System, method and computer program product for shared user tailoring of websites

• US 20070185927A1
• Filed: 01/27/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Yin, Jian, Chess, David, Segal, Alla, Whalley, Ian
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

Users create, share, and build collaboration communities around tailored versions of the functional pages of a web site, such as the pages used to select and purchase products, or the pages used to present course materials in an online-learning site. The tailored versions of the web site are stored at the common web site development web site or at another server side location. Users access the tailored versions to select a tailored version for their own use and/or modification.

Claims

1. A system for allowing collaborative user tailoring of web sites, the system comprising:

a mechanism for a plurality of users to at least one of create and modify a tailored version of a website, comprising modifications to at least one of a set of pages that appear on the web site, an appearance of at least one page on the web site, an organization of at least one page of the web site, and a function of at least one page of the web site; and

a mechanism to aid a user from the plurality of users in selecting an existing tailored version of the website where at least one tailored version of the website is available.

2. A system as in claim 1 further comprising

a mechanism for a plurality of site users to save the tailored version of the website thus created or modified;

a mechanism for a plurality of site users to access and make use of the tailored version of the website thus saved; and

a mechanism through which various tailored versions of the web site which have been saved and made available are announced.

3. A system as in claim 2 further comprising

a mechanism for site users to create or modify at least one design element which are used within pages when creating the tailored versions of the website,

a mechanism for site users to save the at least one design element thus created or modified,

a mechanism for site users to access and make use of the at least one design element thus saved in the creation or modifying of tailored versions of the website.

4. A system as in claim 2 wherein the mechanism to aid a user from the plurality of users in selecting an existing tailored version of the website comprises a mechanism for selecting, corresponding to at least one particular user of the web site, a particular subset of the tailored versions of the website thus saved.

5. A system as in claim 4 wherein the mechanism to aid a user from the plurality of users in selecting an existing tailored version of the website comprises a mechanism for recommending, to that particular user of the web site, the tailored versions of the website contained in that selected subset.

6. A system as in claim 5 where the subset of tailored versions recommended to that particular user or users is selected responsive to a recorded usage pattern of that particular user.

7. A system as in claim 5 where the subset of tailored versions recommended to that particular user is selected responsive to a user profile as stored in the system.

8. A systems as in claim 1 further comprising a mechanism by which a plurality of site users pay a fee for access to a subset of the mechanisms for at least one of creating and modifying tailored versions of the website.

9. A system as in claim 1 wherein the mechanisms for at least one of creating and modifying tailored versions of the website are available only to a web site'"'"'s user who is in a premium subset of users.

10. A system as in claim 1 further comprising a mechanism by which a plurality of users who at least one of create and modify tailored versions of the website receive compensation.

11. A system as in claim 2 wherein information regarding user evaluations and ratings of the tailored versions are stored.

12. A system as in claim 2 wherein users assign textual tags to selected ones of the tailored versions.

13. A method for implementing a web site, comprising:

presenting a plurality of web site implementation options to a user, wherein at least one of the plurality of web site implementation options includes at least one filter;

upon the user selecting the at least one filter, applying the at least one filter to provide the subset of the plurality of tailored versions of a web site;

selecting one of the tailored versions of the web site; and

implementing the selected tailored version of the web site by allowing the user at least one of using the web site and modifying the web site.

14. A method according to claim 13, further comprising allowing creation of a collaboration community of users to share and develop functional pages of the tailored versions of the web site.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one filter is based on user ratings of the tailored versions of the web site.

16. A method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one filter is based on past user modifications.

17. A method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one filter is based on user selected criteria.

18. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to allow a user to create, modify and use tailored versions of a web site, the operations comprising:

determining if a user has selected a tailored version of a web site;

if it is determined that the user has selected a tailored version of a web site, loading selected elements of the tailored version;

if it is determined that the user has not selected a tailored version of a web site, loading default tailored elements;

generating at least one web page dynamically using the loaded elements.

19. A signal bearing medium according to claim 18, wherein the signal bearing medium is part of a web site server system.

20. A signal bearing medium according to claim 19, wherein the signal bearing medium is owned and maintained by the owner of the web site.