Patent ID: 7788597

Claim:
A computer system having a display device for rendering a graphical user interface of a Web browser displaying Web page content in a browser pane, and having at least one speaker for playing streaming media, the graphical user interface of the Web browser comprising: a) a radio toolbar displaying radio-toolbar buttons for controlling the streaming media irrespective of the Web page content being browsed, the radio-toolbar buttons including: i) a play/stop button enabled to toggle between play and stop to control, respectively, playing and stopping of available streaming media, and disabled when streaming media is unavailable; ii) a mute button for instructing the Web browser to silence streaming media, the mute button assuming an inactive state if the computer system cannot modify volume and an active state otherwise; iii) a volume slider for controlling the volume of streaming media played over the speaker, the volume slider assuming an inactive state if the computer system cannot modify volume and an active state otherwise; iv) a radio-stations button selectable to alter a source of streaming media by providing a drop-down list that includes an “add station to favorites” entry and a list of recently used radio stations; and v) an information area displaying a status text component and a status icon component, the status text component presenting meta data information associated with a streaming media source, the status icon component presenting an Internet connection status regarding the streaming media source; and b) a cursor controllable by a user to select the radio-toolbar buttons, the cursor configured to highlight a radio-toolbar button while passing over that radio-toolbar button and to display a rollover tool tip describing a corresponding function of the highlighted radio-toolbar button; and c) the radio toolbar and the cursor configured to control the graphical user interface of the Web browser via access to a shared memory established on the computer system, wherein the shared memory is shared between a radio client and a radio server to maintain a current playback-state of the radio server.