Patent ID: 7870250

Claim:
A method in a Web portal environment for modifying a hierarchical navigation topology, wherein said hierarchical navigation topology includes interconnected nodes, wherein a Web portal page in said hierarchical navigation topology corresponds to a predetermined level in said hierarchical navigation topology, and wherein said Web portal page displays at least one portlet, the method comprising: during navigation by a user of said hierarchical navigation topology including said Web portal, automatically sensing information about the navigational behavior of said user for each Web page visited during said user navigation; calculating a number of page hits and a number of page target hits from said sensed information, wherein a page hit is defined as a first click to a page and a subsequent click being done within a first predetermined time range after said first click, and wherein a page target hit is defined as a first click to a page and a subsequent click being done after a second predetermined time range after said first click has passed; using at least one predefined metric based on said sensed information for generating a utility ranking for each said Web page visited during said user navigation; defining a user-specific topology based on a prioritization of said ranked Web pages, wherein higher ranked Web pages are arranged in relatively higher topology levels, wherein said prioritization of web pages is based on predetermined utility thresholds, and comprises promoting a node within said topology to a higher level if its utility threshold exceeds a given level-specific value and demoting a node within said topology to a lower level if its utility threshold is lower than said given level-specific value; and displaying said user-specific topology to said user after a subsequent log-in to said Web portal.