Intelligent internet website with hierarchical menu
First Claim
1. An internet website computer system which presents a hierarchical menu structure to users, the site having a default menu structure and means to automatically modify the default menu structure for each user over time according to at least that user'"'"'s previous browsing history at the site, wherein the modifying means dynamically calculates the menu options which appear on a selected menu page m of the menu structure when the user selects that menu page by promoting, as menu options for the selected menu page m, a plurality k of the most probable links which the user may wish to reach from the selected menu page m, subject to any restraints imposed by the site operator or the user, said k most probable links being identified by computing the probabilities of links which were direct or indirect hierarchical descendents of the menu page m in the most recent menu structure, said computation being performed for each branch of the most recent menu structure descending from the menu page m by computing the probability of links at successively lower levels in the branch until the computed probability of the current link is less than the kth best probability found up to that point.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An internet website which presents a hierarchical menu structure to users includes a personalization engine 14 to automatically modify the menu structure for each user at least according to that user'"'"'s previous browsing history at the site. In one embodiment the engine 14 provides, as menu options for a selected menu page of the hierarchical menu, a plurality of the most probable links which the user may wish to reach from the selected menu page. In another embodiment there are provided, as additional menu options for a particular menu page, a plurality of links which are similar, as determined by meeting a predetermined similarity metric, to menu options present on the particular menu page other than through meeting the similarity metric.
-
Citations
12 Claims
- 1. An internet website computer system which presents a hierarchical menu structure to users, the site having a default menu structure and means to automatically modify the default menu structure for each user over time according to at least that user'"'"'s previous browsing history at the site, wherein the modifying means dynamically calculates the menu options which appear on a selected menu page m of the menu structure when the user selects that menu page by promoting, as menu options for the selected menu page m, a plurality k of the most probable links which the user may wish to reach from the selected menu page m, subject to any restraints imposed by the site operator or the user, said k most probable links being identified by computing the probabilities of links which were direct or indirect hierarchical descendents of the menu page m in the most recent menu structure, said computation being performed for each branch of the most recent menu structure descending from the menu page m by computing the probability of links at successively lower levels in the branch until the computed probability of the current link is less than the kth best probability found up to that point.
-
11. A method of operating an internet website which presents a hierarchical menu structure to users, the method including the step of automatically modifying a default menu structure for each user over time according to at least that user'"'"'s previous browsing history at the site, wherein the step of modifying dynamically calculates the menu options which appear on a selected menu page m of the menu structure when the user selects that menu page by promoting, as menu options for the selected menu page m. a plurality k of the most probable links which the user may wish to reach from the selected menu page m, subject to any restraints imposed by the site operator or the user, said k most probable links being identified by computing the probabilities of links which were direct or indirect hierarchical descendents of the menu page m in the most recent menu structure, said computation being performed for each branch of the most recent menu structure descending from the menu page m by computing the probability of links at successively lower levels in the branch until the computed probability of the current link is less than the kth best probability found up to that point.
-
12. A computer program for use at an internet website which presents a hierarchical menu structure to users, the program code automatically modifying a default menu structure for each user over time according to at least that user'"'"'s previous browsing history at the site, wherein said automatic modification dynamically calculates the menu options which appear on a selected menu page m of the menu structure when the user selects that menu page by promoting, as menu options for the selected menu page m, a plurality k of the most probable links which the user may wish to reach from the selected menu page m, subject to any restraints imposed by the site operator or the user, said k most probable links being identified by computing the probabilities of links which were direct or indirect hierarchical descendents of the menu page m in the most recent menu structure, said computation being performed for each branch of the most recent menu structure descending from the menu page m by computing the probability of links at successively lower levels in the branch until the computed probability of the current link is less than the kth best probability found up to that point.
Specification