| Method for creating entries in an on-line database in a user-defined category -> Monitor Keywords |
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Method for creating entries in an on-line database in a user-defined categoryRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Database And File Management Or Data Structures, Database Schema Or Data Structure, Generating Database Or Data Structure (e.g., Via User Interface)Method for creating entries in an on-line database in a user-defined category description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060195469, Method for creating entries in an on-line database in a user-defined category. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/703,823, filed Nov. 7, 2003, which is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/952,985, filed Sep. 14, 2001, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/110,708, filed Jul. 7, 1998, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,538, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/572,543, filed Dec. 14, 1995, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,367. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to on-line services, particularly to services for the World Wide Web. [0004] 2. State of the Art [0005] The Internet, and in particular the content-rich World Wide Web ("the Web"), have experienced and continue to experience explosive growth. The Web is an Internet service that organizes information using hypermedia. Each document can contain embedded reference to images, audio, or other documents. A user browses for information by following references. Web documents are specified in HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a computer language used to specify the contents and format of a hypermedia document (e.g., a homepage). HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the protocol used to access a Web document. [0006] Part of the beauty of the Web is that it allows for the definition of device-, system-, and application-independent electronic content. The details of how to display or play back that content on a particular machine within a particular software environment are left to individual web browsers. The content itself, however, need only be specified once. In some sense, then, the Web offers the ultimate in cross-platform capability. [0007] Pre-existing collections of information, however, such as databases of various kinds, can rarely be placed directly on the Web. Rather, gateway programs are used to provide access to a wide variety of information and services that would otherwise be inaccessible to Web clients and servers. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) specification has emerged as a standard way to extend the services and capabilities of a Web server having a defined core functionality. CGI "scripts" are used for this purpose. CGI provides an Application Program Interface, supported by CGI-capable Web servers, to which programmers can write to extend the functionality of the server. CGI scripts in large part produce from non-HTTP objects HTTP objects that a Web client can render, and also produce from HTTP objects non-HTTP input to be passed on to another program or a separate server, e.g., a conventional database server. More information concerning the CGI specification may be accessed using the following Universal Resource Locator (URL): http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interfac.html [0008] With the explosive growth of the Web, fueled in part by the extensibility provided by CGI scripts, the need for "finding aids" for the Web, i.e., tools to allow one to find information concerning a topic of interest, has grown acute. Many hardcopy volumes are presently available that are represented to be "White Pages" or "Yellow Pages" for the Web. Of course, hard copy information becomes rapidly out of date, and in the case of the Web, is out of date before it is even printed (let alone distributed), in the sense of failing to list many interesting resources newly made available on the Web. [0009] The only effective solution is to have such finding aids be on-line, available on the Web itself. One such finding aid is a class of software tools called search engines. Search engines rely on automated Web-traversing programs called robots or spiders that follow link after link around the Web, cataloging documents and storing the information for transmission to a parent database, where the information is sifted, categorized, and stored. When a search engine is run, the database compiled through the efforts of the robots and spiders is searched using a database management system. Using keywords or search terms provided by the user, the database locates matches and possibly near-matches as well. [0010] An example of one such search engine is known as Yahoo, offered by Yahool Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., and may be accessed at the URL http://www.yahoo.com. Persons having pages on the Web, rather than simply waiting to have their Web page be found by a robot or spider, can also have their Web page listed in the Yahoo database by providing information concerning the resource they wish to list and paying a fee. The result is an on-line-searchable directory of Web resources that is regularly updated. [0011] While such services are indeed extremely useful, nevertheless, from the standpoint of a person wishing to publicize their Web site, they are typically attended by a number of drawbacks. In particular, the person wishing to publicize their Web site typically has very limited control of the content of the resulting listing. Submissions, including textual description and suggested categories, are often subjected to editorial control that may range from strict to arbitrary. As a result, a listing may be placed under an entirely different category from the category intended by the person making the submission. Furthermore, the textual description may be heavily edited (in some instances almost beyond recognition)--or even deleted--depending on the exaction of the editor. Because of this editorial process, posting of the listing is not immediate. Furthermore, once the listing has been posted to the database, if the person making the listing later wishes to change the listing in some respect, the change must again pass through the same laborious channel. Hence, the process of adding and updating listings is inconvenient and unsatisfactory. [0012] Moreover, the nature of the listing is rather prosaic. The listing is in title/brief-description format and does not include graphical elements or otherwise appeal to the artistic sensibilities of the viewer. In this sense, the listing is comparable to the standard telephone book listing, which appears in plain text, nothing added, as compared, say, to a quarter-page advertisement with custom artwork and the like. [0013] To use the foregoing service, one is required have a Web homepage. If a user has no Web presence but wishes to establish one, the foregoing service is entirely unavailable. The typical user must first establish a Web presence by paying a Web consultant to produce a homepage and then paying an Internet Service Provider to house that homepage on the Web. This undertaking can prove to be quite costly for an individual or a small business. [0014] What is needed, then, is an information service that overcomes the foregoing disadvantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] The present invention, generally speaking, uses a computer network and a database to provide a hardware-independent, dynamic information system in which the information content is entirely user-controlled. Requests are received from individual users of the computer network to electronically publish information, and input is accepted from the individual users. Entries from the users containing the information to be electronically published are automatically collected, classified and stored in the database in searchable and retrievable form. Entries are made freely accessible on the computer network. In response to user requests, the database is searched and entries are retrieved. Entries are served to users in a hardware-independent page description language. The entries are password protected, allowing users to retrieve and update entries by supplying a correct password. [0016] Preferably, the process is entirely automated with any necessary billing being performed by secure, on-line credit card processing. The user making a database entry has complete control of that entry both at the time the entry is made at any time thereafter. The entry, when served to a client, is transformed on-the-fly to the page description language. Where the page description language is HTML and the computer network is the World Wide Web, the entry may function as a "mini" homepage for the user that made the entry. Provision is made for graphics and other kinds of content besides text, taking advantage of the content-rich nature of the Web. [0017] Because the user controls both the content of an entry and the manner in which it is classified, the database functions as a directory to allow the Web public to quickly and precisely find current and accurate data about the user, the user's products and services, etc., without requiring the user to have a conventional Web homepage. The user's mini homepage can be included in many different categories, with the user having the flexibility to change the categories or the descriptive content of the page at any time. Preferably, hyperlink services are also provided, by including within the page links to an E-mail address or to one or more other conventional homepages (or other mini homepages). The E-mail address may be a private E-mail address established on the host machine, avoiding the need to obtain a conventional E-mail address. An inexpensive way is therefore provided to set up a Web site with key information that might otherwise be very costly to widely distribute, and to achieve an Internet presence with a minimum of effort and expense. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0018] The present invention may be further understood from the following description in conjunction with the appended drawing. In the drawing: [0019] FIGS. 1A and 1B are simplified block diagrams of alternative embodiments of the system of the present invention; [0020] FIG. 2A through FIG. 2T are screen shots showing use of the system and method of the present invention; Continue reading about Method for creating entries in an on-line database in a user-defined category... 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