Method and system for presenting links associated with a requested website

• US 20060036966A1
• Filed: 08/10/2004
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Slava Yevdayev
• Original Assignee: Slava Yevdayev
• Inventors: Yevdayev, Slava
• Application Number:
  US10/914,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036966A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/779
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

A dynamic toolbar operates in conjunction with a web server for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer. The web server receives a source URL of a source website requested by the web surfer and compiles a directory of URLs of related websites that may be of interest to the web surfer for selecting therefrom a subset of URLs according to their popularity. Data representative of the subset is uploaded to the client computer for displaying by a web browser thereof. The subset of URLs is selected by accessing the directory to determine a category to which the source URL belongs and extracting from the directory respective URLs of related websites of the category. A Popularity Index is determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of the related websites.

Claims

1. A method for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said method comprising:

receiving a URL of a source website requested by the web surfer;

compiling a directory of URLs of related websites that may be of interest to the web surfer and selecting therefrom a subset of URLs according to their popularity; and

uploading to the client computer data representative of said subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting a subset of URLs according to their popularity comprises:

accessing the directory to determine a category to which said URL belongs;

extracting from the directory respective URLs of related websites of said category; and

selecting a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said data representative of said subset includes respective URLs of said subset.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said data representative of said subset includes descriptive information of said subset.

5. The method according to claim 1, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the database includes language data indicating a language associated with each URL in said subset and the data representative of each URL in said subset is formatted in the respective language.

7. The method according to claim 1, further including:

selecting a related subset of related URLs of respective websites of sub-categories related to said category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the related URLs; and

uploading to the client computer data representative of said related subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

8. The method according to claim 1, further including:

extracting a keyword entered by the web surfer;

accessing a database to determine at least one category to which said keyword belongs;

extracting from the database respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category;

selecting a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites; and

uploading to the client computer data representative of said subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

9. The method according to claim 8, further including:

selecting a related subset of related URLs of respective websites of sub-categories related to said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the related URLs; and

uploading to the client computer data representative of said related subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

10. The method according to claim 8, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser and wherein the keyword is entered into a search box of said toolbar.

11. The method according to claim 9, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser and wherein the keyword is entered into a search box of said toolbar.

12. The method according to claim 8, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser and wherein the keyword is entered into a search box of a search engine.

13. The method according to claim 9, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser and wherein the keyword is entered into a search box of a search engine.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein on detecting an unknown URL of a source website that is requested by the web surfer and is not in the database there are further included:

searching said database for source URLs of source websites that are indexed in the database and from which there have been redirections to the unknown URL;

searching said database so as to determine target URLs of target websites to which there have been redirections from said source URLs; and

storing the unknown URL in the database in association with a category that is based on respective categories of the target URLs.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein URLs in said directory are sorted according to their popularity.

29. The method according to claim 15, wherein URLs in said directory are sorted according to their popularity.

16. A method for compiling a database of URLs for facilitating searching, said method comprising:

defining a number of categories to which all URLs in said database are uniquely associated;

for each URL in the database accumulating a respective ongoing count during a specified time period each time a web surfer clicks on said URL from a source website so as to redirect from the source website to a target website corresponding to said URL;

computing from said respective ongoing counts a respective Popularity Index indicative of a probability that a web surfer will redirect from a source URL to said target website;

indexing each URL in the database in accordance with the respective category; and

storing in the database the respective Popularity Index in association with each URL.

17. The method according to claim 16, further including storing in the database language data indicating a language associate with each URL.

21. The method according to claim 16, including displaying said data representative of said subset in a toolbar used by said web browser.

22. The method according to claim 21, including selectively displaying said descriptive information when a user points to an associated link displayed in said toolbar.

18. A method for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said method comprising:

requesting a URL of a source website;

uploading said URL to a web server for accessing a database to determine at least one category to which said URL belongs and for extracting from the database respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category;

downloading from the web server data representative of a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites; and

displaying said data for use by a web browser of the client computer.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein said data representative of said subset includes respective URLs of said subset.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein said data representative of said subset includes descriptive information of said subset.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein the database includes language data indicating a language associate with each URL in said subset and the data representative of each URL in said subset is formatted in the respective language.

24. The method according to claim 18, further including

downloading from the web server data representative of a related subset of related URLs of respective websites of sub-categories related to said category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the related URLs;

and

displaying said data for use by a web browser of the client computer.

25. The method according to claim 24, including displaying said data representative of said related subset in a toolbar used by said web browser.

