Method and system to determine area on a user interface

• US 7,882,447 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2005
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Chandler, Corey, Smalley, Preston Grant
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo; Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chuong; Truc T
• Application Number:
  US11/241,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20060224954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 715/718, 715/738, 715/750, 715/754, 715/778, 715/790, 715/792, 715/798, 715/838, 715/845, 715/854
• US Class Current: 715/778
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A method and system to determine the size of a first area on a user interface that is utilized to display data items. The system receives a request for a user interface that includes a first area and a second area that are complementary in size. The system utilizes the first area utilized to display data items and the second area to display other information. The system determines a size of the first area by computing a number of data items that are to be displayed in the first area and generates the user interface to include the first area in the second area, the first area being of the determined size.

Claims

1. A method to automatically determine a size of a first area on a user interface that is utilized to display data items, the method including:

receiving a request for the user interface that includes the first area and a second area, the second area being included in the user interface based on the size of the first area, the first area being utilized to display data items that are found in a data source based on a query, the second area being utilized to display at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse at least one data item that is associated with a particular characteristic and stored in the data source;

determining the size of the first area by computing a number of data items that are to be displayed in the first area and comparing the number of data items with a predetermined threshold to identify the number of data items as being equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold; and

generating the user interface to include the first area and the second area, the first and second areas being complementary in size and not being overlapped, the generating of the second area being responsive to the identification of the number of data items as being equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold, the second area being included in the user interface based on the size of the first area and including the at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse the at least one data item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined threshold is a configurable value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second area is utilized to present a browsing set to identify the data items.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the browsing set is identified based on the query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a button that is selectable to display a browsing set.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data items are listings on a network-based marketplace.

7. A system to automatically determine a size of a first area on a user interface that is utilized to display data items, the system including:

at least one machine for executing;

a search application to receive a request for the user interface that includes the first area and a second area, the second area is included in the user interface based on the size of the first area, the first area is utilized to display data items that are found in a data source based on a query, the second area is utilized to display at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse at least one data item that is associated with a particular characteristic and stored in the data source; and

a determining module to determine the size of the first area responsive to a computation of a number of data items that are to be displayed in the first area and compare the number of data items with a predetermined threshold to identify the number of data items as equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the search application to generate the user interface to include the first area and the second area, the first and second areas are complementary in size and not overlapped, the generation of the second area is responsive to the identification of the number of data items as equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold, the second area is included in the user interface based on the size of the first area and includes the at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse the at least one data item.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined threshold is a configurable value.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the second area is utilized to present a browsing set to identify the data items.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the browsing set is identified based on the query.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the user interface includes a button that is selectable to display a browsing set.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the data items are listings on a network-based marketplace.

13. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a set of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive a request for a user interface that includes a first area and a second area, the second area is included in the user interface based on a size of the first area, the first area is utilized to display data items that are found in a data source based on a query, the second area is utilized to display at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse at least one data item that is associated with a particular characteristic and stored in the data source;

determine the size of the first area responsive to a computation of a number of data items that are to be displayed in the first area and comparing the number of data items with a predetermined threshold to identify the number of data items as being equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold; and

generate the user interface to include the first area and the second area, the generating of the second area being responsive to the identification of the number of data items as being equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold, the second area is included in the user interface based on the size of the first area and including the at least one user interface element that is selectable to browse the at least one data item.