Varying web page link based on user and web page status

• US 6,449,765 B1
• Filed: 08/09/1999
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eAcceleration Corporation
• Original Assignee: Acceleration Software International Corporation
• Inventors: Ballard, Clinton L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US09/370,546
• Time in Patent Office: 1,128 Days
• Field of Search: 717/1, 717/11, 717/168, 717/170, 717/174, 717/177, 707/513, 707/203, 707/511, 705/26
• US Class Current: 717/174
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A plurality of vendors include a prescribed hyperlink protocol in their web pages to be participating web pages. The protocol included is the same for everyone, although the function and appearance of a resulting hyperlink varies. For a non-participating end user, the prescribed hyperlink forwards access to a sign-up site. For a participating end user, the function varies according whether the current web page is the referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, the privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, or another participating web page. For the referral start page, the hyperlink redirects access to the privileged web site start page. For the privileged start page, the hyperlink redirects access to the referral start page. For other participating web pages, the function may rotate to redirect access to the referral site or the privileged domain.

Claims

1. A method for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

loading and displaying at an end user computer web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, executing said second command, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page,

wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page,

wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the referral web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to the privileged web site start page.

2. The method of claim 1, in which a browser software program is executed at the end user computer to enable access to the global computer network at an alterable home page, the alterable home page being set to a first URL address, the method further comprising the steps of:

changing the alterable home page to a predetermined URL address.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined URL is an address for a self-executing program which executes upon access to the predetermined URL, and further comprising the steps of:

accessing the predetermined URL causing the self-executing program to execute;

identifying another URL address corresponding to one of the participating web page resources; and

loading and displaying web page content at the end user computer from said identified another URL address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said range of statuses for the first web page resource status further comprises privileged web site start page and privileged web site non-start page, wherein the step of identifying said another URL address, comprises:

selecting a participating web page resource having a status of either one of referring web site start page or privileged web site start page.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of identifying said another URL address, comprises:

weighting the participating web page resource having a status of referring web site start page to be identified as said another URL address at least 25% of log-on accesses to the global computer network from the end user computer.

6. A method for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

loading and displaying at an end user computer web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, executing said second command, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page,

wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page,

wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the privileged web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to an end-user preferred web page resource.

7. A method for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

loading and displaying at an end user computer web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, executing said second command, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page,

wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page,

wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the privileged web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to the referral web site start page for the end user.

8. A method for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

loading and displaying at an end user computer web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, executing said second command, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, one a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a nonreferral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page,

wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page,

wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as one of the privileged web site non-start pages, the function of the first hyperlink is to change the privileged web site start page to the first web page resource.

9. A system for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the system comprising:

means for loading and displaying at an end user computer, web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

means for executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

means for executing said second command in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determ ined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page, wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page, and wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain, and wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site participating web pages;

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the referral web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to the privileged web site start page;

wherein when the end user status is the second end user status, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to a prescribed web page resource, and further comprising;

means for loading and displaying web page content from the prescribed web page resource;

means for sending agreement from the end user to become a participating end user; and

means for receiving data at the end user computer which identifies the first web page resource to have be the referral web site start page.

10. The system of claim 9, in which a browser software program is executed at the end user computer to enable access to the global computer network at an alterable home page, the alterable home page being set to a first URL address, the system further comprising:

means for changing the alterable home page to a predetermined URL address.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the predetermined URL is an address for a self-executing program which executes upon access to the predetermined URL, and further comprising:

means for accessing the predetermined URL causing the self-executing program to execute;

means for identifying another URL address corresponding to one of the participating web page resources; and

means for loading and displaying web page content at the end user computer from said identified another URL address.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said range of statuses for the first web page resource status further comprises privileged web site start page and privileged web site non-start page, wherein the means for identifying said another URL address, comprises:

means for selecting a participating web page resource having a status of either one of referring web site start page or privileged web site start page.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the mean for identifying said another URL address, comprises:

weighting the participating web page resource having a status of referring web site start page to be identified as said another URL address at least 25% of log-on accesses to the global computer network from the end user computer.

14. A system for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the system comprising:

means for loading and displaying at an end user computer, web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

means for executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

means for executing said second command in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page, wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page, and wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain, and wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site participating web pages;

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the privileged web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to an end-user preferred web page resource;

wherein when the end user status is the second end user status, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to a prescribed web page resource, and further comprising;

means for loading and displaying web page content from the prescribed web page resource;

means for sending agreement from the end user to become a participating end user; and

means for receiving data at the end user computer which identifies the first web page resource to have be the referral web site start page.

15. A system for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the system comprising:

means for loading and displaying at an end user computer, web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

means for executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

means for executing said second command in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page, wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page, and wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain, and wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site participating web pages;

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the privileged web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to the referral web site start page for the end user;

wherein when the end user status is the second end user status, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to a prescribed web page resource, and further comprising;

means for loading and displaying web page content from the prescribed web page resource;

means for sending agreement from the end user to become a participating end user; and

means for receiving data at the end user computer which identifies the first web page resource to have be the referral web site start page.

16. A system for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the system comprising:

means for loading and displaying at an end user computer, web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network;

means for executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and

means for executing said second command in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status;

wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user;

wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page, wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page, and wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain, and wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site participating web pages;

wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain,

wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages,

wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as one of the privileged web site non-start pages, the function of the first hyperlink is to change the privileged web site start page to the first web page resource;

wherein when the end user status is the second end user status, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to a prescribed web page resource, and further comprising;

means for loading and displaying web page content from the prescribed web page resource;

means for sending agreement from the end user to become a participating end user; and

means for receiving data at the end user computer which identifies the first web page resource to have be the referral web site start page.