The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 28, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 14, 2000
Tom A. Sponheim, Seattle, WA (US);
Bella Acharya, Kirkland, WA (US);
Jack Litewka, Seattle, WA (US);
Jamie A. Spooner, Redmond, WA (US);
William A. Spencer, Redmond, WA (US);
Stephen H. Buroker, Issaquah, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
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.