Methods and apparatus for selection of information and web page generation
First Claim
1. A method of automatically generating a web page, the method comprising:
- receiving an instruction from a user to generate a first new web page and receiving an identifier of an existing web page that is accessible over a network;
using information defining the existing web page to generate information defining the first new web page;
providing user editing controls to allow a user to input user edits to edit content, layout, modules and/or access rights of the first new web page, and modifying said information defining the first new web page in accordance with said user edits; and
sending said information defining the first new web page to an information store which is accessible over the network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for generating new web pages using pre-existing web pages as a template, and a method and apparatus for selection of information from a database or index based on user-allocated ratings, where the selected information may be used to provide content for a web site or for broadcast on TV, radio or other media. For the web page creation, preferably each web page is provided with a “remix” button, which a user can click on to create an editable copy of the web page. The user may subsequently edit individual components of the web page to customise it. A ranking system for web pages, modules, content and users may be implemented, and may be used to automatically select highly rated content. The automatic selection may also use meta data such as “tags” specifying the subject matter of the web site, and meta data relating to the particular user who is viewing the web site. The automatic selection process may use “tag clouds” comprising groups of related tags, in order to improve the search and matching process. The selected content may include advertising material or any other web site content, such as news feeds, blogs, pictures, etc. Where advertising material is selected for display, the selection criteria may take into account the user allocated ratings of each advert, as well as the price that advertisers are willing to pay in order to have the advert displayed.
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Citations
240 Claims
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1. A method of automatically generating a web page, the method comprising:
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receiving an instruction from a user to generate a first new web page and receiving an identifier of an existing web page that is accessible over a network; using information defining the existing web page to generate information defining the first new web page; providing user editing controls to allow a user to input user edits to edit content, layout, modules and/or access rights of the first new web page, and modifying said information defining the first new web page in accordance with said user edits; and sending said information defining the first new web page to an information store which is accessible over the network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 213, 227)
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23. A method of automatically generating a web page, the method comprising:
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displaying an existing web page that is accessible over a network; and in response to an instruction from a user; sending an instruction to generate a first new web page to a server and sending an identifier of said existing web page to said server; receiving said first new web page from the server and displaying said first new web page, wherein information defining said first new web page has been generated using information defining the existing web page; providing user editing controls to allow a user to input user edits to edit content, layout, modules and/or access rights of the first new web page; sending said user edits to said server to modify said information defining the first new web page in accordance with said user edits, said modified information defining the first new web page being stored in an information store which is accessible over the network; and updating the display of said first new web page to include said user edits. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 214, 228)
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42. A method of automatically generating a web page, the method comprising:
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receiving a user selection or automatic selection of a topic for said web page; using said topic selection to search a database for information associated with said topic; selecting items of information within the search results using rating values associated with the items of information; generating a web page comprising a plurality of said selected items of information arranged using predetermined layout information. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 215, 229)
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45. A method of automatically selecting information from an information store or index wherein each item of information has meta data comprising a rating value and one or more tags, the method comprising:
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retrieving data associated with one or more users; generating a search query using said retrieved data associated with the one or more users; searching said information store or index with said search query and selecting items of information having at least one tag corresponding to the search term; awarding a score to each selected item of information, using the rating values of each item of information; ranking the selected items of information according to their scores; and outputting at least one of the selected items of information with a score in a top part of the ranking. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 216, 230)
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59. A method of selecting content for display on a web page using predetermined user interest information from a user, said predetermined user interest information being stored on a server, the method comprising:
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receiving a request from the user to view the web page; using the user interest information to select content for display on the web site from an information content store or index; and displaying the selected content on the web page. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 217, 231)
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64. A method of outputting information to a user, the method comprising:
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retrieving from a tag store tags from one or more of the following categories;
tags representing interests of a user;
tags relating to published web page content of the user;
tags relating to a web page that a user has most recently requested to view; and
tags relating to topics for which a user has requested to received advertising material, wherein individual tags may be in multiple categories;providing each individual tag of said retrieved tags with a score, wherein said score is determined using the number and type of categories in which said individual tag is included; using a predetermined number of tags with the highest scores to search an information database or index to locate information relating to the tags in this predetermined number of tags; and outputting at least some of said located information to the user. - View Dependent Claims (65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 78, 218, 232)
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71. A method of rating a web page, web page component or user, the method comprising:
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providing user controls to allow users to rate a web page, web page component or user by adding new tags to a tag cloud describing the web page, web page component or user, and/or by rating the tags in said tag cloud; and storing data defining said tag cloud and said ratings in a data store. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73, 219, 233)
