Displaying links at varying levels of prominence to reveal emergent paths based on user interaction

• US 8,225,195 B1
• Filed: 07/21/2005
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bryar, Colin M, Bezos, Jeffrey P, Tesler, Lawrence G
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Faber, David
• Application Number:
  US11/186,357
• Time in Patent Office: 2,553 Days
• Field of Search: 715200-207, 715/234, 715/745, 715/760
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Links in a system may be displayed at varying prominence based on user interaction with the links. Link paths chosen by users become apparent by virtue of display prominence of the links. A link may be displayed with greater or lesser prominence corresponding to the propensity of users to interact with the link. Prominence values that affect a prominence at which links are displayed may be modified based on user interaction information. Prominence values may further automatically decay, possibly over time or according to user interaction with the links. Using and modifying prominence values in this manner, links that emerge with greater prominence may form one or more “paths” that users can readily follow. Much as in the natural world where pheromones deposited by ants attract other ants to desirable paths, user interaction information can be advantageously used to automatically identify more desirable link paths to a resource.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for affecting a display of links in a computing system having resources with links to other resources, comprising:

under control of instructions that are executed by one or more computing devices;

for each link path in a set of link paths, receiving information concerning user interaction with the link path by one or more users, wherein;

the set of link paths contains two or more link paths,

each link path comprises a collection of links that collectively provide a traversable path to a final resource such that, in the collection of links, each link is at an intermediate resource and each link leads to another link in the collection of links until a final link in the collection of links leads to the final resource, wherein the collection of links is defined according to user interaction with the collection of links, and wherein at least two links in the collection of links are not otherwise pre-associated, and

prominence data is associated with each link path, the prominence data reflecting user interaction with the link path;

automatically modifying a display of each link path in the set of link paths so that the link paths in the set of link paths that experience more user interaction are displayed with greater prominence than the link paths in the set of link paths that experience less user interaction; and

configuring the prominence data to automatically decay.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence at which each link in a first link path of the set of link paths is to be displayed is modified relative to the prominence at which links not in the first link path are to be displayed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the prominence at which each link in the first link path is to be displayed is increased relative to the prominence at which links not in the first link path are to be displayed.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the prominence at which each link in the first link path is to be displayed is decreased relative to a prominence at which links not in the first link path are to be displayed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is repeated on a continuous basis.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the display of a first link path in the set of link paths is automatically modified when the received information concerning user interaction with the first link path indicates a user has interacted with the first link path so as to traverse the first link path to the final resource.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically defining a link path based on the user interaction information, and associating prominence data therewith.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically deleting link paths, and prominence data associated therewith, based on diminished user interaction with the links in the link path.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence data decays over time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence data decays exponentially.

11. The method of claim 1, where n the prominence data decays linearly.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence data decays logarithmically.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence data automatically decays according to the user interaction information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein links in each link path are displayed in a display of a resource based on prominence data that decays according to instances of user access to said resource.

46. The method of claim 1, wherein the prominence data associated with a link path is automatically modified so that the prominence at which the link path is to be displayed is modified.

15. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a display of links at varying prominence in a computing system, comprising:

under control of instructions that are executed by one or more computing devices;

for each link path in a set of link paths, associating prominence values with the link path, wherein a link path corresponds to a traversable path to a final resource that is represented by a collection of links containing two or more links in the computing system, wherein each link in the link path is at an intermediate resource and leads to another link in the link path until a final link in the link path leads to the final resource, wherein the link path is defined according to user interaction with the link path, wherein at least two links in the link path are not otherwise pre-associated, and wherein the prominence values affect a prominence at which the links in the link path are displayed;

receiving information concerning user interaction with a first link path in the set of paths;

automatically modifying the prominence value of a second link path in the set of link paths based on the received user interaction information concerning user interaction with the first link path; and

