Techniques for simultaneously displaying a background page and an interactive content page in an application window

• US 20050235219A1
• Filed: 04/19/2004
• Published: 10/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Szeto, Christopher T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

Techniques are provided for maintaining the visibility of a priority page in the background of a software application window while simultaneously displaying unrelated content from a content tab. The content displayed in the content tab can be obtained from a web page. A user can resize or minimize the content tab, but the background priority page is always visible in the window. The priority page can be a friends lists displayed in the background of an instant messenger application. Content from a content tab is simultaneously displayed in the instant messenger window with the friends list.

Claims

1. A method for displaying multiple content pages in an instant messenger application, the method comprising:

displaying a friends list page in an instant messenger window, wherein the friends list page displays users that send and receive instant messages within an instant messaging community;

displaying content of a first interactive content tab in the instant messenger window at the same time that at least a portion of the friends list page is also displayed in the instant messenger window; and

preventing a user from hiding all of the friends list page from view in the instant messenger window.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein preventing the user from hiding all of the friends list page from view further comprises preventing the user from shrinking a visible portion of the friends list page to less than a preprogrammed minimum height for the friends list page.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving the content of the first content tab from a web page through the Internet.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 wherein displaying the content of first content tab further comprises automatically refreshing the content of the first content tab by accessing data from the web page.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein displaying the content of the first content tab further comprises displaying the content of the first content tab when the user selects a first tab in a tab selector region of the instant messenger window.

6. The method as defined in claim 5 further comprising:

displaying content of a second content tab in the instant messenger window when the user selects a second tab in the tab selector region, the second content tab being displayed at the same time that at least a portion of the friends list is also displayed in the instant messenger window.

7. The method as defined in claim 6 further comprising:

hiding the content of the first content tab when the content of the second content tab is displayed in the instant messenger window.

8. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the content tab is an Internet radio tab that plays music.

9. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

minimizing the first content tab in response to a user request so that the content is not visible in the instant messenger window.

10. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

sending a message from a first IM user to a second IM user in the friends list in response to the first IM user selecting content in the first interactive content tab, wherein the message relates to the selected content.

11. A computer program product that simultaneously displays multiple pages in one window, the computer program product comprising:

code for displaying a friends list page in an instant messenger window listing users that send and receive instant messages within an instant messaging community;

code for displaying content of a first interactive content page in the instant messenger window at the same time that at least a portion of the friends list page is displayed in the instant messenger window;

code for preventing a user from hiding all of the friends list page from view in the instant messenger window; and

a computer readable medium for storing the codes.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the code for preventing the user from hiding all of the friends list page from view further comprises code for preventing the user from shrinking a visible portion of the friends list page to less than a preprogrammed minimum height for the friends list page.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11 further comprising:

code for retrieving the content of the first interactive content page from a web page through the Internet.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13 wherein the code for displaying the content of first interactive content page further comprises code for automatically refreshing the content of the first content page by accessing data from the web page.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the code for displaying the content of the first interactive content page further comprises code for displaying the content of the first content page when the user selects a first tab in a tab selector region of the instant messenger window.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15 further comprising:

code for displaying content of a second content page in the instant messenger window when the user selects a second tab in the tab selector region, the second content page being displayed at the same time that at least a portion of the friends list is also displayed in the instant messenger window.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16 further comprising:

code for hiding the content of the first content page when the content of the second content page is displayed in the instant messenger window.

18. The computer program product according to claim 11 further comprising:

code for minimizing the first content page in response to a user request so that the content is not visible in the instant messenger window.

19. The computer program product according to claim 11 further comprising:

code for sending a message from a first IM user to a second IM user in response to the first IM user selecting content in the first interactive content page, the second IM user being displayed in the friends list, and wherein the message relates to the selected content.