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74. A method of generating a tag cloud for a specified topic, the method comprising searching a database comprising meta data relating to each of a plurality of items of information, wherein said meta data indicates the subject matter of the information, and identifying items of information which have meta data matching said specified topic;
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generating a list of meta data that is associated with the items of information identified in said search, said list including meta data that does not match said specified topic; generating weights for each item of meta data in said list, using the number of times each item of meta data is associated with any item of information identified in the search; and generating a tag cloud for the specified topic using said list and said weights. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 220, 234)
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79. A method of displaying a tag cloud, comprising storing tags of the tag cloud, ratings for each tag, and information about users who created and rated each tag, the method comprising:
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providing user controls to allow a user to specify a sub group of users according to a user criteria; generating weightings for each tag in the tag cloud using only ratings that have been allocated by users in said selected group of users; and displaying the tag cloud with said generated weightings. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 221, 235)
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82. A method of automatically selecting an advert to be served to a user or a group of users, the method comprising:
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ranking a list of adverts using price categories paid by advertisers for said adverts and using ratings allocated to the adverts by users; selecting an advert from a top part of said ranked list; and serving said selected advert to said user or group of users. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 222, 236)
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87. A method of generating a plurality of keywords for use in the selection of advertising material for a target web site, the method comprising:
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retrieving keywords relating to one or more of the following sources;
the content of the target web site;
the author of the target web site;
the user who is requesting to view the target web site; and
other web sites owned by said user;using weighting values to assign weights to the retrieved keywords according to the keyword source and the time at which the keyword was assigned to said keyword source; generating a ranked list of keywords using said assigned weights; comparing said ranked list of keywords to the keywords associated with individual adverts; and selecting adverts in dependence upon the result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (88, 89, 90, 223, 237)
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91. A method of selecting an advert format for serving an advert to a user, the method comprising:
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searching a plurality of categories of stored information associated with the user to determine the number of categories in which an advert keyword occurs; and selecting an advert format from a plurality of advert formats according to the number of said categories in which the advert keyword is found. - View Dependent Claims (92, 93, 94, 95, 224, 238)
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96. A method of management of displayed adverts, the method comprising:
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storing identifiers of adverts that have been served to a user on one or more web pages during a time period; and providing user controls for displaying adverts corresponding to the stored identifiers and for sorting and/or searching adverts corresponding to the stored identifiers, in response to a user input. - View Dependent Claims (97, 98, 225, 239)
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99. A method of generating and sharing revenue from advertising, the method comprising:
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serving an advert to a first web page owned by a first user, wherein the first web page has been generated using a second web page as a template, or using a web page that has been directly or indirectly derived from the second web page as a template; charging an advertising fee to an advertiser for serving said advert; allocating a first predetermined portion of the advertising fee to the first user; and allocating a second predetermined portion of the advertising fee to a second user who owns the second web page. - View Dependent Claims (100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 226, 240)
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107. Apparatus for automatically generating a web page, the apparatus comprising:
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receiving means for receiving an instruction from a user to generate a first new web page and receiving an identifier of an existing web page that is accessible over a network; editing means for using information defining the existing web page to generate information defining the first new web page;
providing user editing controls to allow a user to input user edits to edit content, layout, modules and/or access rights of the first new web page, and modifying said information defining the first new web page in accordance with said user edits; andsending means for sending said information defining the first new web page to an information store which is accessible over the network. - View Dependent Claims (108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128)
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129. Apparatus for automatically generating a web page, the apparatus comprising:
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display control means for displaying an existing web page that is accessible over a network on a display; and sending means for sending an instruction to generate a first new web page to a server and sending an identifier of said existing web page to said server; receiving means for receiving said first new web page from the server and displaying said first new web page, wherein information defining said first new web page has been generated using information defining the existing web page; editing means for providing user editing controls to allow a user to input user edits to edit content, layout, modules and/or access rights of the first new web page; wherein said sending means is configured to sending said user edits to said server to modify said information defining the first new web page in accordance with said user edits, said modified information defining the first new web page being stored in an information store which is accessible over the network; and wherein said display control means is configured to update the display of said first new web page to include said user edits. - View Dependent Claims (130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147)
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148. Apparatus for automatically generating a web page, the apparatus comprising:
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receiving means for receiving a user selection or automatic selection of a topic for said web page; search means for using said topic selection to search a database for information associated with said topic; selection means for selecting items of information within the search results using rating values associated with the items of information; generating means for generating a web page comprising a plurality of said selected items of information arranged using predetermined layout information. - View Dependent Claims (149, 150)
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151. Apparatus for automatically selecting information from an information store or index wherein each item of information has meta data comprising a rating value and one or more tags, the apparatus comprising:
