ANTI-SPAM TOOL FOR BROWSER

• US 20090216868A1
• Filed: 02/21/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yang, Lei, Liu, Tie-Yan, Li, Hang, Gao, Bin
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,971 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems

Abstract

An anti-spam tool works with a web browser to detect spam webpages locally on a client machine. The anti-spam tool can be implemented either as a plug-in module or an integral part of the browser, and manifested as a toolbar. The tool can perform an anti-spam action whenever a webpage is accessed through the browser, and does not require direct involvement of a search engine. A spam detection module installed on the computing device determines whether a webpage being accessed or whether a link contained in the webpage being accessed is spam, by comparing the URL of the webpage or the link with a spam list. The spam list can be downloaded from a remote search engine server, stored locally and updated from time to time. A two-level indexing technique is also introduced to improve the efficiency of the anti-spam tool'"'"'s use of the spam list.

Claims

1. A method for resisting spam webpages on a computing device installed with a web browser, the method comprising:

receiving at the web browser a URL of a webpage;

determining by a spam detection module installed on the computing device whether the webpage is spam; and

performing an anti-spam action on the computing device if the webpage is determined to be spam.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining whether the webpage is spam comprises comparing the URL of the webpage with a spam list including spam URLs.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein at least part of the spam list is accessible locally by the computing device.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the spam list is downloaded from a remote server.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

dividing the spam URLs of the spam list into a plurality of sub chunks of spam URLs;

indexing the spam URLs into a first level index and a second level index, wherein the first level index maps a first set of hash values to ranges of sub chunks of spam URLs, and the second level index maps a second set of hash values to the spam URLs in the plurality of sub chunks; and

loading the first level index into a memory of the computing device.

6. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the spam URLs of the spam list are indexed to a set of hash values, and wherein comparing the URL of the webpage with the spam list comprises:

computing a hash value for the URL of the webpage using a hash function; and

matching the hash value of the URL of the webpage with the set of hash values of spam URLs.

7. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

computing a hash value for each spam URL of the spam list;

sorting the spam URLs by their computed hash values;

dividing the spam list into a plurality of sub chunks of spam URLs, each sub chunk having a sequential range of hash values defined by a lower bound and an upper bound;

mapping the sequential ranges of the hash values for the sub chunks to a first level index;

mapping the spam URLs of each sub chunk to a second level index; and

matching the hash value of the URL of the webpage with the hash values of the spam URLs of the spam list through the first level index followed by the second level index.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the first level index is loaded to a memory of the computing device during execution of the method.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving the URL of the webpage comprises detecting the URL of the webpage that is being currently accessed by the web browser.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving the URL of the webpage comprises detecting the URL as a link contained in a parent webpage that is being opened by the web browser.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein performing an anti-spam action comprises performing one or more of the following actions:

blocking the webpage, displaying a warning against opening the webpage, highlighting a link to the webpage, and removing any links to the webpage from a parent webpage that is being opened by the web browser.

12. An anti-spam tool executable by a processor, wherein the anti-spam tool is embodied on computer-readable media and co-installed with a web browser on a computing device, and is adapted to interface with the web browser through a program interface, the anti-spam tool comprising:

a spam detection module adapted to determine whether a target webpage associated with a URL is spam; and

an anti-spam controller adapted to assist performing an anti-spam action if the target webpage is determined to be a spam.

13. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, wherein the spam detection module determines whether the webpage is spam by comparing the URL of the webpage with a spam list which is stored at least partly on the computing device.

14. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, further comprising a user interface adapted to receive a user feedback containing spam report information.

15. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, wherein the anti-spam action comprises one or more of the following actions:

blocking the webpage, displaying a warning against opening the webpage, highlighting a link to the webpage, and removing any links to the webpage from a parent webpage that is being opened by the web browser.

16. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, further comprising a page update module adapted for modifying a webpage to be displayed according to the anti-spam action performed.

17. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, further comprising a spam list indexer adapted for indexing a spam list used by the spam detection module to determine whether the target webpage is spam.

18. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, comprising an anti-spam plug-in module added on to the web browser.

19. The anti-spam tool as recited in claim 12, the anti-spam tool being installed as a plug-in module in the web browser and, when executed by the processor, manifesting a user interactive toolbar function on the web browser.

20. One or more computer readable media having stored thereupon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

receive at the web browser URL of a webpage;

determine by a spam detection module installed on the computing device whether the webpage is spam; and

perform an anti-spam action on the computing device if the webpage is determined to be spam.