System and method for interacting with data using visual surrogates

• US 7,747,686 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 06/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kapur, Shyam
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US11/394,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/204, 707/E17.107, 707/E17.111, 707/E17.119, 707/E17.141, 719/332
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating the interaction with data using interactive data structures. The method of the present invention comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content. The one or more objects are combined to form an interactive data structure. The content associated with the one or more objects and the interactive data structure are delivered to a client device. One or more modifications may be made to the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure. The one or more modifications made to the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure may be propagated to the content associated with the one or more objects.

Claims

1. A computerized method for generating an interactive data structure using one or more items of content for displaying the interactive data structure, the method comprising:

generating, using a processing device, a plurality of objects, each object corresponding to a visual display of one or more items of content on a web-based interface that includes a search engine interface;

combining, using the processing device, the objects to form an interactive data structure for displaying the content therein, the interactive data structure for display via the web-based interface;

delivering the content and interactive data structure to a client device;

receiving one or more modifications made to the one or more objects, the modifications relating to visual display properties of the object relative to the interactive data structure, wherein receiving includes an option to deactivate the display of one or more objects and an option to activate the display of one or more objects;

propagating the one or more modifications to the objects to update the interactive data structure; and

employing the interactive data structure to display the one or more items of content in the interactive data structure, including the modifications relating to the visual display, via the web-based interface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content contained within a document.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content contained within a web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content maintained in one or more applications.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein combining comprises combining the one or more objects according to a structure identified by the content associated with the one or more objects.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein delivering comprises delivering the content and interactive data structure in response to a user request.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving comprises receiving a modification made to the positioning of the one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving comprises receiving a modification made to the one or more characters displayed in the one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving comprises receiving a notification of a user'"'"'s navigation throughout the one or more interactive data structures.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving one or more modifications comprises receiving an indication of a combination of two or more objects.

11. The method of claim 1 comprising modifying the one or more items of content according to the modifications made to the one or more associated objects.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein propagating comprises:

identifying an action associated with the one or more modifications;

identifying an application operative to execute the identified action; and

executing the action through the use of the one or more modifications by the application.

13. A system for facilitating the interaction with one or more items of content via a display of an interactive data structure, the system comprising:

a search engine operative to retrieve one or more items of content; and

an object component operative to, via a processing device;

generate a plurality of objects, each object corresponding to a visual display of the one or more items of content on a web-based interface that includes a search engine interface associated with the search engine, combine the objects to form an interactive data structure for displaying the content therein, the interactive data structure for display via the web-based interface, transmit the interactive data structure to a client device, receive one or more modifications made to the one or more objects, the modifications relating to visual display properties of the object relative to the interactive data structure, wherein receiving includes an option to deactivate the display of one or more objects and an option to activate the display of one or more objects;

propagate the one or more modifications to the objects to update the interactive data structure, and

employ the interactive data structure to display the one or more items of content in the interactive data structure, including the modifications relating to the visual display, via the web-based interface.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the object component is operative to associate the one or more objects with one or more applications.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the object component is operative to combine one or more objects according to a structure identified by the content associated with the one or more objects.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the object component is operative to receive a user interaction with the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure and modify the content associated with the one or more objects according to the user interaction.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein an object component is operative to:

receive an indication of the combination of a plurality of objects;

identify the content associated with the plurality of objects;

identify an action associated with the combination of the plurality of objects; and

execute the action associated with the combination of the plurality of objects using an application associated with the action and the content associated with the plurality of objects.