causing the prominence values associated with the link paths in the set of link paths to automatically decay.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying the prominence value of the first link path to increase the prominence of the first link path while modifying the prominence value of the second link path to decrease the prominence of the second link path.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the second link path has two or more prominence values associated therewith, and the prominence value of the second link path that is modified depends on the received user interaction information.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each prominence value of the second link path affects a different display parameter when the link is displayed.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the second link path is displayed in accordance with a prominence value chosen based on a context in which the link path is to be displayed.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the prominence value of the second link path decays according to a methodology that is different from a decay methodology for the prominence value of the first link path.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the second link path has two or more prominence values associated therewith, and each prominence value of the second link path is modified based on the received user interaction information.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying the prominence value of the second link path, differently based on an identification of a user associated with the user interaction information.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising modifying the prominence value of the second link path differently based on a timing of the user'"'"'s interaction with the first link.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein user interaction information is received from a first user and the prominence data of the second link path is modified to affect a display of the link path to a user other than the first user.

25. A tangible non-transitory computer-accessible medium having instructions stored thereon for facilitating a display of links at varying prominence in a computing system, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the computing system, direct the computing system to:

for each link path in a set of link paths, associate a prominence value with the link paths, wherein each link path comprises a collection of links that collectively provide a traversable path to a final resource, wherein each link in a link path is at an intermediate resource and leads to another link in the link path until a final link in the link path leads to the final resource, wherein each link path is defined according to user interaction with the link path, wherein at least two links in the link path are not otherwise pre-associated, and wherein the prominence value of the link path affects a prominence at which the link path is displayed; and

receive information concerning user interaction with a first link path in the set of link paths; and

automatically modify the prominence value associated with the first link path based on the received information so that a prominence at which the first link path is displayed is modified;

wherein the prominence value of each link path is automatically decayed.

26. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, wherein the prominence value of each link path is automatically decayed over time.

27. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, wherein the prominence value of each link path is automatically decayed according to the user interaction information.

47. The computer-accessible medium of claim 25, wherein the prominence value associated with a link path is automatically modified so that the prominence at which the link path is displayed is modified.

28. A computer-implemented method for exposing, from a plurality of links, a link path forming a desirable path to a final destination, the method comprising:

under control of instructions that are executed by one or more computing devices;

tracking user interaction with a plurality of link paths, wherein each link path within said plurality of link paths forms a path to the final destination, wherein each link path contains two or more links, wherein each link in each link path is at an intermediate destination and leads to another link in the link path until a final link in the link path leads to the final destination, wherein each link path is defined according to user interaction with the link path, and wherein at least two links in the link path are not otherwise pre-associated; and

as user interaction with the plurality of link paths is tracked, adjusting a prominence of a first link path that includes a link with which a user interacts, so that each link in the first link path forming a desirable path to the final destination is displayed with greater prominence;

wherein the prominence of the first link path forming a desirable path to the final destination automatically decays.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the link paths forming less desirable paths to the final destination are displayed with lesser prominence than the link paths forming a desirable path to the final destination.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein link paths forming less desirable paths to the final destination are displayed with varying prominence.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the link paths forming less desirable paths to the final destination are displayed with decreasing prominence.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising deleting a link path based on diminished user interaction with the links in the link path.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein said prominence automatically decays over time.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein said prominence automatically decays exponentially.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein said prominence automatically decays linearly.

36. The method of claim 28, wherein said prominence automatically decays logarithmically.

37. The method of claim 28, wherein said prominence automatically decays according to tracked user interaction.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein a link path with which a user interacts is displayed in a display of a resource, and wherein the prominence of said link path when displayed decays according to instances of user access to said resource.

39. The method of claim 28, wherein tracking user interaction includes tracking interaction of substantially all users of a system in which the plurality of link paths is operable.

40. The method of claim 28, wherein tracking user interaction includes tracking interaction of a subset of users of a system in which the plurality of link paths is operable.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the subset of users is self-defined by the users.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the subset of users is automatically defined based on tracked user interaction.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the subset of users is defined by geographic locale of the users.

44. The method of claim 40, wherein the subset of users is defined by user affiliation with a known organization.

45. The method of claim 28, further comprising storing in a local memory at least a portion of a resource that may be accessed upon user interaction with a link path forming a desirable path to the final destination.

48. The method of claim 28, wherein the prominence associated with a link path is adjusted so that the link path forming the path to the final destination is displayed with greater prominence.