METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MERGED BROWSING OF NETWORK CONTENTS

• US 20090063966A1
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Ennals, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,521 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Client devices capable of merged browsing, and a server for assisting merged browsing, are described herein. In various embodiments, client devices may receive suggestions of network content fragments to be merge browsed with network content being browsed by the user. The client device may then receive a user selection of fragment(s) and facilitate merged browsing of the fragment(s) with the network content. In some embodiments, the client device may facilitate a user in browsing first network content and in selecting a portion of the first network content. The client device may then facilitate the user in browsing second network content and in merged browsing the selected portion with the second network content. In various embodiments, the server may accept registrations of network content fragments, receive indications from client devices of network content being browsed, and assist in merged browsing the network content with one or more network content fragments.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

suggesting to a user, by a client device, network content fragments for adding to network content being browsed by the user using the client device to facilitate the user in selecting at least one of the network content fragments to be visually merged with the network content for merged browsing;

receiving by the client device a user selection to merge all or a subset of the suggested network content fragments with the network content being browsed; and

in response, facilitating by the client device merging of the selected network content fragment(s) with the network content being browsed for merged browsing of the merged content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the suggested network content fragments are suggested to the user as a category including multiple network content fragments to facilitate the user in selecting the multiple network content fragments as the at least one of the network content fragments.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein suggesting includes rendering to the user display representations of the network content fragments.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the server, by the client device, a list of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments, at least a portion of the suggested network content fragments corresponding to entries of the received list.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the list of network content fragments comprises data and rules for processing the data, the data including extractors and/or argument handlers for each network content fragment of the list.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said facilitating merging includes combining, by the client device, a specification/structural description of the at least one of the network content fragments with a specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to produce a combined specification/structural description, the combined specification/structural description specifying the merged content for merged browsing.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising retrieving, by the client device, the specifications/structural descriptions of the at least one of the network content fragments and of the network content being browsed, and the retrieving is based on one or both of the extractor and/or the argument handler for the at least one of the network content fragments.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, prior to the suggesting, facilitating, by the client device, the user in selecting or specifying a specification of at least a portion of different network content being browsed.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said facilitating merging includes indicating to a server the user'"'"'s selection of the at least one of the network content fragments, and receiving the merged content from the server for merged browsing.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing to a server, by the client device, an indicator of the merged content being merged browsed and receiving, by the client device, in response, a list of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments for suggesting to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the network content fragments is one or more of text, pictures, audio files, video files, audio-visual files, form elements, or programs selected from one or more pages of network content.

12. A server comprising:

a processor; and

a merged browsing service to be operated by the processor to

accept registration of one or more user-specified network content fragments from a first client device, the registration including one or more of an extractor, an argument handler, or other information describing the user-specified network content fragment(s),

receive, from a second client device, an indicator of network content being browsed by the second client device, and

in response, assist the second client device in facilitating merged browsing of the network content with one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments, including the user-specified network content fragment(s), based at least on association(s) between (A) the indicated network content or a category including the indicated network content and (B) the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the merged browsing service is to said assist, and said assist includes to determine a list of the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments to provide to the user.

14. The server of claim 12, wherein the association(s) include information specifying that users have previously combined the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments with the indicated network content or category of the indicated network content.

15. The server of claim 12, further comprising a database coupled to the merged browsing service, the database to store information to specify combinations of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments with network contents or categories of network contents, as well as a count for each combination tracking how often that combination is selected by users, and the merged browsing service is to draw the association(s) from the information.

16. The server of claim 15, wherein the information to specify the combinations is to include registrations for each of the network content fragments, categories of network content fragments, network contents, and categories of network contents, the registrations to include at least one of an extractor, an argument handler, or other information.

17. The server of claim 15, wherein the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments include network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments whose combinations with the indicated network content or with the category including the network content have the highest counts.

18. The server of claim 12, wherein the merged browsing service is further to receive an indication from the second client device of the user'"'"'s selection of the at least one of the one or more network content fragments and/or the categories of network content fragments, and, in response to said receive the indication, to retrieve specifications and/or structural descriptions for the indicated network content and the selected network content fragment(s), to combine the retrieved specifications/structural descriptions to create merged content, and to provide the merged content to the client device for merged browsing.

19. An article of manufacture comprising:

a storage medium; and

a plurality of programming instructions stored on the storage medium and configured to program a client device to enable the client device to

first facilitate a user in separately browsing first and second network content,

second facilitate the user in selecting at least a portion of the first network content,

merged browse the selected portion of the first network content with the second network content, and

suggest to the user one or more additional network content fragments to merged browse with the selected portion of the first network content and the second network content, based at least in part on the portion of the first network content selected to be merged browsed with the second network content.

20. The article of claim 19, wherein the programming instructions are configured to program the client device to enable the client device to said merged browse, and said merged browse includes to combine specifications of the selected portion and the second network content to create a combined specification.

21. The article of claim 19, wherein the programming instructions are configured to program the client device to enable the client device to said second facilitate, and said second facilitate includes to facilitate the user in selecting a specification of the portion of the first network content.

22. The article of claim 19, wherein the programming instructions are further configured to program the client device to enable the client device to provide the user with a visual component, the visual component including at least one icon to said facilitate the user in said select and/or said merged browse.

23. The article of claim 19, wherein the programming instructions are further configured to program the client device to enable the client device to, in response to said merged browse, provide a server with an indicator of the merged browsing to facilitate the server in storing a relation between the selected portion and the second network content.

24. A system comprising:

a processor;

a storage device coupled to the processor and adapted to store client logic; and

the client logic, to be operated by the processor to

suggest to a user network content fragments for adding to network content being browsed by the user using the client device to facilitate the user in selecting at least one of the network content fragments to be visually merged with the network content for merged browsing,

receive a user selection to merge all or a subset of the suggested network content fragments with the network content being browsed, and

in response, facilitate merging of the selected network content fragment(s) with the network content being browsed for merged browsing of the merged content.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein said suggest, said receive, and said facilitate are performed by a browser plug-in of a browser of the system.