Apparatus and methods for organizing and/or presenting data

• US 20070011146A1
• Filed: 08/17/2005
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Kooltorch LLC
• Inventors: Holbrook, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,493,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method for providing a graphical user interface for displaying search results includes displaying a graphical representation of search results and parent categories for such search results, wherein individually graphically displayed search results appear within their respective parent categories, each search result representing an item of merchandise and each parent category relating to the type of merchandise included within such parent category.

Claims

1. A method, for use in a user computer system including a pointing device and a visual display unit, for providing a graphical user interface to a computer program for displaying search results from a search conducted in a hierarchical database having data elements relating to merchandise for sale, the method comprising:

receiving search results from a search query of the hierarchical database;

displaying on a user screen, a graphical representation of search results and parent categories for such search results, wherein individually graphically displayed search results appear within their respective individually graphically displayed parent categories, each search result representing an item of merchandise and each parent category relating to the type of merchandise included within such parent category; and

providing information relating to each respective displayed search result within the graphical representation of such displayed search result, such information including at least one among the price of the item represented by the search result, time remaining to bid on the item represented by the search result and another characteristic of the item represented by the search result;

providing additional information about each respective search result upon pointing to the graphical representation of such search result with the use of the pointing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical representations of the search results and parent categories are spacially-optimized to be capable of including at least fifty search results so that all displayed graphical representations are concurrently visible on a display unit.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical representations of the search results and parent categories are spacially-optimized to be capable of including up to one hundred search results so that all displayed graphical representations are concurrently visible on a display unit.

4. The method of claim 1, further including

from the user screen, selecting a distinct group of displayed search results and

displaying on the user screen the search results displayed in the selected group in the context of such search results'"'"' respective first uncommon level of subcategories, each such subcategory being individually graphically represented, wherein such search results are individually graphically displayed within their respective individually graphically displayed first uncommon level of subcategories.

5. A computer-implemented method for representing and allowing the navigation of database search results, the database search results including a plurality of data elements, each data element having at least one characteristic, the computer-implemented method comprising:

on a single page,

displaying the plurality of data elements in groups based upon the commonality of at least one characteristic among the data elements in each such group, each data element being represented by a distinct symbol and each group being represented by a distinct symbol;

providing at least one item of information about each data element within its respective symbol,

providing at least one item of information about each separate group within its respective symbol,

for each group, providing a hyperlink to a distinct second level page showing the data elements of such group displayed in sub-groups based upon the commonality of at least one characteristic among the data elements in each such sub-group; and

on each page, providing a hyperlink to each data element shown on such page.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the group symbols and data element symbols are spacially-optimized on each respective page to be capable of including at least fifty data element symbols on such page and all such symbols are concurrently visible on a display unit.

7. A computer-implemented method for representing a plurality of data elements on a first web page and being capable of representing particular subsets of the data elements on additional respective web pages, each data element having at least one characteristic, the computer-implemented method comprising:

on the first web page, providing a data element symbol for each data element of the plurality of data elements;

on the first web page, arranging the plurality of data element symbols into a first set of groups based upon the commonality of at least one characteristic of each data element included in each respective group;

if it is desired to display, in separate groups, the data elements of any group among the first set of groups,

providing a second level web page that includes the data element symbols of such group separated into a second set of groups based upon the commonality of at least one characteristic of each data element included in each respective group of such second set of groups, and

hyper-linking the first web page to each second level web page; and

if it is desired to display, in separate groups, the data elements of any group among any of the second set of groups,

providing a third level web page that includes the data element symbols of such group separated into a third set of groups based upon the commonality of at least one characteristic of each data element included in each respective group of such third set of groups, and

hyper-linking each second level web page with its corresponding third level web pages.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein each data element symbol includes at least a first item of information about the data element it represents, further including providing at least a second item of information about each data element upon at least one among moving a mouse cursor over the corresponding data element symbol and clicking on the corresponding data element symbol.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further including providing a group symbol with each group, each group symbol indicating at least one common characteristic of the respective data elements included in such group, and wherein each group symbol provides information about the group it represents upon moving a mouse cursor over the group symbol.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further including providing the hyper-links between the web pages at the group symbols.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the data element symbols are spacially optimized on each respective web page.