Block tracking mechanism for web personalization

• US 20080281834A1
• Filed: 05/09/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Zheng, Zhang, Benyu, Wang, Jian, Wu, Min, Lin, Chenxi, Zeng, Huajun
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web

Abstract

Described is a technology by which blocks of web pages may be selected, such as for building a user-personalized web page containing selected blocks. A selection mechanism, such as a browser toolbar add-on, provides a user interface for selecting blocks, and records information about selected blocks. A block tracking mechanism (e.g., a daemon program) uses the information to locate selected blocks of the web pages, including when the web page containing the block is updated with respect to content and/or layout. The block tracking mechanism may update a local gadget that when invoked, such as by browsing to a particular web page, which shows updated versions of the block on a personalized web page. Blocks may be efficiently located by processing trees representing web pages into reduced trees, and then by performing a minimum distance mapping algorithm on the reduced trees.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

recording information corresponding to a selected block of a web page; and

using the information to track the selected block for updates, including locating the block by processing a data structure corresponding to an updated version of a web page and a data structure corresponding to a previous version of the web page.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, receiving the information based on user navigation of a web page relative to a data structure parsed from the web page, including entering a block selection mode that visibly indicates a targeted block corresponding to at least one node in the data structure, allows user interaction to change the targeted block, and allows user interaction to select the targeted block as the selected block.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, including the selected block in a set of blocks corresponding to a personalized web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interaction selects the selected block corresponding to a node and at least one parent node of that node in the data structure as the selected block.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interaction selects the selected block corresponding to a node and at least one child node of that node in the data structure as the selected block.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the data structure corresponding to the updated version of the web page comprises parsing the updated version into a domain object model tree, and transforming the domain object model tree into a labeled tree.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the data structure further includes performing a minimum distance mapping algorithm on the data structures.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the data structure corresponding to the previous version of the web page comprises finding fix nodes in the data structures, and pruning the fix nodes from the data structures to generate reduce trees.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein processing the data structure further includes performing a minimum distance mapping algorithm on the reduced trees.

10. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

a block selection mechanism including a user interface by which a block of a web page is selected and information recorded for that selected block; and

a block tracking mechanism that locates the selected block on the web page based on the information, including when the block is updated on an updated version of the web page with respect to content or layout, or both content and layout.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the block selection mechanism is activated in response to user interaction with a browser toolbar.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the block tracking mechanism comprises a daemon program that automatically tracks the selected block.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the block tracking mechanism updates a gadget comprising a local component on a user computing device.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the gadget is invoked by browsing to a particular web page, including showing an updated version of the selected block on a personalized web page that contains the selected block.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the gadget includes at least two pages, including a first page comprising a first iframe having the web page corresponding to the block nested in it, and a second web page containing a second iframe with the first iframe within the second iframe, the first and second pages in the same domain.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the information is maintained in a first data structure corresponding to a previous version of the web page and a second data structure corresponding to the updated version of the web page, and wherein the block tracking mechanism includes means for finding fix nodes in the first and second data structures, means for pruning the fix nodes from the first and second data structures to generate reduced trees, and means for performing a minimum distance mapping algorithm on the reduced trees to find the selected block.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

maintaining information corresponding to blocks of at least two different web pages; and

generating a personalized web page containing the blocks, including using the information to track the blocks in their respective web pages after updates to one or more of the web pages, by processing a data structure corresponding to each updated version of a web page in conjunction with a data structure corresponding to a previous version of the web page to locate the block for that web page.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 having further computer-executable instructions, comprising, receiving the information for each block based on user interaction with the web page containing that block via a block selection tool, and organizing the blocks on the personalized web page based on user interaction via an organizing tool.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein processing the structure corresponding to the updated version of the web page in conjunction with the data structure corresponding to the previous version of the web page includes performing a minimum distance mapping algorithm on the data structures.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein processing the structure corresponding to the updated version of the web page in conjunction with the data structure corresponding to the previous version of the web page includes pruning the data structures into reduced trees.