METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING DYNAMIC SHORTCUTS BOTH FOR RAPIDLY ACCESSING WEB CONTENT AND APPLICATION PROGRAM WINDOWS AND FOR ESTABLISHING CONTEXT-BASED USER ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

The invention disclosed herein concerns methods and apparatus for implementing dynamic shortcuts for use in navigating web content and application program windows. In particular, the methods and apparatus of the invention allow a user to associate one or more items selected from web content or application program windows with a dynamic shortcut. In one aspect of the invention, a user assigns a keyboard shortcut to one or more web pages viewed during the browsing session. Once assigned a keyboard shortcut, the one or more web pages can be rapidly accessed using the keyboard shortcut. In variations of the invention, the one or more web pages may be assigned an icon accessible from, for example, the desktop. In other aspects of the invention the keyboard shortcut or icon is associated with content or resources derived from multiple sources; such as, for example, web pages located using a browser and application program windows spawned using an application program.