1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of user interfaces for accessing remotely stored information over a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to displaying scaled-down images of various Web pages, such as recent Web pages or favorite Web pages, along with the title of each Web page.
2. The Prior State of the Art
The number of homes and businesses using personal computers has increased substantially in recent years, and along with this increase has come an explosion in the use of the Internet, and particularly the World-Wide Web (Web). The Web is a collection of formatted hypertext pages located on numerous computers around the world that are logically connected by the Internet. Although the Web has in the past been a source of primarily scientific information, it is now a valuable resource for information relating to almost any subject, including business, entertainment, travel, and education, to name just a few. Advances in network technology, and especially in software such as “Web browsers” (software applications which provide a user interface to the Web), have made the Web accessible to a large segment of the population.
A problem associated with the prior art is that, in some cases, images that are downloaded via a network connection are not appropriately sized for the display being used. One prior art solution for dealing with Web pages larger than the display is to allow horizontal and vertical scrolling. However, it has been found that horizontal scrolling can be confusing to many people. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a solution to displaying oversized image maps that eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling.
In addition, Web browsers in the prior art have various other disadvantages that are overcome by the present invention, as described in the detailed description which follows.