26. The method according to claim 25, including displaying the data representative of said related subset in a drop-down menu that is opened by clicking on a related item in the toolbar.

27. The method according to claim 18, wherein the URL of a source website includes a keyword and said subset includes URLs of websites relating to an identical category of said keyword.

28. The method according to claim 27, further including:

downloading from the web server data representative of a related subset of related URLs of respective websites of sub-categories related to said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the related URLs; and

displaying said data for use by a web browser of the client computer.

30. A web server for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said web server comprising:

a receiving unit for receiving a URL of a source website requested by the web surfer;

a database processor coupled to the receiving unit for compiling a directory of URLs of related websites that may be of interest to the web surfer and selecting therefrom a subset of URLs according to their popularity; and

an uploading unit coupled to the database processor for uploading to the client computer data representative of said subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

31. The web server according to claim 30, wherein the database processor comprises:

an accessing unit for accessing the directory to determine a category to which said URL belongs;

an extraction unit coupled to the accessing unit for extracting from the directory respective URLs of related websites of said category; and

a selection unit coupled to the extraction unit for selecting a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites.

32. A database compiler for compiling a database of URLs for facilitating searching, said web server comprising:

a definition unit for defining a number of categories to which all URLs in said database are uniquely associated;

an accumulator coupled to the definition unit for accumulating for each URL in the database a respective ongoing count during a specified time period each time a web surfer clicks on said URL from a source website so as to redirect from the source website to a target website corresponding to said URL;

a computation unit coupled to the accumulator for computing from said respective ongoing counts a respective Popularity Index indicative of a probability that a web surfer will redirect from a source URL to said target website;

an indexing unit coupled to the computation unit for indexing each URL in the database in accordance with the respective category; and

a storage unit coupled to the indexing unit for storing in the database the respective Popularity Index in association with each URL.

33. A web browser for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said web browser comprising:

an address unit for requesting a URL of a source website;

a communication unit coupled to the address unit for uploading said URL to a web server for accessing a database to determine at least one category to which said URL belongs and for extracting from the database respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category;

a downloading unit coupled to the communication unit for downloading from the web server data representative of a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites; and

a display port coupled to the downloading unit for coupling thereto a display device for displaying said data.

34. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said method comprising:

receiving a URL of a source website requested by the web surfer;

compiling a directory of URLs of related websites that may be of interest to the web surfer and selecting therefrom a subset of URLs according to their popularity; and

uploading to the client computer data representative of said subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

35. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to receive a URL of a source website requested by the web surfer;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to compile a directory of URLs of related websites that may be of interest to the web surfer and selecting therefrom a subset of URLs according to their popularity; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to upload to the client computer data representative of said subset for displaying by a web browser of the client computer.

36. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for compiling a database of URLs for facilitating searching, said method comprising:

defining a number of categories to which all URLs in said database are uniquely associated;

for each URL in the database accumulating a respective ongoing count during a specified time period each time a web surfer clicks on said URL from a source website so as to redirect from the source website to a target website corresponding to said URL;

computing from said respective ongoing counts a respective Popularity Index indicative of a probability that a web surfer will redirect from a source URL to said target website;

indexing each URL in the database in accordance with the respective category; and

storing in the database the respective Popularity Index in association with each URL.

37. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for compiling a database of URLs for facilitating searching, said computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to define a number of categories to which all URLs in said database are uniquely associated;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to for each URL in the database accumulating a respective ongoing count during a specified time period each time a web surfer clicks on said URL from a source website so as to redirect from the source website to a target website corresponding to said URL;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to compute from said respective ongoing counts a respective Popularity Index indicative of a probability that a web surfer will redirect from a source URL to said target website;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to index each URL in the database in accordance with the respective category; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to store in the database the respective Popularity Index in association with each URL.

38. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said method comprising:

requesting a URL of a source website;

uploading said URL to a web server for accessing a database to determine at least one category to which said URL belongs and for extracting from the database respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category;

downloading from the web server data representative of a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites; and

displaying said data.

39. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for presenting links associated with a website requested by a web surfer at a client computer, said computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to request a URL of a source website;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to upload said URL to a web server for accessing a database to determine at least one category to which said URL belongs and for extracting from the database respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to download from the web server data representative of a subset of the respective URLs of related websites of said at least one category in accordance with a Popularity Index determined by an actual count of redirections from the URL of the source website to the respective URLs of said related websites; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to display said data.