MANAGING WEBSITE BLACKLISTS

• US 20090287705A1
• Filed: 05/14/2008
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Schneider, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A method and system for managing website blacklists to control website access of a user. In one embodiment, a client queries a database regarding a location of a website before the client fetches a resource from the website. The database includes a list of websites based on which access by the client is controlled. If the location of the website in the query exists in the database, the client displays a warning dialog and receives a user input. The client determines whether to continue fetching the resource based on the user input to the warning dialog.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

querying a database regarding a location of a website before fetching a resource from the website, the database including a list of websites based on which access by a client is controlled;

displaying a warning dialog at the client in response to a determination that the location of the website exists in the database; and

determining whether to continue fetching the resource based on a user input to the warning dialog.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of websites includes Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of some or all pages of the websites.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein querying a database further comprises:

querying a plurality of networked databases regarding the location of the website, each of the networked databases maintaining a different list of websites based on which access by the client is controlled.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein querying a database further comprises:

receiving the list of websites from the database over a network in response to the querying; and

caching the list of websites on the client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of websites includes a plurality of sublists, each sublist associated with one of a plurality of clients of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the database further comprises a second list of websites of a plurality of categories, each category indicating a different degree of access violation, the method further comprising:

blocking access to the website in response to a determination that the website belongs to one of the categories.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a hot key entry at the client after entering a given website;

exiting the given website; and

adding the given website to the database.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein querying a database further comprises:

querying a server at a service provider that maintains the databases and provides website access management.

9. A system comprising:

data storage to store a database that includes a list of websites based on which website access is managed;

a computing entity, accessible to the data storage, to query the database regarding a location of a website before a resource is fetched from the website; and

a display, coupled to the computing entity, to display a warning dialog in response to a determination that the location of the website exists in the database and to receive an user input to cause the computing entity to continue fetching the resource.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a server, coupled to the computing entity, to read and update the list of websites in response to a request from the computing entity.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a plurality of networked databases accessible by the computing entity, each of the networked databases to maintain a different list of websites based on which access by the computing entity is controlled.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the list of websites includes those websites that a user has visited and does not wish to visit again.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the computing entity further comprises:

a user interface device configured as a hot key to cause a browser plugin to exit a current website and to add the current website to the database.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the database includes Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of some or all pages of the websites.

15. A computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

querying a database regarding a location of a website before fetching a resource from the website, the database including a list of websites based on which access by a client is controlled;

displaying a warning dialog at the client in response to a determination that the location of the website exists in the database; and

determining whether to continue fetching the resource based on a user input to the warning dialog.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein querying a database further comprises:

querying a plurality of networked databases regarding the location of the website, each of the networked databases maintaining a different list of websites based on which access by the client is controlled.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the list of websites includes a plurality of sublists, each sublist associated with one of a plurality of clients of the user.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the database includes Universal Resource Locators (URLs) of some or all pages of a given website.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a hot key entry at the client after entering a given website;

exiting the given website; and

adding the given website to the database.

17. The computer readable medium of 15, wherein querying a database further comprises:

receiving the list of websites from the database over a network in response to the querying; and

caching the list of websites on the client.

21. A system comprising:

data storage to store a database that includes locations of websites that a user of the database is prevented from accessing; and

a computing entity accessible to the data storage to query the database in response to a request from the user.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the database is distributed across a plurality of networked locations.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the database is part of a browser plugin that queries the database.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the database is maintained by a third party that sells access to the database.