ARTIFICIAL ANCHOR FOR A DOCUMENT

• US 20090287698A1
• Filed: 07/24/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bharat, Krishna, Gomes, Benedict A., Marmaros, David P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,615,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for linking to an intra-document portion of a target document includes receiving an address for a target document identified by a search engine in response to a query, the target document including query-relevant text that identifies an intra-document portion of the target document, the intra-document portion including the query relevant text. An artificial anchor is generated, the artificial anchor corresponding to the intra-document portion. The artificial anchor is appended the address.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving an address for a target document identified by a search engine in response to a query, the target document including query-relevant text that identifies an intra-document portion of the target document, the intra-document portion including the query-relevant text;

generating an artificial anchor, the artificial anchor corresponding to the intra-document portion; and

appending the artificial anchor to the address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the artificial anchor comprises an instruction for an artificial anchor module in a document browser on a client device to navigate directly to the intra-document portion of the target document when the target document is displayed on the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein appending the artificial anchor comprises appending the artificial anchor to a uniform resource locator that specifies the location of the target document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the artificial anchor includes a preassigned artificial anchor designator designating the artificial anchor to an artificial anchor module in a client device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the artificial anchor includes the preassigned artificial anchor designator as either a prefix or a suffix and wherein the preassigned artificial anchor designator includes a preassigned set of text characters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the artificial anchor includes the query-relevant text.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of search results at a client device in response to a search query, each of the search results including a uniform resource locator identifying a corresponding target document and an artificial anchor corresponding to an intra-document portion of the corresponding target document, the intra-document portion including query-relevant text that identifies the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document;

in response to a selection of a search result from the search results at the client device, transmitting from the client device a request for the corresponding target document identified by the uniform resource locator included in the selected search result and receiving at the client device the corresponding target document in response to the request; and

processing the artificial anchor included in the selected search result at the client device to cause the client device to display the corresponding intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the artificial anchors comprise a preassigned artificial anchor designator designating the artificial anchor to an artificial anchor module in the client device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the artificial anchors includes the preassigned artificial anchor designator as either a prefix or a suffix and wherein the preassigned artificial anchor designator includes a preassigned set of text characters.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein processing the artificial anchor included in the selected search result at the client device to cause the client device to display the corresponding intra-document portion of the corresponding target document comprises highlighting the query-relevant text that identifies the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the search results includes the query-relevant text, and wherein the query-relevant text for each search result is extracted from the corresponding intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.

12. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a search result page including a plurality of search results, each search result including a search result link pointing to a corresponding target document and a snippet extracted from an intra-document portion of the corresponding target document;

for each search result, generating an intra-document link based on the snippet included in the search result by appending an artificial anchor to the search result link, the intra-document link pointing to the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document; and

in response to a selection of one of the intra-document links, receiving the corresponding target document and navigating directly to the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein each artificial anchor includes a preassigned artificial anchor designator designating the anchor as artificial to an artificial anchor module in a client device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each artificial anchor includes a portion of the snippet extracted from the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.

15. A client device, comprising:

a client browser configured to display a search result that includes an artificial anchor appended to a uniform resource locator for a target document, the artificial anchor corresponding to an intra-document portion of the target document, and wherein in response to the search result being selected, the client browser transmits a request for the target document and receives the target document in response to the request; and

an artificial anchor module configured to process the artificial anchor and to cause the client browser to display the intra-document portion of the target document corresponding to the artificial anchor.

16. The client device of claim 15, wherein the artificial anchor comprises a preassigned artificial anchor designator designating the artificial anchor to the artificial anchor module in the client device.

17. The client device of claim 16, wherein the search results includes at least one snippet extracted from the intra-document portion of the target document.

18. A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium, the computer program product including instructions, which when executed by a computer system, are operable to cause the computer system to perform acts comprising:

receiving an address for a target document, the target document including query-relevant text that identifies an intra-document portion of the target document;

generating an artificial anchor corresponding to the intra-document portion of the target document; and

appending the artificial anchor to the address.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the artificial anchor includes the query-relevant text.

19. The computer program product of 18, wherein the artificial anchor includes the preassigned artificial anchor designator as either a prefix or a suffix and wherein the preassigned artificial anchor designator includes a preassigned set of text characters.

21. A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium, the computer program product including instructions, which when executed by a client device, are operable to cause the client device to perform acts comprising:

receiving a plurality of search results at a client device in response to a search query, each of the search results including a uniform resource locator identifying a corresponding target document and an artificial anchor corresponding to an intra-document portion of the corresponding target document, the intra-document portion including query-relevant text that identifies the intra-document portion of the corresponding target document;

in response to a selection of a search result from the search results at the client device, transmitting from the client device a request for the corresponding target document identified by the uniform resource locator included in the selected search result and receiving at the client device the corresponding target document in response to the request; and

processing the artificial anchor included in the selected search result at the client device to cause the client device to display the corresponding intra-document portion of the corresponding target document.