Patent ID: 7895078

Claim:
An apparatus for user-driven data network communication, comprising: a storage medium storing a plurality of user portfolios including a first user portfolio; and a processor in communication with the storage medium and a user browser, the processor executing instructions causing the apparatus to: allow a first user accessing at least one of a portal and a web site via the user browser and the data network to update the first user portfolio which is associated with the first user and including information which relates to messages of at least one of a content providing entity and a specified content type, which the first user is interested in viewing, and the information is updated by transmitting messages directly from the user browser; and cause the user browser to display a page to the first user, the page including a predefined space, which based on the information in the first user portfolio, alternatively displays user-specific messages and non-user-specific messages, wherein the page content is displayed without changing a size of the predefined space to display the user-specific messages.