GB2364225A

GB2364225A - Graphical user interface for the display of internet hyperlinks

Info

Publication number: GB2364225A
Application number: GB0015527A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Geoff Beacon; Robin Cousins
Original assignee: BEACON DODSWORTH Ltd
Current assignee: BEACON DODSWORTH Ltd
Priority date: 2000-06-26
Filing date: 2000-06-26
Publication date: 2002-01-16
Also published as: GB0015527D0

Abstract

A graphical user interface displays a list of internet hyperlinks 21 in a first screen area 2, and a map 10 including a plurality of geographic location indicators 11 in a second screen area 1. A geographic location associated with a website referenced by each of the internet hyperlinks 21 is determined, and this provides the position of the geographic location indicators 12 displayed on the map 10. Navigation of the graphical user interface can be made through the textual list in the first screen area 2, or through the pictorial representation in the second screen area 1, thereby providing an intuitive interface for the user.

Description

2364225 Graphical User Interface for the Display of Internet Hyperlinks

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a graphical user interface for displaying internet hyperlinks.

A problem has been identified in that the internet, being a text-based system, tends to produce lists of textual information in response to, for example, a search query Whilst users are able to navigate the internet using lists of textual based information, this form of user interface has been found to be generally counter- intuitive Further, there is a wide gulf between the virtual world of the internet, and the real world of its human users.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a user interface which makes the internet more readily navigable, preferably in a manner which is more intuitive to human users A further aim of the present invention is to provide an interface which provides a better link between the virtual world of the internet and real-world locations.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method comprising the step of determining a geographical location associated with a website referenced by an internet hyperlink.

Preferably the determining step is performed by searching the website referenced by the internet hyperlink for key geographical information Suitably, the key geographical information is a postal code (e g a postcode or zipcode), and/or a geographic name such as a place name or local administrative unit.

Also according to the present invention there is provided a method comprising the steps of (a) providing an internet hyperlink associated with a geographical location; and (b) providing a map including a geographic location indicator for representing the geographic location associated with the internet hyperlink.

Preferably the step (a) includes providing a list containing a plurality of internet hyperlinks each associated with at least one geographic location, and the step (b) includes associating a geographic location indicator on the map with each internet hyperlink according to the geographic locations.

Further according to the present invention there is provided a method comprising the steps (a) displaying a list of internet hyperlinks; (b) determining at least one geographic location associated with a website referenced by each of the internet hyperlinks; and (c) displaying a map including a plurality of geographic location indicators each associated with at least one of the internet hyperlinks according to the determined geographic locations.

Preferably, the method includes the step of updating the displayed list of internet hyperlinks to highlight at least one hyperlink corresponding to a selected geographic location indicator Preferably, the selected geographical location indicator is determined by the user such as by using a pointing device.

Further preferably the method includes the step of updating the map to highlight at least one of the geographic location indicators corresponding to a selected internet hyperlink Advantageously, the map is updated to highlight the or each geographic location indicator corresponding to the selected internet hyperlink to give a visual indication of the relevant geographic locations.

The present invention also extends to an apparatus for performing the method according to any statement herein.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how embodiments of the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic view of a graphical user interface at a first predetermined resolution; Figure 2 is a schematic view of the interface at a second resolution; and Figure 3 is a schematic view of the interface at a third resolution.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to example locations within the United Kingdom, but any suitable geographical location can be employed The preferred embodiments of the present invention aim to provide a greatly improved user interface for navigating the internet, which does not rely solely on textual based information Referring to Figure 1, the user's screen display is suitably split into two screen areas 1, 2 In the preferred embodiment these two screen areas 1, 2 are frames displayed side-by-side in a non-overlaying manner.

In other embodiments, the two frames 1, 2 are arranged to overlap partially or even wholly, with the user switching between the two frames as appropriate Other information may be presented to the user on the same screen, suitably in other frame areas.

A first screen area 1 is provided showing geographical mapping information In the illustrated embodiment of Figure 1 this map 10 is a realistic representation of Great Britain In other preferred embodiments a non-realistic, schematic map is employed At this stage, the second screen area 2 is empty In use, a geographical area of interest is selected by the user, suitably by clicking on selectors 11 graphically displayed over the map 10, such as the selector 11 labelled "Northern England" As a result, the display is re-drawn to a format illustrated in the example embodiment of Figure 2.

Referring to Figure 2, the first screen area 1 provides a geographical map 10 at a second level of resolution appropriate to the selected area One or more geographical location indicators 12 are distributed over the map 10 The second screen area 2 provides a list of internet hyperlinks 21, each associated with at least one of the geographical location indicators 12 such that each location indicator 12 represents a geographical location associated with at least one of the internet hyperlinks 21 In one practical example, the second screen area 2 provides a list of internet hyperlinks to websites concerning cinemas, whilst the first screen area 1 provides location indicators 12 representing the geographic location of the or each cinema mentioned in the referenced website Advantageously, the user can now obtain, in a graphical and intuitive manner, the geographical location or locations associated with each internet hyperlink 21 from the location indicators 12.

As shown in Figure 2, the first screen area 1 containing the map 10 is preferably placed on the left hand side of the screen, whilst the second screen area 2 containing textual information including the list of internet hyperlinks 21, is placed on the right hand side of the screen The inventors have found this arrangement to be particularly beneficial, following from the manner in which the left and right hemispheres of the brain process textual and graphical information, respectively.

