Method, system and program product for obscuring supplemental web content

• US 20050055644A1
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stockton, Marcia L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,895,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/766
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Under the present invention, supplemental web content (e.g., an advertisement) referenced in a requested markup language document is detected and reduced in quality (i.e., obscured). In reducing the supplemental web content in quality, the present invention can employ any number of techniques such as removing color, animation or sound, reducing contrast or resolution, blurring the content, etc. In any event, the requested markup language document is rendered with the reduced quality supplemental web content. The supplemental web content can then be restored to its original quality, if the user so desires, based upon a prompt.

Claims

1. A method for obscuring supplemental web content, comprising:

detecting a reference to supplemental web content in requested markup language;

reducing a quality of the supplemental web content; and

rendering the requested markup language with the reduced quality supplemental web content.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising restoring a quality of the supplemental web content in the rendered markup language based on a prompt by a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting step comprises comparing a uniform resource identifier of the supplemental web content to a predetermined list of uniform resource identifiers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises lowering a contrast of the supplemental web content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises lowering a resolution of the supplemental web content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises blurring the supplemental web content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises substituting a gray-scale palette for a color palette of the supplemental web content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises lowering a quantity of colors in the supplemental web content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises removing animation from the supplemental web content.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the reducing step comprises removing sound from the supplemental web content.

11. A system for obscuring supplemental web content, comprising:

a content detection system for detecting a reference to supplemental web content associated with a requested web page;

a quality reduction system for reducing a quality of the supplemental web content; and

a communication system for serving the requested web page with the reduced quality supplemental web content.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a quality restoration system for restoring a quality of the supplemental web content in the rendered web page based on a prompt by a user.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the content detection system compares a uniform resource locator of the supplemental web content to a predetermined list of uniform resource locators.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system lowers a contrast of the supplemental web content.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system lowers a resolution of the supplemental web content.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system blurs the supplemental web content.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system substitutes a gray-scale pallette for a color pallette of the supplemental web content.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system lowers a quantity of colors in the supplemental web content.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system removes animation from the supplemental web content.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the quality reduction system removes sound from the supplemental web content.

21. The system of claim 11, wherein the system is loaded on a server that renders and delivers the web page to a client.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the server is a portal server, and wherein the web page is a portal page.

23. A program product stored on a recordable medium for obscuring supplemental web content, which when executed comprises:

program code for detecting a reference to supplemental web content associated with a requested web page;

program code for reducing a quality of the supplemental web content; and

program code for serving the requested web page with the reduced quality supplemental web content.

24. The program product of claim 23, further comprising program code for restoring a quality of the supplemental web content in the rendered web page based on a prompt by a user.

25. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for detecting compares a uniform resource locator of the supplemental web content to a predetermined list of uniform resource locators.

26. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing lowers a contrast of the supplemental web content.

27. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing lowers a resolution of the supplemental web content.

28. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing blurs the supplemental web content.

29. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing substitutes a gray-scale pallette for a color pallette of the supplemental web content.

30. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing lowers a quantity of colors in the supplemental web content.

31. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing removes animation from the supplemental web content.

32. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program code for reducing removes sound from the supplemental web content.

33. The program product of claim 23, wherein the program product is loaded on a server that renders and delivers the web page to a client.

34. The program product of claim 33, wherein the server is a portal server, and wherein the web page is a portal page.

35. A computer-implemented business method for obscuring supplemental web content, comprising:

collecting a fee from a user;

receiving a request for markup language from the user, wherein the markup language includes a reference to supplemental web content;

obscuring the supplemental web content; and

serving the requested markup language with the obscured supplemental web content to the user.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising detecting the reference to the supplemental web content by comparing a uniform resource identifier of the supplemental web content to a predetermined list of uniform resource identifiers.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises lowering a contrast of the supplemental web content.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises lowering a resolution of the supplemental web content.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises blurring the supplemental web content.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises substituting a gray-scale palette for a color palette of the supplemental web content.

41. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises lowering a quantity of colors in the supplemental web content.

42. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises removing animation from the supplemental web content.

43. The method of claim 35, wherein the obscuring step comprises removing sound from the supplemental web content.