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retrieving means for retrieving data associated with one or more users; generating means for generating a search query using said retrieved data associated with the one or more users; search means for searching said information store or index with said search query and selecting items of information having at least one tag corresponding to the search term; scoring means for awarding a score to each selected item of information, using the rating values of each item of information, and ranking the selected items of information according to their scores; and output means for outputting at least one of the selected items of information with a score in a top part of the ranking. - View Dependent Claims (152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164)
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165. Apparatus for selecting content for display on a web page using predetermined user interest information from a user, said predetermined user interest information being stored on a server, the apparatus comprising:
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receiving means for receiving a request from the user to view the web page; selection means configured to use the user interest information for selecting content for display on the web site from an information content store or index; and display control means for displaying the selected content on the web page on a display. - View Dependent Claims (166, 167, 168, 169)
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170. Apparatus for outputting information to a user, the apparatus comprising:
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retrieving means for retrieving from a tag store tags from one or more of the following categories;
tags representing interests of a user;
tags relating to published web page content of the user;
tags relating to a web page that a user has most recently requested to view; and
tags relating to topics for which a user has requested to received advertising material, wherein individual tags may be in multiple categories;scoring means for providing each individual tag of said retrieved tags with a score, wherein said score is determined using the number and type of categories in which said individual tag is included; search means configured to use a predetermined number of tags with the highest scores to search an information database or index to locate information relating to the tags in this predetermined number of tags; and output means for outputting at least some of said located information to the user. - View Dependent Claims (171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176)
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177. Apparatus for rating a web page, web page component or user, the apparatus comprising:
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rating means for providing user controls to allow users to rate a web page, web page component or user by adding new tags to a tag cloud describing the web page, web page component or user, and/or by rating the tags in said tag cloud; and storage means for storing data defining said tag cloud and said ratings. - View Dependent Claims (178, 179)
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180. Apparatus for generating a tag cloud for a specified topic, the apparatus comprising
search means for searching a database comprising meta data relating to each of a plurality of items of information, wherein said meta data indicates the subject matter of the information, and for identifying items of information which have meta data matching said specified topic; - and
processing means for generating a list of meta data that is associated with the items of information identified in said search, said list including meta data that does not match said specified topic;
for generating weights for each item of meta data in said list, using the number of times each item of meta data is associated with any item of information identified in the search; and
for generating a tag cloud for the specified topic using said list and said weights. - View Dependent Claims (181, 182, 183, 184)
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185. Apparatus for displaying a tag cloud, the apparatus comprising:
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storage means for storing tags of the tag cloud, ratings for each tag, and information about users who created and rated each tag; selection means for providing user controls to allow a user to specify a sub group of users according to a user criteria; processing means for generating weightings for each tag in the tag cloud using only ratings that have been allocated by users in said selected group of users; and display control means for displaying the tag cloud with said generated weightings on a display. - View Dependent Claims (186, 187)
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188. Apparatus for automatically selecting an advert to be served to a user or a group of users, the apparatus comprising:
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selection means for ranking a list of adverts using price categories paid by advertisers for said adverts and using ratings allocated to the adverts by users; and
selecting an advert from a top part of said ranked list; andoutput means for serving said selected advert to said user or group of users. - View Dependent Claims (189, 190, 191, 192)
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193. Apparatus for generating a plurality of keywords for use in the selection of advertising material for a target web site, the apparatus comprising:
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retrieving means for retrieving keywords relating to one or more of the following sources;
the content of the target web site;
the author of the target web site;
the user who is requesting to view the target web site; and
other web sites owned by said user;weighting means for using weighting values to assign weights to the retrieved keywords according to the keyword source and the time at which the keyword was assigned to said keyword source; and
generating a ranked list of keywords using said assigned weights; andselection means for comparing said ranked list of keywords to the keywords associated with individual adverts; and
selecting adverts in dependence upon the result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (194, 195, 196)
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197. Apparatus for selecting an advert format for serving an advert to a user, the apparatus comprising:
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searching means for searching a plurality of categories of stored information associated with the user to determine the number of categories in which an advert keyword occurs; and selection means for selecting an advert format from a plurality of advert formats according to the number of said categories in which the advert keyword is found. - View Dependent Claims (198, 199, 200, 201)
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202. Apparatus for management of displayed adverts, the apparatus comprising;
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storage means for storing identifiers of adverts that have been served to a user on one or more web pages during a time period; and providing means for providing user controls to display adverts corresponding to the stored identifiers and for sorting and/or searching adverts corresponding to the stored identifiers, in response to a user input. - View Dependent Claims (203, 204)
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205. Apparatus for generating and sharing revenue from advertising, the apparatus comprising:
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output means for serving an advert to a first web page owned by a first user, wherein the first web page has been generated using a second web page as a template, or using a web page that has been directly or indirectly derived from the second web page as a template; and processing means for calculating an advertising fee to be charged to an advertiser for serving said advert;
said processing means being configured to allocate a first predetermined portion of the advertising fee to the first user; and
to allocate a second predetermined portion of the advertising fee to a second user who owns the second web page. - View Dependent Claims (206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212)
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Specification