Systems and methods for improving access to syndication feeds in network browsing applications

• US 20060265518A1
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Owens, Stephen, Bollas, James, Wolford, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,582,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A browsing application includes instructions for identifying and subscribing to a syndication feed delivered over a network. The instructions include code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over the network by a browsing application to determine the availability of the syndication feed, code for causing a user interface element to be displayed on the browsing application, the user interface element indicating the availability of the syndication feed, and code for responding to a user'"'"'s selection of the user interface element by causing the browsing application to display a page which permits the user to subscribe to the syndication feed.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions for a general purpose computer for identifying and subscribing to a syndication feed delivered over a network, the instructions comprising:

code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network by a browsing application to determine the availability of the syndication feed;

code for causing a user interface element to be displayed in a user interface portion of said browsing application, said user interface element indicating that a syndication feed is available; and

,

code for responding to a user'"'"'s selection of said user interface element by causing said browsing application to display in a content display area of said browsing application a page which permits said user to subscribe to said syndication feed.

2. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data to determine the availability of the syndication feed comprises code for searching said page for a tag indicative of the availability of the syndication feed.

3. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2, wherein said tag is a link tag.

4. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an RSS feed.

5. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an atom feed.

6. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said user interface element comprises a button.

7. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said code for responding to a user'"'"'s selection causes said browsing application to display a page which permits said user to add said syndication feed to a customized home page having content therein from diverse user-selectable sources.

8. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 7, wherein said customized home page comprises a page which includes one or more search fields, one or more syndication feeds, and content from one or more web pages.

9. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said page of data comprises data in a markup language.

10. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 9, wherein said markup language is HTML.

11. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 2, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of a feed which is in an XML format.

12. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises a plugin to said browsing application.

13. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 1, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises code integrated into said browsing application at a source code level.

14. A computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions for a general purpose computer for identifying and subscribing to a syndication feed delivered over a network, the instructions comprising:

code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network by a browsing application to determine the availability of the syndication feed;

code for causing a user interface element to be displayed on said browsing application, said user interface element indicating that a syndication feed is available; and

,

code for responding to a user'"'"'s selection of said user interface element by subscribing to said syndication feed.

15. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data to determine the availability of the syndication feed comprises code for searching said page for a tag indicative of the availability of the syndication feed.

16. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein said tag is a link tag.

17. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an RSS feed.

18. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of an atom feed.

19. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said user interface element comprises a button.

20. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said code for responding to a user'"'"'s selection causes said browsing application to display a page which permits said user to add said syndication feed to a customized home page having content therein from diverse user-selectable sources.

21. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 20, wherein said customized home page comprises a page which includes one or more search fields, one or more syndication feeds, and content from one or more web pages.

22. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said page of data comprises data in a markup language.

23. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 22, wherein said markup language is HTML.

24. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 15, wherein said tag is a tag indicating the availability of a feed which is in an XML format.

25. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises a plugin to said browsing application.

26. The computer-readable storage medium in accordance with claim 14, wherein said code for analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network comprises code integrated into said browsing application at a source code level.

27. A method for identifying and subscribing to a syndication feed delivered over a network, the method comprising the steps of:

analyzing a page of data that has been retrieved over said network by a browsing application determine the availability of the syndication feed;

causing a user interface element to be displayed on said browsing application, said user interface element indicating the availability of the syndication feed; and

,

responding to a user'"'"'s selection of said user interface element by causing said browsing application to display a page which permits said user to subscribe to said syndication feed.

28. A browsing application for displaying a page and indicating the availability of a syndication feed associated with the page, comprising:

a content display area for displaying content of a page retrieved over a network; and

,

a user interface element indicating the availability of the syndication feed, said user interface element being displayed outside said content display area when said page displayed in said content display area includes an indicia of the availability of the syndication feed.

29. The browsing application for displaying a page and indicating the availability of a syndication feed according to claim 28, wherein said user interface element comprises an element for receiving user input.

30. The browsing application for displaying a page and indicating the availability of a syndication feed according to claim 29, wherein said element for receiving user input comprises an element which responds to user input by displaying a page that permits said user to subscribe to said syndication feed.

31. The browsing application for displaying a page and indicating the availability of a syndication feed according to claim 29, wherein said element for receiving user input comprises an element which responds to user input by subscribing to said syndication feed.

32. The browsing application for displaying a page and indicating the availability of a syndication feed according to claim 28, further comprising code for analyzing said page retrieved over said network to identify a tag indicating the availability of the syndication feed.

33. A user interface for a browsing application which indicates the availability of a syndication feed associated with a page displayed in a content display area of the browsing application, comprising:

a user interface element indicating the availability of the syndication feed, said user interface element being displayed outside the content display area of said browsing application when a page displayed in said content display area includes an indicia of the availability of the syndication feed.

34. The user interface for a browsing application according to claim 33, wherein said user interface element comprises an element for receiving user input.

35. The user interface for a browsing application according to claim 34, wherein said element for receiving user input comprises an element which responds to user input by displaying a page that permits said user to subscribe to said syndication feed.

36. The user interface for a browsing application according to claim 34, wherein said element for receiving user input comprises an element which responds to user input by subscribing to said syndication feed.