Patent ID: 7266835

Claim:
A method, comprising: presenting a ticker having a screen interface on a portion of a display screen capable to display a television program, the ticker comprising a focus area and a plurality of advertisements being automatically scrolled into and out of the focus area, the ticker further comprising a ticker user interface (UI) to generate the focus area and a scroll region that presents the plurality of advertisements and to provide a navigation control to select that advertisement presented within the scroll region; a ticker application program interface (API) in communication with the ticker UI to control presentation of a security indicator by the ticker UI and to provide the plurality of advertisements to the ticker UI; and a security application in communication with the ticker API to establish a secure connection between the ticker API and a remote location, the security application being configured to instruct the ticker API to control the ticker UI to present the security indicator if the secure connection is established, the security application further being configured to encrypt and decrypt information exchanged between the ticker API and the remote location; automatically scrolling an advertisement for an item into the focus area of the ticker; if a user responds to the advertisement by activating a specifically-designated control on a user input device when the advertisement is within the focus area, initiating a transaction related to the item with the user within the screen interface of the ticker; and securely conducting at least a portion of the transaction with the user within the screen interface of the ticker.