In the preferred embodiments of the invention, the list of hyperlinks 21 in the second screen area 2 is updated to highlight one or more of those hyperlinks which correspond to a geographical location indicator 12 selected, for example, using a pointing device In the embodiment of Figure 2, each hyperlink is associated with a marker 22 which, for example, changes colour to highlight a selected hyperlink In the illustrated embodiment, by pointing at the geographical location indicator 12 a, the marker 22 associated with hyperlink 21 a is highlighted Other highlighting options will be apparent to the skilled person including, for example, changing the colour of the hyperlink, or its background, or making the hyperlink or its background flash.

Further, preferred embodiments of the present invention also provide a reverse linkage, such that when the user selects one of the internet hyperlinks 21 a, e g, using a pointing device, then the or each corresponding geographic location indicator 12 a is highlighted In the illustrated embodiment of Figure 2 the geographic location indicators 12 are highlighted by changing colour and/or making the indicator larger, and it will be seen that the selected indicator 12 a is large than others 12.

In preferred embodiments of the invention there is a one to one relationship between the internet hyperlinks 21 and the location indicators 12, or alternatively a one to many or many to one relationship as required to display the geographic location(s) appropriate to each internet hyperlink.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the map 10 includes at least three levels of resolution, although any suitable set of resolutions can be employed As discussed above for Figure 1, the map 10 preferably includes area selectors 11 such that the user may easily select a geographical area of interest However, any other control arrangement may be provided for moving between levels of resolution including, for example, control buttons, or a slider scale.

Referring now to Figure 3, a third level of resolution is illustrated The map 10 shows the geographical area around the city of York and the map 10 is provided with further geographical information such as a background or overlay 13 including, for example, roads and population centres In the example embodiment of Figure 3 the list of hyperlinks 21 each link to the website of companies selling alarms and security equipment Suitably, the list is restricted to websites associated with geographical locations falling within the geographical area covered by the map 10 at the selected resolution However, any suitable criteria may be used to select the list of internet hyperlinks 21 In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the list is returned from a textual search engine The internet hyperlinks 21 may take any suitable form including a simple textual label as illustrated, or alternatively a graphical icon Further, in common with prior art search engines, each internet hyperlink may include selected information about the hyperlink such as a relevance score and/or wording taken from the first page of the website referenced by the hyperlink, or from a meta header.

The second screen area 2 preferably provides group selectors 23 for selecting a group of internet hyperlinks 21 according to a specified criteria In the example embodiment of Figure 3 the group selectors 23 each select the internet hyperlinks based upon the postcode district containing the corresponding geographical location indicator 12 However, any suitable criteria may be employed.

The geographical location indicators 12 are suitably determined by searching for key geographical information in the web page or pages referenced by each internet hyperlink 21 One preferred embodiment of the invention uses postcodes or zipcodes as the key geographical information Other embodiments employ place names or similar geographic indicators such as local area administrative units Conveniently, the key geographical s information is obtained by searching only a meta header of the web page or pages referenced by the internet hyperlink, or alternatively the whole page or pages are searched.

In one preferred embodiment the resolution of the map is adjusted automatically depending upon the size of the list of internet hyperlinks 21 in the second screen area 2.

i 5 In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the area map 10 selected for displayed in the first screen area 1 and/or the list of internet hyperlinks 21 selected for display in the second screen area 2 is determined with reference to the geographical location of the user For example, the user may supply their postcode or a relevant place name In another example the user's location may be determined from a latitude and longitude calculation, and suitably such data is available from a global positioning system (GPS) In another preferred embodiment the location of the user is determined by triangulation of the location of a cellular communications signal, which is particularly useful where the user operates a WAP phone.

A method and apparatus have been described for displaying internet hyperlinks with reference to real world geographical locations in a manner which is convenient and intuitive for the user to understand, and operate.

The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

i 5 Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s) The invention extend to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

Claims

1 A method comprising the step of determining a geographical location associated with a website referenced by an internet hyperlink.

2 The method of claim 1, the determining step is performed by searching the website referenced by the internet hyperlink for key geographical information.

3 The method of claim 1 wherein the key geographical information is a postal code, and/or a geographic name.

4 A method comprising the steps of providing an internet hyperlink associated with a geographical location; and providing a map including a geographic location indicator for representing the geographic location associated with the internet hyperlink.

5 The method of claim 4, wherein the step (a) includes providing a list containing a plurality of internet hyperlinks each associated with at least one geographic location, and the step (b) includes associating a geographic location indicator on the map with each internet hyperlink according to the geographic locations.

6 A method comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying a list of internet hyperlinks; (b) determining at least one geographic location associated with a website referenced by each of the internet hyperlinks; and (c) displaying a map including a plurality of geographic location indicators each associated with at least one of the internet hyperlinks according to the determined geographic locations.

7 The method of claim 6, including the step of updating the displayed list of internet hyperlinks to highlight at least one hyperlink corresponding to a selected geographic location indicator.

8 The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the selected geographical location indicator is determined by the user such as by using a pointing device.

9 The method of claim 6, 7 or 8, comprising the step of updating the map to highlight at least one of the geographic location indicators corresponding to a selected internet hyperlink.