Network user database for a sidebar

Abstract

Sidebars group a plurality of Internet and other services in one easily accessible location on the desktop. In one embodiment, a user's sidebar preferences, such as, for example, the types of applications modules that populate their sidebar are stored by an Internet content provider on a network server. A user can access their personal sidebar preferences from any computer with an Internet connection. In addition, in one embodiment, application module information loaded into the application modules is also stored on a server, thus changes made in a sidebar are reflected in their “full service” counterpart applications.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This disclosure is directed to computers and computer applications and, more particularly, to methods and systems of providing a software tool that acts as an application aggregator for access to existing applications and that also adds additional features and functions, which in one embodiment, can be presented as a sidebar, the sidebar comprises a plurality of applications, such as, for example, Internet services and other computer applications.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Many Internet content providers, such as, for example, Yahoo!, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., offer a large number of Internet services, such as, for example, searching, email, news, photo sharing, maps, finance, weather, calendars, address books, instant messaging and a plurality of other services. In order to offer these services to a user in a centralized manner, Internet content providers have created software programs that act as application aggregators that can be displayed on a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0071]The Internet allows people to connect and share thoughts in a number of different ways. For example, social networking communities allow users to add friends to their network, and thereby connected to many other people through their friends' friends. Social networking websites allow their users to post blogs, photos, blasts, and other media that a user wants to share with their group of friends, such as Yahoo! 360, offered by Yahoo! Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. Another example of a community network is an online photo sharing website. Photos are assigned tags and posted to a user's photo site. Other users can search for photos by user, group or tag. They can also comment on the photo. Yet another example of a community network is a review network. People know their friends tastes, so they can trust a friend's review more than another person's review. Many of these community networks provide email updates when a user's friend makes a new post. Vitality is an application module that, in one embodiment, seeks out updates to a user's community networks and lists them in a sidebar. Thus, the user can stay current with all their community networks without having to visit a number of different websites.

Problems solved by technology

Present sidebars do not fully utilize the potential of the UDB, however.

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