Abstract: A method of identifying and analyzing a trend is disclosed. A signal created on a network-connected touch-screen by actively filtering content is received by a programmed data processor. The processor creates a signal-vector by mapping the signal to two or more vector-dimensions, one being a location of origination of the signal. This is repeated for more signals. A trend is identified as a cluster of signal-vectors having a size that exceeds a predetermined threshold. One use of identifying and analyzing trends is to then influence the trend. Advertising is one form of influencing a trend.

Abstract: A touch-optimized user-interface is presented that uses a multi-touch surface and a display screen that simultaneously displays a non-overlapping array of web-tiles, each of which represents a different website. Screen-touch events are captured, recognized and interpreted as functions that are applied to one or more of the web-tiles. A virtual framework contains virtual web-tiles that are webpages filtered and rendered to an array of pixel positions and values. The virtual framework specifies the relative size and position of the web-tiles with respect to each other, and their absolute position and size with respect to currently displayed web-tiles. The web-tiles are displayed as arrays, each capable of being interacted with independently via the multi-touch screen. The user-interface has multiple interpretation modes, each of which interprets the same screen-touch events differently.