Systems and methods for browsing multimedia content on small mobile devices

A computer-implemented method to support multimedia content browsing on a mobile device, comprising:

• rendering a keyword query user interface in a first area of a display screen of the mobile device;
• searching for and retrieving two or more multimedia contents from a multimedia content database based on user input received through the keyword query user interface of the mobile device;
• transmitting the two or more multimedia contents over a communication network to the mobile device;
• rendering the multimedia contents in a second area of the display screen, wherein the multimedia contents are rendered on overlapping content layers within the second area of the display screen, the content layers comprising a first content layer that renders query results, a second content layer that renders keyframes, and a third content layer that renders videos, wherein the content layers always overlap each other in totality throughout the entire area of the second area of the display screen;
• rendering a video controller in a third area of the display screen;
• and
• receiving user input from an input device on a widget layer rendered on the display screen, the transparent widget layer being completely transparent within the display screen until activated by a user, wherein the transparent widget layer independently, interactively and continuously adjusts the degree of transparency of two or more of the content layers via an input device, wherein transparency values for the content layers comprise continuous gradient values between 0.0 and 1.0, a content layer having a transparency value of 0.0 being completely transparent and a content layer having a transparency value of 1.0 being completely opaque.

A machine readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon that when executed cause a system to:

• render a keyword query text box in a first area of a display screen of the mobile device;
• search for and retrieve two or more multimedia contents from a multimedia content database based on user input received through the keyword query text box of the mobile device;
• transmit the two or more multimedia contents over a communication network to the mobile device;
• render the multimedia contents in a second area of the display screen, wherein the multimedia contents are rendered on overlapping content layers within the second area of the display screen, the content layers comprising a first content layer that renders query results, a second content layer that renders keyframes, and a third content layer that renders videos, wherein the content layers always overlap each other in totality throughout the entire area of the second area of the display screen;
• render a video controller in a third area of the display screen;
• and
• receive user input from an input device on a widget layer rendered on the display screen, the transparent widget layer being completely transparent within the display screen until activated by a user, wherein the transparent widget layer independently, interactively and continuously adjusts the degree of transparency of two or more of the content layers via an input device, wherein transparency values for the content layers comprise continuous gradient values between 0.0 and 1.0, a content layer having a transparency value of 0.0 being completely transparent and a content layer having a transparency value of 1.0 being completely opaque.