METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HIGHLIGHTING A PORTION OF AN INTERNET DOCUMENT FOR COLLABORATION AND SUBSEQUENT RETRIEVAL

• US 20080016091A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rohit Chandra
• Original Assignee: Rohit Chandra
• Inventors: Chandra, Rohit
• Granted Patent: US 8,910,060 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

A method and system for enabling a user to selectively make one or more highlights on one or more objects in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser are disclosed. The highlighting functionality is enabled for the user without requiring the user to download and/or install custom software. Furthermore, it is not necessary for the user to register with the highlighting service providing the functionality. The user-generated highlights are persistent in the sense that they remain associated with, and are displayed on, the internet document during subsequent browsing sessions by the user or other users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a first user to selectively make a highlight on an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser without installing a custom software component.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein enabling a first user to selectively make a highlight includes saving the highlight to a centralized repository.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein saving the highlight includes associating the highlight with the first user without requiring the user to create a new user account.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein saving the highlight enables any user to recall the highlight.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a second user to recall the highlight made by the first user during a web browsing session for which the second user has invoked a highlighting session, only if the second user has configured a highlight filtering mechanism to display highlights of the first user, or highlights of a group of which the first user is a member.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein, when an internet document associated with a particular URL has changed since the time the highlight was originally made, an intelligent highlight insertion logic is configured to identify where in the changed internet document the highlight is to be positioned.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein enabling a first user to selectively make a highlight on an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes enabling the first user to select one of a plurality of colors for each highlight.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein enabling a first user to selectively make a highlight on an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes invoking a highlighting service hosted at a server other than the server hosting the currently displayed internet document.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein enabling a first user to selectively make a highlight on an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes invoking a highlighting service hosted at a server hosting the currently displayed internet document.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

at a host providing a highlighting service, saving a copy of the internet document, including any objects that have been selectively highlighted by the first user so as to enable any user to retrieve a copy of the internet document as it appeared when a highlight was made.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling any user to take a variety of user actions including;

rate, comment on, mark as a favorite, flag for relevance, or copy, a highlight displayed within an internet document.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a user to subscribe to receive notifications of highlighting activity by another user, or group of users, wherein the notification is communicated to the user by any one of the following communication mechanisms;

email, web page, RSS, SMS message, text message, telephone, or instant messaging service.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a user to selectively indicate one or more highlights to be combined for display on a single internet document; and

,

displaying the one or more highlights combined on a single internet document.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

enabling the user to export the single internet document into a variety of different file formats.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a unique URL to a subset of highlights specified by any user, so as to enable display of the subset of highlights on a single document.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, farther comprising:

invoking a highlighting session by prepending an address associated with a highlighting service to an address of the internet document.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the highlighting session is automatically invoked when a user selects a bookmarklet.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a highlighting server, receiving a request from a client web browser for an internet document hosted at a content provider;

relaying the internet document to the client web browser along with highlighting code, wherein the highlighting code queries for highlights associated with objects within the internet document; and

, communicating one or more highlights to the highlighting code so as to enable the highlighting code to manipulate the internet document to display highlighted objects within the internet document.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the highlighting code includes intelligent highlight insertion logic to determine where in the internet document a highlight is to be positioned, when the internet document has changed since the time the highlight was originally made.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the highlighting code includes a highlighter filtering mechanism enabling a user to selectively filter highlights to be displayed based on various highlight characteristics.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the highlight characteristics utilized to filter the highlights displayed to a user include:

source of a highlight;

time of highlight;

rating of a highlight;

number of comments associated with a highlight;

user group of highlight; and

/or source of comments associated with a highlight.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

prior to relaying the internet document to the client web browser, modifying one or more object references included in the internet document so that a subsequent request for an object associated with the one or more object references is directed to the highlighting server.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising:

prior to relaying the internet document to the client web browser, forwarding the request to the content provider and, in turn, receiving the internet document from the content provider; and

, modifying one or more object references included in the internet document so that a subsequent request for an object associated with the one or more object references is directed to the highlighting server.

24. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

during a web browsing session for which a highlighting session has been invoked, causing portions of a web page to be highlighted in various colors, wherein each particular color represents a measure of the frequency with which that portion of the internet document has been highlighted by users of a highlighting service.