Systems and methods for providing access to instructional content

• US 20090187572A1
• Filed: 01/18/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: FindHow, Inc.
• Original Assignee: FindHow, Inc.
• Inventors: Smith, David J., Ives, Edward M.
• Application Number:
  US12/009,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20090187572A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for locating trustworthy how-to content (e.g., on the Internet), and providing access to such content (e.g., via a web site). Some embodiments provide a method for making trustworthy how-to content accessible, which method includes locating an item of how-to content made available for access by a provider; creating at least one how-to entry corresponding to the item of how-to content which enables a user to access the how-to content and which includes some indication of the source (and thus also, to a user familiar with the source, an indication of the quality) of the how-to content; and providing the user with access to the how-to entry via at least one network (e.g., the Internet).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing access to trustworthy how-to content, comprising computer-implemented acts of:

(A) locating how-to content made available for access via at least one network by an online provider;

(B) creating in a data structure at least one how-to entry corresponding to the how-to content, the at least one how-to entry being selectable by a user to access the how-to content via at least one network and indicating that the how-to content is made available by the online provider; and

(C) providing the user with access to the at least one how-to entry via at least one network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act (A) further comprises locating content made available for access by the provider via at least one publicly accessible network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the act (A) further comprises executing a web spidering facility to identify at least one uniform resource locator (URL) at which the how-to content is located.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act (A) further comprises a human editor locating at least one URL at which the how-to content is located.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one how-to entry indicates that the how-to content is made available by the online provider by including a brand name of the online provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act (C) further comprises providing a web site which allows the user access to the at least one how-to entry.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the web site includes information on at least one how-to topic, at least one of the how-to topics including a plurality of how-to entries, each of the plurality of how-to entries relating to performing a substantially same task and having a title which is substantially identical to the title for each other how-to entry of the plurality of how-to entries.

8. At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform a method for providing access to trustworthy how-to content, the method comprising acts of:

(A) locating how-to content made available for access via at least one network by an online provider;

(B) creating in a data structure at least one how-to entry which corresponds to the how-to content, the at least one how-to entry being selectable by a user to access the how-to content via at least one network and indicating that the how-to content is made available by the online provider; and

(C) providing the user with access to the at least one how-to entry via at least one network.

9. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the act (A) further comprises locating content made available for access by the provider via at least one publicly accessible network which includes the Internet.

10. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the act (B) further comprises creating at least one how-to entry which includes a hyperlink referencing a URL at which the how-to content is located.

11. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the at least one how-to entry indicates that the how-to content is made available by the online provider by including a brand name of the online provider.

12. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the act (C) further comprises providing a web site which allows the user access to the at least one how-to entry, and wherein the web site categorizes how-to content using a scheme which includes at least one how-to category, at least one how-to topic and at least one how-to entry, each how-to topic being categorized in at least one how-to category, each how-to entry being categorized in at least one how-to topic.

13. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the act (C) further comprises providing a search facility which allows the user to search for information relating to how-to content.

14. A system for making trustworthy how-to content available to users, the system comprising:

a location facility operable to receive an indication of a network location at which an item of how-to content is made available for access by an online provider;

a database facility, in networked communication with the location facility, operable to store the indication of the network location received by the location facility;

a creation facility, in networked communication with the database facility, operable to access the indication stored in the database facility and to create, in a data structure, at least one how-to entry for the item of how-to content, the at least one how-to entry being selectable by a user of the system to access the item of how-to content at the network location, the at least one how-to entry indicating that the how-to content is made available by the online provider; and

an access facility operable to make the at least one how-to entry accessible to the user via at least one network.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a web site spidering facility, in networked communication with the location facility, operable to identify at least one URL at which how-to content is located and to communicate the at least one URL to the location facility.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising an editing facility, in networked communication with the location facility, operable to receive input from a human editor specifying at least one URL at which how-to content is located and to communicate the at least one URL to the location facility.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the creation facility is further operable to create at least one how-to entry, each how-to entry including a hyperlink referencing a URL at which the how-to content is located, and wherein the access facility is further operable to present each hyperlink to the user.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the access facility comprises a web site providing access to the at least one how-to entry to the user.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the web site includes information on at least one how-to topic, at least one of the how-to topics including a plurality of how-to entries, each of the plurality of how-to entries relating to performing a substantially same task and having a title which is substantially identical to the title for each other how-to entry of the plurality of how-to entries.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising a search facility in networked communication with the access facility, wherein the search facility enables the user to search for information relating to how-to content.