Method and apparatus for providing a user interface in association with a recommender service

1. A method comprising:

causing communication of a request for content, the request including context information and preference information associated with a user of a device causing communication of the request;

receiving a response to the request in response to the request being serviceable, the response including a series of recommendations serialized in a protocol-specific data structure, the protocol-specific data structure providing at least:

data indicative of a primary context or a combination of one or more primary contexts associated with selected ones of the recommendations,

data indicative of a secondary context or a combination of one or more secondary contexts,

meta-content information related to data that has been recommended, and

meta content related to functional activities related to content that is connectable to specific functions of the device; and

causing rendering of content associated with the recommendations as graphical tiles according to the protocol-specific data structure such that a plurality of recommendations associated with a same primary context are associated with each other in a common channel, wherein causing rendering of the content comprises causing presentation of secondary context categories in connection with each of the graphical tiles, and wherein causing rendering of the content comprises grouping recommendations in the common channel such that employing a scrolling function initiates presentation of another group with a corresponding different primary context.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the protocol specific data structure is an extensible markup language (XML) data structure.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the response comprises receiving the response as one or more uniform resource locator (URL) recommendations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing rendering of the content comprises enabling employment of a scrolling function to move between graphical tiles having corresponding different secondary contexts.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing rendering of the content comprises causing rendering of the common channel such that horizontal scrolling alters the graphical tiles associated with the same primary context and vertical scrolling alters the primary context.

6. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least:

cause communication of a request for content, the request including context information and preference information associated with a user of a device causing communication of the request;

receive a response to the request in response to the request being serviceable, the response including a series of recommendations serialized in a protocol-specific data structure, the protocol-specific data structure providing at least:

data indicative of a primary context or a combination of one or more primary contexts associated with selected ones of the recommendations,

data indicative of a secondary context or a combination of one or more secondary contexts,

meta-content information related to data that has been recommended, and

meta content related to functional activities related to content that is connectable to specific functions of the device; and

cause rendering of content associated with the recommendations as graphical tiles according to the protocol-specific data structure such that a plurality of recommendations associated with a same primary context are associated with each other in a common channel, wherein causing rendering of the content comprises causing presentation of secondary context categories in connection with each of the graphical tiles, and wherein causing rendering of the content comprises grouping recommendations in the common channel such that employing a scrolling function initiates presentation of another group with a corresponding different primary context.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the protocol specific data structure is an extensible markup language (XML) data structure.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the at least one memory and computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive the response by receiving the response as one or more uniform resource locator (URL) recommendations.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the at least one memory and computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause rendering of the content by enabling employment of a scrolling function to move between graphical tiles having corresponding different secondary contexts.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the at least one memory and computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause rendering of the content by causing rendering of the content comprises causing rendering of the common channel such that horizontal scrolling alters the graphical tiles associated with the same primary context and vertical scrolling alters the primary context.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program code stored therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising code for:

causing communication of a request for content, the request including context information and preference information associated with a user of a device causing communication of the request;

receiving a response to the request in response to the request being serviceable, the response including a series of recommendations serialized in a protocol-specific data structure, the protocol-specific data structure providing at least:

data indicative of a primary context or a combination of one or more primary contexts associated with selected ones of the recommendations,

data indicative of a secondary context or a combination of one or more secondary contexts,

meta-content information related to data that has been recommended, and

meta content related to functional activities related to content that is connectable to specific functions of the device; and

causing rendering of content associated with the recommendations as graphical tiles according to the protocol-specific data structure such that a plurality of recommendations associated with a same primary context are associated with each other in a common channel, wherein causing rendering of the content comprises causing presentation of secondary context categories in connection with each of the graphical tiles, and wherein causing rendering of the content comprises grouping recommendations in the common channel such that employing a scrolling function initiates presentation of another group with a corresponding different primary context.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the protocol specific data structure is an extensible markup language (XML) data structure.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein code for receiving the response comprises code for receiving the response as one or more uniform resource locator (URL) recommendations.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein code for causing rendering of the content comprises code for enabling employment of a scrolling function to move between graphical tiles having corresponding different secondary contexts.