Method, article of manufacture and apparatus for providing browsing information

• US 6,745,227 B1
• Filed: 07/20/2000
• Issued: 06/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Day, Paul Reuben, Bates, Cary Lee, Santosuosso, John Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, Marc D.
• Application Number:
  US09/620,006
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/201, 709/200, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/203, 707/104.1, 715/501.1, 715/528, 715/529, 715/526
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for providing browsing information to a user browsing a plurality of network addresses using a browsing program. Specifically, the invention renders first electronic document containing a link that points to a second electronic document, and renders the link in a first, second or third manner. The link is rendered in a first manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document or a recently accessed electronic document. The link is rendered in a second manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from another document other than the first electronic document or the recently accessed electronic document. The link is rendered in a third manner if the second electronic document was previously unaccessed.

Claims

1. A method for providing browsing information to a user browsing a plurality of network addresses using a browser program, the method comprising:

upon receiving, by the browser program, at least a portion of a first electronic document containing a link that points to a second electronic document;

displaying, in a browser window, the link in a first manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from at least one of the first electronic document and a recently accessed electronic document;

displaying, in the browser window, the link in a second manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from another electronic document other than at least one of the first electronic document and the recently accessed electronic document; and

displaying, in the browser window, the link in a third manner if the second electronic document was previously unaccessed, wherein the first, second and third manners of displaying the link are visually distinctive to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the link in the first manner comprises displaying the link in a first formatting attribute, wherein displaying the link in the second manner comprises displaying the link in a second formatting attribute, and wherein displaying the link in the third manner comprises displaying the link in a third formatting attribute.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first formatting attribute, the second formatting attribute and the third formatting attribute are distinguished by one of color, flashing buttons, numerical ratings, shading, highlighting, bolding, colors, icons and checkmarks.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic document is located at a first network address of a network of computers and the second electronic document is located at a second network address of the network of computers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network of computers comprises an Internet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic document comprises a first web page and the second electronic document comprises a second web page.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the link in a first manner comprises:

determining whether the second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of determining comprises:

determining whether a first network address for the first electronic document is in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) field of a page data structure; and

determining, for an electronic document entry having the first network address in the URL field, whether a second network address for the second electronic document is in a forward visit field of the page data structure.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the link in a first manner comprises:

determining whether the second electronic document was previously accessed from the recently accessed electronic document.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of determining comprises:

determining whether an electronic document has a timestamp value in the timestamp field of a page data structure that is above a threshold value indicative of the recently accessed electronic document; and

determining, for an electronic document entry having the timestamp value above the threshold value, whether a second network address for the second web page is in a forward visit field of the page data structure.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the recently visited electronic document comprises an electronic document accessed in a current session of a browser program.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the recently visited electronic document comprises an electronic document in a Go menu of a graphic user interface (GUI) of a browser program utilized to access electronic documents.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second electronic document represents an electronic document in context with the first electronic document, if second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document or the recently accessed electronic document.

14. An apparatus for providing contextual information, the apparatus comprising:

a storage device for storing a browser program;

a display for displaying a browser window of the browser program; and

a microprocessor, coupled to the storage device, for executing a browser program retrieved from the storage device, and wherein a link contained in a first document and that points to a second electronic document, is displayed in the browser window in a first manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from at least one of the first electronic document and a recently accessed electronic document, displayed in a second manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from another electronic document other than at least one of the first electronic document and the recently accessed electronic document, and displayed in a third manner if the second electronic document was previously unaccessed.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first, second and third manners are visually distinct from one another according to different formatting attributes.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the storage device stores a page data structure comprising a URL field and a timestamp field, where the URL field and timestamp field are provided for an electronic document entry.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the page data structure further comprises a forward visit field for the electronic document entry.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first electronic document is located at a first network address of a network of computers and the second electronic document is located at a second network address of the network of computers.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the microprocessor determines whether the second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document or the recently visited electronic document.

20. A computer readable medium storing a software program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform an operation upon receiving at least a portion of a first electronic document containing a link that points to a second electronic document[[;

]], the operation comprising;

displaying, in a browser window, the link in a first manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from at least one of the first electronic document and a recently accessed electronic document;

displaying, in the browser window, the link in a second manner if the second electronic document was previously accessed from another electronic document other than at least one of the first electronic document and the recently accessed electronic document; and

displaying, in the browser window, the link in a third manner if the second electronic document was previously unaccessed, wherein the first, second and third manners of displaying the link are visually distinctive to the user.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein displaying the link in the first manner comprises displaying the link in a first formatting attribute, wherein displaying the link in the second manner comprises displaying the link in a second formatting attribute, and wherein displaying the link in the third manner comprises displaying the link in a third formatting attribute.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the first formatting attribute, the second formatting attribute and the third formatting attribute are distinguished by one of color, flashing buttons, numerical ratings, shading, highlighting, bolding, colors, icons, and checkmarks.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the first electronic document is located at a first network address of a network of computers and the second electronic document is located at a second network address of the network of computers.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the network of computers comprises an Internet.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the first electronic document comprises a first web page and the second electronic document comprises a second web page.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein displaying the link in a first manner comprises:

determining whether the second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the step of determining comprises:

determining whether a first network address for the first electronic document is in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) field of a page data structure; and

determining, for an electronic document entry having the first network address in the URL field, whether a second network address for the second electronic document is in a forward visit field of the page data structure.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein displaying the link in a first manner comprises:

determining whether the second electronic document was previously accessed from the recently accessed electronic document.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the step of determining comprises:

determining whether an electronic document has a timestamp value in the timestamp field of a page data structure that is above a threshold value indicative of the recently accessed electronic document; and

determining, for an electronic document entry having the timestamp value above the threshold value, whether a second network address for the second web page is in a forward visit field of the page data structure.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the recently visited electronic document comprises an electronic document accessed in a current session of a browser program.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the recently visited electronic document comprises an electronic document in a Go menu of a graphic user interface (GUI) of a browser program utilized to access electronic documents.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the second electronic document represents an electronic document in context with the first electronic document, if second electronic document was previously accessed from the first electronic document or the recently accessed electronic document.

33. A method for providing displaying links to a user browsing a plurality of network addresses using a browser program, the method comprising:

requesting, by the browser program, access to a first electronic resource containing a link that points to a second electronic resource; and

displaying, in a browser window of the browser program, the link in one of at least three different formats, each format being visually distinct from the others;

wherein a first format is indicative of the second electronic resource not having been previously accessed by the user, wherein a second format is indicative a first path by which the second electronic document was navigated to and wherein a third format is indicative a second path by which the second electronic document was navigated to, the first and second paths being different.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first path to the second electronic document is from one of the first electronic document and a recently accessed electronic document.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the first path to the second electronic document is from an electronic document other than the first electronic document and a recently accessed electronic document.