A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTERACTIVE WORK WITH MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS POSTED ON THE USENET

摘要

The invented system provides for construction, requesting, obtaining and using previews of Usenet multimedia objects in order to make informed downloading decisions. Selection and downloading of Usenet images is made fast and easy when image indexes in a format disclosed in this invention are available. Each such index contains an image and an image map that is a set of records associating image regions with particular Usenet articles. This map enables unique identification of the article that user wants when they click on a particular area of the index image. The user client (newsreader) can then automatically find and start downloading the desired article. If an advertising banner is included in the image, the system can direct user to the advertised web site and allows counting visits generated by such banners. If a multimedia objects preview is not found in the newsgroup, users can send an index request to an index server. The server will download relevant articles, construct previews and either post them to the Usenet or return to the requesting user, or both.