Mapping web sites based on significance of contact and category

At a computer system including a Web browser, a method for presenting a map of contacted Web sites, the method comprising:

• an act of determining that the Web browser has contacted a plurality of Web sites;
• an act of receiving key words for each of the plurality of contacted Web sites;
• an act of comparing the received key words for each of the plurality of contacted Websites to terms in a hierarchical category database;
• an act of assigning each of the plurality of contacted Web sites to a category included in the hierarchical category database based on the results of the comparisons;
• an act of visually displaying a categorized Web site map of the plurality of contacted Web sites, the Web site map including:
• for each of the assigned categories, visually displaying a category geometric shape representing the assigned category, the category geometric shape indicating a boundary for Web sites assigned to the assigned category relative to the category geometric shapes for other assigned categories;
• for each of the contacted Web sites, visually displaying a geometric shape navigable item for the contacted Web site within the boundaries of the category geometric shape representing the assigned category assigned to the contacted Web site so as to visually indicate assignment of the contacted Web site to the assigned category, each geometric shape navigable item being specific to a single one of the contacted Web sites, and each geometric shape navigable item containing representative content from the contacted Web site, the representative content being actual content from the contacted Web site, wherein the size of each geometric shape navigable item varies based on significance of contact with the contacted Web site so as to visually represent the significance of the contact with the contacted Web site, including increased size of geometric shape navigable items to indicate traversed Web sites having more significant contact and reduced size of geometric shape navigable items to indicate traversed Web sites having less significant contact, such that the geometric shape navigable items for the traversed Web sites are simultaneously displayable with varying sizes of geometric shape navigable items each corresponding to a single Web site to thereby indicate significance of contact with the respective traversed Web site.

A computer program product for use at a computer system including a Web browser, the computer program product for implementing a method for presenting a map of contacted Web sites, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method including the following:

• determine that the Web browser has contacted a plurality of Web sites;
• receive key words for each of the plurality of contacted Web sites;
• compare the received key words for each of the plurality of contacted Websites to terms in a hierarchical category database;
• assign each of the plurality of contacted Web sites to a category included in the hierarchical category database based on the results of the comparisons;
• visual displaying a categorized Web site map of the plurality of contacted Web sites, the Web site map including:
• for each of the assigned categories, visually display a category geometric shape representing the assigned category, the category geometric shape indicating a boundary for Web sites assigned to the assigned category relative to the category geometric shapes for other assigned categories;
• for each of the contacted Web sites, visually display a geometric shape navigable item for the contacted Web site contained within the boundaries of the category geometric shape representing the assigned category assigned to the contacted Web site, each geometric shape navigable item being specific to a single one of the contacted Web sites, and each geometric shape navigable item containing representative content from the contacted Web site, the representative content being actual content from the contacted Web site, wherein the size of each geometric shape navigable item varies based on significance of contact with the contacted Web site so as to visually represent the significance of the contact with the contacted Web site including increased size of geometric shape navigable items to indicate traversed Web sites having more significant contact and reduced size of geometric shape navigable items to indicate traversed Web sites having less significant contact, such that the geometric shape navigable items for the traversed Web sites are simultaneously displayable with varying sizes of geometric shape navigable items each corresponding to a single Web site to thereby indicate significance of contact with the respective traversed Web site.