Gathering selected information from the world wide web

• US 6,366,923 B1
• Filed: 03/23/1998
• Issued: 04/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Webivore Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Webivore Research LLC
• Inventors: Gouldstone, James E., Reidy, James G., Lenk, Cecilia, Gort, Carl J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): RONES, CHARLES
• Application Number:
  US09/046,364
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/218, 709/300, 707/6, 707/10, 707/104, 707/1, 379/93, 379/15, 345/333, 345/339, 345/343, 399/366, 395/326
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system for conducting research on the Internet accesses a pre-selected web site on a computer network through a host site and provides a view of a page from the web site on a computer monitor in an environment downloaded at least in part from the host within which data can be clipped from the view and saved to a file, along with site-specific reference data, which includes, for example the site name, author, and URL. A human-perceptible document can be produced from the clipped data and the data can be edited.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for conducting research on the Internet, the method comprising:

accessing a pre-selected web page on a computer network;

providing a view of the web page on a computer monitor;

providing a switch to change from a search mode that accesses the web page to a collect mode that enables a user to identify a portion of data provided in the view,

receiving user input identifying a portion of data to be clipped provided in the view;

saving the identified portion of data to another file using the same graphical user interface that provides the view; and

receiving a reference annotation from the pre-selected web page, the reference annotation containing information corresponding to at least the portion of the web page in the view, and adding the reference annotation corresponding to the web page in the view to the file.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

replacing a set of search tools with a set of collection tools in the same screen space.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the search tools provide a hierarchical presentation of a plurality of topics and continuously display a selected hierarchical path.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the file to a frame in a web browser displayed on the computer monitor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the clipped portion of data includes more than one feature of the web page.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the features include multi-media data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a user-generated annotation to the file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference annotation comprises citation information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein location information about the clipped portion relative to the URL of the view is stored.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing access only to pre-selected web pages; and

displaying a preview of the web page prior to accessing the web page.

11. A computer-implemented method for conducting research on the Internet, comprising:

receiving user input choosing a topic from a list of topics;

locating data stored on a first computer medium attached to a remote computer, wherein the data is associated with the topic;

displaying the data on a local computer monitor;

switching from a search mode to a collection mode;

receiving user input selecting a portion of the data;

saving the portion of the data in a file on a second computer medium; and

receiving from the remote computer and saving a citation reference with the data in the file on the second computer medium, the citation reference being descriptive of at least the user selected portion of the data stored on the first computer medium; and

also storing location information of the selected portion relative to the data being displayed.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

editing the file to include user-supplied data.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

remaining within the same user interface boundary while locating, selecting, and saving data.

14. A computer program, residing on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions causing a computer to:

present a selection of web pages on a computer monitor;

access one web page in the selection through a computer network;

display the one web page in a frame on the computer monitor;

provide a switch to change from a search mode that accesses the web page to a collect mode that enables a user to identify a portion of data provided in the view;

receive user input that identifies a portion of data to be clipped from the frame;

save the identified portion of data to a file;

produce a human-perceptible document from the clipped data and reference annotation.

15. The computer program of claim 14, further comprising instructions causing a computer to:

annotate the clipped data with a bibliographic reference.

16. The computer program of claim 14, further comprising instructions causing a computer to:

display a description of the web page prior to accessing the web page.

17. A computer program, residing on a computer-readable medium, comprising instructions causing a computer to:

receive user input that chooses a topic from a hierarchical list of topics while displaying a hierarchical path;

locate data stored on a first computer medium attached to a computer, wherein the data is associated with the topic;

display the data on a computer monitor;

receive user input to switch from a search mode to a collection mode;

receive user input that selects a portion of the data;

save the portion of the data to a file on a second computer medium; and

receive and save a citation annotation with the data in the file on the second computer medium, the reference annotation containing citation information corresponding to at least the selected portion of the data

store location information about the clipped portion relative to the location of the data being displayed.

18. The computer program of claim 17, further comprising instructions causing a computer to:

display a preview of the web page prior to accessing the web page; and

remain within one user-interface environment during the search mode and collect mode.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising instructions causing a computer to:

add user-supplied data to the file.