Apparatus and method for simple wide-area network navigation

• US 20060212811A1
• Filed: 03/13/2006
• Published: 09/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EMG Technology, LLC
• Original Assignee: EMG Technology, LLC
• Inventors: Gottfurcht, Elliot A., Gottfurcht, Grant E., Long, Albert-Michel C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,441,196 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04892 Arrangements for controlling cursor position based on codes indicative of cursor displacements from one discrete location to another, e.g. using cursor control keys associated to different directions or using the tab key arrangements for controlling cursor position based on coordinate signals G06F3/038
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested

Abstract

A method and apparatus of simplified navigation. A web page is provided having a link to a sister site. The sister site facilitates simplified navigation. Pages from the sister site are served responsive to actuation of the sister site link. In one embodiment, the sister site includes matrix pages to permit matrix navigation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a web page having web content, the web page associated with a sister site;

reformatting the web content of the web page by the sister site; and

prearranging the reformatted web content for display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content of a user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of reformatting further comprises:

transcoding a hyper text markup language (HTML) page into an extensible markup language (XML) page.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of navigation options.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the user interface presents the reformatted prearranged web content in the form of a matrix.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content on one of a television set, a personal computer, a wireless device, and a personal computer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sister site is a server on a network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reformatted web content consists of one of a video signal, audio signal, audio video signal, graphics and text.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reformatted web content is prearranged according to the user'"'"'s interests.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user'"'"'s interests are determined based on one or more previous user selections.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content on a simplified navigation interface.

12. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing for user navigation on the user interface through one of clicking, scrolling, tabbing and zooming.

13. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of one of the navigation options.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the user selection is made through one of a mouse, remote control, pointer device, and keyboard.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the user selection is made through a microphone and speaker recognition device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reformatted web content may describe one or more products of services.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the reformatted web content comprises one or more advertisements.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

displaying the advertisements on a display.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

upon user selection, displaying reformatted web content in a matrix layer.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to a web site for additional information.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

displaying the additional information on a display.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying the product or services content in ranked order.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the advertisements are displayed in ranked order.

24. The method of claim 2, wherein the user interface is a hierarchical navigation interface containing a plurality of layers, further comprising:

providing one or more user navigation options in each layer.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

receiving one or more user selections to a navigation option;

responding to the selections by generating a next deeper layer of the hierarchical navigation interface up to a maximum depth.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein the advertisement is based on one or more previous user selections.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein the advertisement is for a product or service more likely to be of interest to a user.

28. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing for a search term option as one of the navigation options on the display;

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

receiving a search term from a user; and

performing a search using the search term.

30. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing an email interface as part of the display.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing the reformatted web content through a WAN.

32. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing the reformatted web content through Internet.

33. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing for user navigation on the user interface through unique inputs.

34. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to the sister site.

35. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to a online database.

36. The method of claim 4, further comprising;

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the navigation options; and

establishing a communication to one of the group consisting of an online database, the sister site, and web site.

37. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

displaying the product or services content in a ranking system.

38. The method of claim 18, wherein the advertisement is modified based on the navigation path of the user.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the product or services content is ranked according to a user'"'"'s interests.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page has a link to the sister site, and further comprising:

serving one or more pages from the sister site responsive to actuation of the link from the web page;

wherein at least one of the pages has the prearranged reformatted web content.

41. A computer readable storage media containing executable computer program instructions which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method comprising:

providing a web page having web content, the web page associated with a sister site;

reformatting the web content of the web page by the sister site; and

prearranging the reformatted web content for display.

42. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content of a user interface.

43. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

transcoding a hyper text markup language (HTML) page into an extensible markup language (XML) page.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 42, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of navigation options.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 42, wherein the user interface presents the reformatted prearranged web content in the form of a matrix.

46. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content on one of a television set, a personal computer, a wireless device, and a personal computer.

47. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the sister site is a server on a network.

48. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the reformatted web content consists of one of a video signal, audio signal, audio video signal, graphics and text.

49. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the reformatted web content is prearranged according to the user'"'"'s interests.

50. The computer readable medium of claim 49, wherein the user'"'"'s interests are determined based on one or more previous user selections.

51. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the prearranged reformatted web content on a simplified navigation interface.

52. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

providing for user navigation on the user interface through one of clicking, scrolling, tabbing and zooming.

53. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a user selection of one of the navigation options.

54. The computer readable medium of claim 53, wherein the user selection is made through one of a mouse, remote control, pointer device, and keyboard.

55. The computer readable medium of claim 53, wherein the user selection is made through a microphone and speaker recognition device.

56. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the reformatted web content may describe one or more products of services.

57. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the reformatted web content comprises one or more advertisements.

58. The computer readable storage media of claim 57 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the advertisements on a display.

59. The computer readable storage media of claim 53 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

upon user selection, displaying reformatted web content in a matrix layer.

60. The computer readable storage media of claim 58 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to a web site for additional information.

61. The computer readable storage media of claim 60 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the additional information on a display.

62. The computer readable storage media of claim 56 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the product or services content in ranked order.

63. The computer readable medium of claim 58, wherein the advertisements are displayed in ranked order.

64. The computer readable medium of claim 52, wherein the user interface is a hierarchical navigation interface containing a plurality of layers, which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising further comprising:

providing one or more user navigation options in each layer.

65. The computer readable storage media of claim 64 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving one or more user selections to a navigation option;

responding to the selections by generating a next deeper layer of the hierarchical navigation interface up to a maximum depth.

66. The computer readable medium of claim 58, wherein the advertisement is based on one or more previous user selections.

67. The computer readable medium of claim 58, wherein the advertisement is for a product or service more likely to be of interest to a user.

68. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

providing for a search term option as one of the navigation options on the display.

69. The computer readable storage media of claim 68 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a search term from a user; and

performing a search using the search term.

70. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

providing an email interface as part of the display.

71. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

accessing the reformatted web content through a WAN.

72. The computer readable storage media of claim 41 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

accessing the reformatted web content through Internet.

73. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

providing for user navigation on the user interface through unique inputs.

74. The computer readable storage media of claim 58 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to the sister site.

75. The computer readable storage media of claim 58 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the advertisements; and

establishing a communications link to a online database.

76. The computer readable storage media of claim 44 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a user selection corresponding to one of the navigation options; and

establishing a communication to one of the group consisting of an online database, the sister site, and web site.

77. The computer readable storage media of claim 56 which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

displaying the product or services content in a ranking system.

78. The computer readable medium of claim 58, wherein the advertisement is modified based on the navigation path of the user.

79. The computer readable medium of claim 77, wherein the product or services content is ranked according to a user'"'"'s interests.

80. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the web page has a link to the sister site, which when executed cause a digital processing system to perform a method further comprising:

serving one or more pages from the sister site responsive to actuation of the link from the web page;

wherein at least one of the pages has the prearranged reformatted web content.