Method and apparatus for abstracting internet content

• US 8,316,307 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walter, Edward, Pearson, Larry B.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US11/549,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20080092056A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,230 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/739, 715/745, 715/744, 715/747, 715/734, 715/735, 715/736, 715/771
• US Class Current: 715/739
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A method and apparatus for abstracting Internet content is disclosed. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a terminal device having a User Interface (UI) element that links a Graphical User Interface (GUI) element to each Internet resource identifier (IRI) of one or more subject matters of interest defined in a profile by an end user, and presents said one or more GUI elements in a GUI window without association to an Internet browser. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium in a terminal device, comprising computer instructions to:

present a group of subject matters of interest without identifying content providers associated with the group of subject matters of interest, wherein the subject matters of interest include a subject identifier;

establish a profile based on a selection of one or more subject matters of interest from the group of subject matters of interest, each of the selected one or more subject matters of interest being associated with a corresponding Internet resource identifier (IRI) by the terminal device;

link a Graphical User Interface (GUI) element to each IRI of the selected one or more subject matters of interest; and

present the one or more GUI elements in a GUI window without association to an Internet browser.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to present the one or more GUI elements without identifying the corresponding IRI and without identifying a corresponding content provider.

3. The storage medium of claim 2, wherein each of the corresponding content providers is determined based on a pre-existing agreement to provide content for at least a portion of subject matters of interest from the group of subject matters of interest, wherein the pre-existing agreement is between the corresponding content provider and a communication service provider of the terminal device.

4. The storage medium of claim 3, comprising computer instructions to:

present a location field with the profile;

identify location data supplied by the end user in the location field; and

select at least one among the plurality of subject matters of interest and the one or more alert options according to the location data supplied by the end user.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to establish in the profile one or more alert options triggered by one or more event signals associated with the selected one or more subject matters of interest, wherein the one or more event signals are sourced by a third party source;

wherein the one or more alert options comprise asserting a first alert signal at the terminal device, and at least one among transmitting a second alert signal to a communication device and transmitting a third alert signal to a multimedia device in the form of an Internet Protocol TV.

6. The storage medium of claim 5, wherein the first alert signal performs at least one among a group of tasks, and wherein the group of tasks comprise computer instructions to modify a GUI element corresponding to an alert option associated with the first alert signal, assert an audible alert, and assert a visual alert.

7. The storage medium of claim 5, wherein the multimedia device comprises an IP-TV device, wherein the communication device comprises one among a pager, a wireline phone, a wireless phone, and a computing device, and wherein the second alert signal corresponds to at least one among a page, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an email, and a voice message.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more subject matters of interest correspond to at least one among a group of subject matters comprising sports, news, weather, finances, business, health, entertainment, education, politics, law, science, and technology, and wherein the IRI comprises at least one among a domain name, the domain name and a corresponding port number, an IP address, and the IP address and a corresponding port number.

9. A terminal device, comprising a User Interface (UI) element to;

link a Graphical User Interface (GUI) element to each Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of one or more subject matters of interest defined in a profile based on a selection by an end user,

present said one or more GUI elements in a GUI window without association to an Internet browser, wherein the UI element presents the profile with the one or more subject matters of interest without access to corresponding predefined URIs and without identifying corresponding content providers associated with the predefined URIs, and

establish the profile of the one or more subject matters of interest in response to a selection made by the end user from the one or more subject matters of interest, wherein the selection is made without access to the corresponding content providers associated with the predefined URIs.

10. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the UI element establishes in the profile one or more alert options triggered by one or more events associated with the one or more subject matters of interest, and wherein the one or more alert options comprise an assertion of a first alert signal at the terminal device, a transmission of a second alert signal to a communication device, and a transmission of a third alert signal to multimedia device.

11. The terminal device of claim 10, wherein the first alert signal performs at least one among a group of tasks comprising modifying a GUI element corresponding to an alert option associated with the first alert signal, asserting an audible alert, and asserting a visual alert.

12. The terminal device of claim 10, wherein the multimedia device comprises an IP-TV device, wherein the communication device comprises one among a pager, a wireline phone, a wireless phone, and a computing device, and wherein the second alert signal corresponds to at least one among a page, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an email, and a voice message.

13. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein each of the corresponding content providers is determined based on a pre-existing agreement to provide content for at least a portion of the one or more subject matters of interest, wherein the pre-existing agreement is between the corresponding content provider and a communication service provider of the terminal device.

14. The terminal device of claim 9, wherein the UI element presents a location field with the profile, identifies location data supplied by the end user in the location field, and selects the plurality of subject matters of interest according to the location data supplied by the end user.

15. A method in a terminal device, comprising:

presenting at the terminal device a plurality of subject matters of interest without access to corresponding predefined Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and without identifying corresponding content providers associated with the predefined URLs;

establishing in a profile one or more subject matters of interest selected by an end user from the plurality of subject matters of interest;

linking a Graphical User Interface (GUI) element to each predefined URL of the one or more subject matters of interest selected; and

presenting said one or more GUI elements in a GUI window without association to an Internet browser.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising establishing in the profile one or more alert options triggered by one or more events associated with the one or more subject matters of interest.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more alert options comprise asserting a first alert signal at the terminal device, transmitting a second alert signal to a communication device, and transmitting a third alert signal to multimedia device.

18. The method of claim 16, comprising:

presenting through the one or more GUI elements a portion of Internet content associated with the corresponding URL of said GUI elements; and

presenting a GUI window in response to a selection of the one or more GUI elements with full access to the Internet content associated with the URL of the selected GUI element.

19. The method of claim 15, comprising presenting said one or more GUI elements in the GUI window without identifying the corresponding content providers and the predefined URLs.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the corresponding content providers is determined based on a pre-existing agreement to provide content for at least a portion of subject matters of interest from the plurality of subject matters of interest, wherein the pre-existing agreement is between the corresponding content provider and a communication service provider of the terminal device.