Information organization and navigation by user-generated associative overlays

• US 6,792,430 B1
• Filed: 07/29/1998
• Issued: 09/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qwest Communications International (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goldberg, Motti, Kenyon, Jeffrey D.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US09/124,540
• Time in Patent Office: 2,239 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/103, 707/104, 707/1-7, 707/103.R, 707/103.Y, 707/103.Z, 707/104.1, 345/333, 345/334, 345/335, 345/762, 345/765, 345/744
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A method of linking together digital information objects of a digital information space includes creating an overlay. The overlay includes at least one concept node, each concept node expressing one concept. A digital information object in the digital information space is accessed. The digital information object is examined to determine if at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in concept nodes is included. If the digital information object and the overlay include at least one common concept, the digital information object is automatically and dynamically linked to each concept node expressing common concepts. A user may create an information node in the overlay representing the digital information object.

Claims

1. A method of linking together digital information objects of a digital information space comprising:

creating an overlay comprising at least one concept node, each concept node expressing one concept;

accessing a digital information object in the digital information space;

determining if the digital information object includes at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in the at least one concept node;

if the digital information object and the overlay include at least one common concept, automatically and dynamically establishing a link between the digital information object and each concept node expressing one of the at least one common concept; and

permitting a user to create an information node in the overlay representing the digital information object.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital information object is a first digital information object, the method further comprising:

accessing a second digital information object in the digital information space;

determining if the second digital information object includes at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in the at least one concept node; and

automatically and dynamically linking the first information object and the second information object if the information node representing the first digital information object is linked to at least one concept node expressing a concept included in the second digital information object;

thereby allowing the user accessing the second information object to directly access the first information object.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital information space is at least one of a set comprising at least one hypertext environment, at least one desktop environment, and at least one electronic mail (email) environment.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital information objects are documents addressable using the Universal Resource Locator (URL) specification.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the concept expressed by each concept node is described by at least one keyword.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein determining if the digital information object includes at least one concept in common with concepts expressed in the at least one concept node comprises searching the digital information object for an occurrence of any of the at least one keyword describing each of the at least one concepts.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein each of the at least one keyword may be a phrase, and wherein each phrase may include Boolean logical modifiers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one concept node is a plurality of concept nodes and wherein the overlay comprises a plurality of information nodes, each information node representing a digital information object, the method further comprising:

allowing the user to manually establish a link between a first concept node and a second concept node;

allowing the user to manually establish a link between a selected concept node and a selected information node; and

allowing the user to manually establish a link between a first information node and a second information node.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing the user to annotate the accessed digital information object by storing the annotation in the representative information node.

10. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space, the digital information space comprising a plurality of addressable objects, the method comprising:

creating an overlay, the overlay comprising at least one concept, each concept described by at least one keyword;

accessing an addressable object;

scanning the accessed addressable object for occurrences of each keyword;

for each keyword found in the search, linking each concept described by the found keyword with the accessed addressable object;

permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object to the overlay and, if the user adds the reference, linking the reference with each concept described by the found keyword;

for each keyword found in the search, associating the concept described by the found keyword with the address of each added addressable object linked to any concept described by the found keyword; and

repeating scanning the accessed addressable object, linking each concept for each keyword found, permitting the user to add a reference to the accessed addressable object, and associating the concept described by the found keyword, for each addressable object accessed;

whereby the addressable objects are organized according to linking concepts, and

whereby the addressable objects are navigated by selecting one of the added addressable objects while in the accessed addressable object, the accessed addressable object and each of the added addressable objects having a common concept.

11. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 further comprising permitting the user to add and delete links between any added reference to an addressable object and any concept.

12. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 further comprising:

representing each reference to an addressable object added to the overlay by an information node; and

representing each concept in the overlay by a concept node.

13. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 12 further comprising:

allowing the user to manually link a first concept node and a second concept node;

allowing the user to manually link a selected concept node and a selected information node; and

allowing the user to manually link a first information node and a second information node.

14. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 wherein the digital information space is the World Wide Web (WWW) and wherein each addressable object address conforms to the Universal Resource Locator (URL) specification.

15. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 wherein the digital information space is a desktop environment and wherein the plurality of addressable objects comprises each addressable location accessible from the desktop environment.

16. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 wherein the digital information space is an electronic mail (email) environment and wherein each addressable object is an email message.

17. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 further including permitting the user to annotate the accessed addressable object.

18. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 wherein the overlay is a first overlay, the method further comprising:

creating a second overlay; and

merging the information from the first overlay into the second overlay.

19. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 further comprising allowing the user to order the at least one added addressable object to create an associative trail whereby the trail assists in navigating through the added addressable objects.

20. A method of allowing a user to organize and navigate a digital information space as in claim 10 wherein a search engine is operable to search digital information objects, the method further comprising submitting the overlay to the search engine, the search engine assembling a search pattern based on the at least one concept.