Guided web navigation tool

Abstract

Using a processor, a first N×N matrix is determined based on a plurality of N webpages. Each cell of the first matrix corresponds to a pair of webpages. The first matrix is transformed into a second N×N matrix with each cell being in one of N partitions, the values of the cells within each partition being substantially equal. A sequence of M webpages is determined based on the second matrix and keyword(s) inputted by a user. The sequence is arranged in order from a first webpage to an M th webpage (M<N), each of the webpages in the sequence being in the plurality of N webpages. A first host webpage, which is not in the plurality of N webpages, is generated including content from the first webpage in the sequence and a hyperlink to a second webpage in the sequence. The first host webpage is displayed at the electronic device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for guided website navigation, the method comprising:
 using a processor of an electronic device, determining a first matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns based on a plurality of N webpages, N being an integer, each cell of the first matrix corresponding to a pair of webpages among the plurality of webpages;   using the processor, transforming the first matrix into a second matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns, each cell of the second matrix being in one of N partitions, repetitively updating the second matrix until a convergence criterion is satisfied for each partition;   using the processor, determining a sequence of M webpages based on the second matrix, the sequence arranged in order from a first webpage to an M th  webpage, wherein M is an integer less than or equal to N and each of the webpages in the sequence is in the plurality of N webpages;   using the processor, generating a first host webpage including content from the first webpage in the sequence; and   displaying the first host webpage at the electronic device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a user input requesting a second webpage in the sequence;   using the processor, generating a second host webpage including content from the second webpage in the sequence, wherein the second host webpage is not in the plurality of N webpages and third webpage in the sequence succeeds the second webpage in the sequence; and   displaying the second host webpage at the electronic device.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining an adjacency matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns based on the plurality of N webpages, each cell of the adjacency matrix corresponding to a pair of webpages among the plurality of webpages and having a value representing whether a first webpage in said pair of webpages includes a hyperlink to a second webpage in said pair of webpages;   wherein the first matrix is determined based on the adjacency matrix.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein each row of the adjacency matrix is associated with one of the plurality of N webpages, each column of the adjacency matrix is associated with one of the plurality of N webpages, and the rows and columns of the adjacency matrix are sorted by ascending order of the number of outgoing hyperlinks in the respective webpages. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein diagonal cells of the second matrix are associated with respective ones of the plurality of N webpages, and the sequence of M webpages is arranged in order based on respective magnitudes of the values of the diagonal cells associated with the M webpages. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each partition of the second matrix includes N cells of the second matrix corresponding to ceiling(N/2) or ceiling(N/2)+1 rows and ceiling(N/2) or ceiling(N/2)+1 columns. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein said transforming the first matrix into the second matrix includes:
 determining a plurality of N paths, each path being an ordered list of N cells of the first matrix, wherein for each path, each cell in said path differs from each adjacent cell in said path by a column index of 1 or N−1 and differs from each adjacent cell in said path by a row index of 1 or N−1, and the paths are mutually disjoint; and   updating each cell of the first matrix, wherein the updated value of each cell of the first matrix is equal to a dot product of:
 the partition of the first matrix containing said cell, regarded as a vector, and 
 the path containing said cell. 
   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a user input; and   based on the received user input, removing from the sequence any webpages having more than a threshold number of outgoing hyperlinks or removing from the sequence any webpages having fewer than the threshold number of outgoing hyperlinks.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the threshold number of outgoing hyperlinks is equal to the average number of outgoing hyperlinks for the plurality of N webpages. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a user input; and   based on the received user input, removing from the sequence any webpages satisfying a predetermined similarity criterion with respect to one of the webpages in the sequence.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining, based on one or more keywords inputted by a user, a sentiment score for at least one webpage in the plurality of N webpages;   receiving a user input; and   based on the received user input, removing from the sequence at least one webpage for which the sentiment score satisfies a predetermined condition.   
     
     
         12 . A method for guided website navigation, the method comprising:
 using a processor of an electronic device, determining a first matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns based on a plurality of N webpages, N being an integer, each cell of the first matrix corresponding to a pair of webpages among the plurality of webpages;   using the processor, transforming the first matrix into a second matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns, each cell of the second matrix being in one of N partitions, wherein the values of the cells within each partition are substantially equal to one another;   using the processor, determining a sequence of M webpages based on the second matrix and one or more keywords inputted by a user, the sequence arranged in order from a first webpage to an M th  webpage, wherein M is an integer less than N and each of the webpages in the sequence is in the plurality of N webpages;   using the processor, generating a first host webpage including content from the first webpage in the sequence and a hyperlink to a second webpage in the sequence, wherein the first host webpage is not in the plurality of N webpages and the second webpage in the sequence succeeds the first webpage in the sequence; and   displaying the first host webpage at the electronic device.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the user, an input requesting the second webpage in the sequence;   using the processor, generating a second host webpage including content from the second webpage in the sequence, wherein the second host webpage is not in the plurality of N webpages and the third webpage in the sequence succeeds the second webpage in the sequence; and   displaying the second host webpage at the electronic device.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein each partition of the second matrix includes N cells of the second matrix corresponding to ceiling(N/2) or ceiling(N/2)+1 rows and ceiling(N/2) or ceiling(N/2)+1 columns. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the user, an input; and   based on the received input, removing from the sequence any webpages satisfying a predetermined similarity criterion with respect to one of the webpages in the sequence.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 determining, based on at least one of the input keywords, a sentiment score for at least one webpage in the plurality of M webpages;   receiving a user input; and   based on the received user input, removing from the sequence at least one webpage for which the sentiment score satisfies a predetermined condition.   
     
     
         17 . A method for guided website navigation, the method comprising:
 using a processor of an electronic device, determining a first matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns based on a plurality of N webpages, N being an integer, each cell of the first matrix corresponding to a pair of webpages among the plurality of webpages;   using the processor, transforming the first matrix into a second matrix including cells arranged in N rows and N columns, each cell of the second matrix being in one of N partitions, wherein the values of the cells within each partition are within a predetermined distance to one another;   using the processor, determining a sequence of M webpages based on the second matrix and one or more keywords inputted by a user, the sequence arranged in order from a first webpage to an M th  webpage, wherein M is an integer less than N and each of the webpages in the sequence is in the plurality of N webpages;   receiving a user input;   based on the received user input, removing from the sequence any webpages satisfying a predetermined similarity criterion with respect to one of the webpages in the sequence;   using the processor, generating a first host webpage including content from the first webpage in the sequence; and   displaying the first host webpage at the electronic device.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising determining a similarity matrix, each cell of the similarity matrix corresponding to a pair of webpages among the plurality of webpages, wherein each row of the similarity matrix is associated with one of the plurality of N webpages, and each column of the similarity matrix is associated with one of the plurality of N webpages. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the value of each cell of the similarity matrix is based on a similarity score of the webpages corresponding to the row and column of the cell. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising iteratively updating the similarity matrix until a convergence criterion is met.