Patent ID: 7353460

Claim:
A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for enabling a user of a linked web-page system to navigate through the linked web-page system in accordance with a hierarchical menu structure, said hierarchical menu structure comprising: an uppermost top-level; I top-level categories denoted as T( 1 ), T( 2 ), . . . , T(I), wherein I≧2, and wherein the uppermost top-level is divided into the I top level categories; J i sub-level categories associated with top-level category T(i), wherein J i is a function of i, wherein J i ≧1, and wherein the J i sub-level categories are denoted as S(i, 1 ), S(i, 2 ), . . . , S(i,J i ), for i=1, 2, . . . , I; and K ij menu items held by sub-level category S(i,j), wherein K ij is a function of i and j, wherein K ij ≧1, wherein the K ij menu items are denoted as M(i,j, 1 ), M(i,j, 2 ), . . . , M(i,j,K ij ), and wherein the menu item M(i,j,k) is linked to a web page W(i,j,k), for i=1, 2, . . . , I and j=1, 2, . . . , J i and k=1, 2, . . . , K ij , said computer code comprising an algorithm adapted to generate, on a display screen of a computer display device, a display of a navigational state (α,β,γ) of the hierarchical menu structure, said display comprising a simultaneous depiction of: (T( 1 ), T( 2 ), . . . , T(I)), (S(α,β), (M(α,β,γ), γ=1, 2, . . . , K αβ ), β=1, 2, . . . , J α ), and W(α, β,γ), wherein α is selected from the group consisting of 1, 2, . . . , and I, wherein β is selected fiom the group consisting of 1, 2, . . . , and J α , and wherein γ selected from the group consisting of 1, 2, . . . , and K αβ , wherein the display comprises a top-level area, a sub-level area, and a web-page area, wherein the top-level area comprises the depiction of (T( 1 ), T( 2 ), . . . , T(I)), wherein the sub-level area comprises the depiction of (S(α,β), (M(α,β,γ), γ=1, 2, . . . , K αβ ), β=1, 2, . . . , J α ), wherein the web-page area comprises the depiction of W(α,β,γ), and wherein if the user selects a next top-level category α 1 such that α 1 differs from α but does not select a next menu item, then the algorithm is adapted to: select a web page W(α 1 ,_, _) in accordance with navigational persistence, wherein the underscore string _,_ appearing in W(α 1 , _, _) denotes that a sub-level category and menu item have not yet been selected following selection of the next top-level category α 1 ; and refresh the web-page area with the web page W(α 1 ,_, _).