing the data to be sent to the target device.

70. A system for enabling content delivery to a target device, the method comprising:

means for detecting one or more user actions of a user while one or more content resources from corresponding network sites are in a rendered state on a terminal operated by the user;

means for identifying, from the one or more user actions, one or more content items from at least one of the one or more content resources;

means for generating data corresponding to content for the target device based on the one or more content items; and

means for causing the data to be sent to the target device.