Abstract: A means of providing session control over the Internet is disclosed. Traditionally, the Internet protocols define a session between a client and a server as one page request and one page response. This does not permit the servers to ascertain how long a client is accessing a page or whether a page containing database information is being viewed by two clients simultaneously. In accordance with the present invention, a Web page contains a script that causes the page to send beat signals from the client to the server at particular times to indicate to the server that the client is continuing to view the page. When the client releases the page, the beat will stop and the server will know that the client has released the page.

Abstract: An Internet navigational mapping system and method provides a user, browsing through various informational resources provided at various World Wide Web site locations supported by the Internet, with a graphical representation of the structure of the web site to permit the user to navigate through the web site efficiently using that structure. That structure can be thought of as a navigational map which represents objects in a web site and links to/from those objects in a hierarchical tree structure. The map could be represented in two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or a virtual reality format. The map therefore provides the user with an easy to read, graphical image of where the user is a web site and where he may go. A web site mapping mechanism is provided which parses the various objects contained in the web site and organizes those objects and links between the objects into an organized, and preferably, hierarchical, fashion.

Abstract: A network data processing system is disclosed that uses novel methods and apparatus to hyperlink from full motion videos. The present invention can be used with any standard video file by adding a header identifying a video map location and a script location identifying where the hyperlinks are associated with the video file for any given frame. The present invention includes a new viewer that reads the header and issues the header information, X-coordinate, Y-coordinate, and time coordinate for a particular hyperlink selection made by a user via a computer pointing device. An HTTP Server and video script then operate in conjunction to obtain the corresponding map and identify a network address associated with the coordinate information provided by the viewer.