Presenting image previews in electronic messages

• US 10,262,300 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2015
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Shaugnessy, Timothy, Agrawal, Sudheer
• Primary Examiner(s): Sax, Steven P
• Application Number:
  US14/948,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20160078404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

An instant message is received from an instant message sender and a determination is made that the instant message includes a link to a web page that was selected by the instant message sender. In response to determining that the instant message includes the link to the web page, an image corresponding to the web page is fetched and stored, and a thumbnail image preview of the fetched image is generated. In addition, the thumbnail image preview of the fetched portion of the web page is displayed while at least a portion of the instant message is displayed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying a user-generated electronic message having a first link to a first Internet resource;

displaying, in response to a user hovering a cursor over the first link, an image preview of at least a portion of the first Internet resource, the image preview having a search field within the portion of the first Internet resource;

detecting, using at least one processor, a user input to enter a search query into the search field in the image preview; and

upon detecting the user input to enter the search query into the search field in the image preview, performing a search for the search query within the image preview.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a cursor hovering over a second link to a second Internet resource in the image preview; and

upon detecting the cursor hovering over the second link, displaying an image preview of the second Internet resource.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the first Internet resource and the second Internet resource comprise web pages.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the user hovering a cursor over the first link, displaying the image preview of at least the portion of the first Internet resource while at least a portion of the electronic message is being displayed.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein displaying the image preview of at least the portion of the first Internet resource comprises providing a scaled version of one or more features of the first Internet resource.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input to enter the search query comprises a keyboard input.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input to enter the search query comprises a user input to enter a uniform resource locator for a webpage.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating the image preview by generating a scaled version of a plurality of features of the first Internet resource.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the scaled version of the plurality of features of the first Internet resource comprises an image of the first Internet resource scaled less than one or more other features of the first Internet resource resulting in the image being more prominent than the one or more other features in the image preview.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computer system to:

display a user-generated electronic message having a first link to a first Internet resource;

display, in response to a user hovering a cursor over the first link, an image preview of at least a portion of the first Internet resource, the image preview having a search field within the portion of the first Internet resource;

detect a user input to enter a search query into the search field in the image preview; and

upon detecting the user input to enter the search query into the search field in the image preview, perform a search for the search query within the image preview.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to:

detect a cursor hovering over a second link to a second Internet resource in the image preview; and

upon detecting a cursor hovering over the second link, display an image preview of the second Internet resource.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the first Internet resource and the second Internet resource comprise web pages.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to:

in response to the user hovering a cursor over the first link, display the image preview of at least the portion of the first Internet resource while at least a portion of the electronic message is being displayed.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to display the image preview of at least the portion of the first Internet resource further cause the computer system to provide a scaled version of one or more features of the first Internet resource.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the user input to enter the search query comprises a keyboard input.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the user input to enter the search query comprises a user input to enter a uniform resource locator for a webpage.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to generate the image preview further cause the computer system to generate a scaled version of a plurality of features of the first Internet resource, wherein the scaled version of the plurality of features of the first Internet resource comprises an image of the first Internet resource scaled less than one or more other features of the first Internet resource resulting in the image being more prominent than the one or more other features in the image preview.

18. A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

display a user-generated electronic message having a first link to a first Internet resource;

display, in response to a user hovering a cursor over the first link, an image preview of at least a portion of the first Internet resource, the image preview having a search field within the portion of the first Internet resource;

detect a user input to enter a search query into the search field in the image preview; and

upon detecting the user input to enter the search query into the search field in the image preview, perform a search for the search query within the image preview.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the user input to enter the search query comprises a keyboard input to enter a uniform resource locator for a webpage.

20. The system as recited in claim 18, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

detect a cursor hovering over a second link to a second Internet resource in the image preview; and

upon detecting a cursor hovering over the second link, display an image preview of the second Internet resource.