Methods and Apparatus for Assessing Web Page Decay

• US 20080097978A1
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tomkins, Andrew, Broder, Andrei, Bar-Yossef, Ziv, Ravikumar, Shanmagasundaram
• Application Number:
  US11/955,481
• Publication Number:
  US 20080097978A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Systems and methods are herein disclosed for assessing the staleness of a web page. In particular, in one method of the present invention, the staleness of a web page is assessed by examining internal date references within the web page. In another method of the present invention, the staleness of a web page is assessed by examining the meta-data associated with the web page. In a further method of the present invention, the staleness of a hyperlinked web page is determined by examining the link status of the hyperlinks. If the web page has a relatively large number of dead links, it is assessed as being a stale web page. In a still further method of the present invention, the link status of web pages in the neighborhood of the web page being assessed is likewise examined.

Claims

1. A signal-bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus of a computer system to perform operations for assessing the currency of a web page, the operations comprising:

establishing a date threshold, wherein web pages older than the date threshold will be assessed as not being current;

accessing a web page;

extracting date information from the web page identifying the age of the web page; and

comparing the date information extracted from the web page to the date threshold.

2. The signal-bearing medium of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying the web page as lacking currency if the date information identifying the age of the web page is older than the date threshold.

3. The signal-bearing medium of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying the web page as being current if the date information identifying the age of the web page is younger than the date threshold.

4-27. -27. (canceled)

28. A computer system for assessing the currency of a web page, the computer system comprising:

an internet connection for connecting to the internet and for accessing web pages available on the internet;

at least one memory to store web pages retrieved from the internet and at least one program of machine-readable instructions, where the at least one program performs operations to assess the currency of a web page;

at least one processor coupled to the internet connection and the at least one memory, where the at least one processor performs the following operations when the at least one program is executed;

retrieving a date threshold, wherein web pages older than the date threshold will be assessed as not being current;

accessing a web page;

extracting date information from the web page identifying the age of the web page; and

comparing the date information extracted from the web page to the date threshold.

29. The computer system of claim 28 where the operations further comprise:

identifying the web page as lacking currency if the date information identifying the age of the web page is older than the date threshold.

30. The computer system of claim 28 where the operations further comprise:

identifying the web page as being current if the date information identifying the age of the web page is younger than the date threshold.

31-54. -54. (canceled)

55. A computer-implemented method for assessing the currency of a web page, the method comprising:

establishing a date threshold, wherein web pages older than the date threshold will be assessed as not being current;

accessing a web page;

extracting date information from the web page identifying the age of the web page; and

comparing the date information extracted from the web page to the date threshold.

56. The computer-implemented method of claim 55 further comprising:

identifying the web page as lacking currency if the date information identifying the age of the web page is older than the date threshold.

57. The computer-implemented method of claim 55 further comprising:

identifying the web page as being current if the date information identifying the age of the web page is younger than the date threshold.