US 6,639,610 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for assigning URLs to graphical objects in a web page

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsTom A. Sponheim, Bella Acharya, Jack Litewka, Jamie A. Spooner, William A. Spencer, Stephen H. Buroker

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Abstract

Methods and a data structure for assigning URLs (e.g., to radio-station-streaming-media-content sources) to graphical objects (such as buttons) are disclosed. In one aspect of the present invention, zip codes are used to identify and assign geographically relevant URLs to buttons. In a second aspect of the invention, a graphical user interface enables a user to select from a plurality of radio buttons and menu entries in order to identify search results satisfying the user's selection, criteria. In a third aspect of this invention, search results are displayed in an IFRAME so that the Web page need not be replotted each time the server identifies URLs satisfying the user selection criteria. In a fourth aspect of this invention, information identifying a user's button assignments or preferences (such as the user's zip code) is store in various data fields in a cookie data structure. The computer-executable instructions use the information contained in the cookie data structure in order to assign the URL to the button each time the Web page is displayed.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

displaying a text box and at least one graphical object on a Web page;
allowing a zip code to be manually entered into said text box;
identifying, after the zip code has been entered, at least one URL geographically relevant to said zip code wherein said URL identifies a source of streaming-media content;
assigning said at least one URL to said at least one graphical object, wherein said URL identifies a source of streaming-media content, said source of streaming-media content is a radio station, and said radio station is geographically close to said zip code;
storing the zip code in a first data field of a cookie data structure, the first data field stored in a first region of a range of memory addresses on the computer-readable medium;
using the zip code contained in the cookie data structure in order to assign said at least one URL to said at least one graphical object each time the Web page is displayed;
replacing said text box on said Web page with at least one hyperlink, said hyperlink identifying the zip code that has been entered;
and
allowing user selection of the hyperlink in order to modify the zip code.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.