METHOD OF ENHANCING HYPERLINKS BY ADDING USER SELECTABLE FUNCTIONS TO HYPERLINKS FOR CAPTURING DISPLAYABLE ELEMENTS AND THE URL ASSOCIATED WITH THE HYPERLINKS AND DISPLAYING A LINK SNAPSHOT BASED ON THE HYPERLINK

• US 6,925,496 B1
• Filed: 06/16/2000
• Issued: 08/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: iLOR LLC
• Inventors: Mansfield, Steve, Ingram, Gerald W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Philip B.
• Application Number:
  US09/594,786
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/224, 709/223, 707/501, 345/866, 345/769, 345/854, 345/339, 345/357
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An enhanced hyperlink and method for providing an enhanced hyperlinked are provided. This invention permits the user to interact with a hyperlink in a variety of ways without necessarily having to open and/or follow the hyperlink. This is accomplished by detecting the presence of a cursor near a hyperlink. When the cursor has remained near the hyperlink for a predetermined time period, a toolbar is displayed containing one or more link enhancements that the user may select. In response to the users'"'"' selection of a particular link enhancement, then that link enhancement function would be performed without requiring the any further action. Examples of link enhancement include, but are not limited to, opening the selected link in a new window; opening the selected link in a new window with that window minimized; creating a clickable graphic/text string, and/or icon that would enable the user to return to the selected link at a later time, or anchor the current page by creating an icon or other clickable item that would return the user to the current page; or view off-line which would, in the background download the files associated with the selected link to a memory device for viewing later off-line.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing a hyperlink, comprising:

displaying a hyperlink in a first window of an application, wherein said hyperlink is associated with a uniform resource locator (URL) and a page;

detecting a cursor in proximity to said hyperlink;

displaying a graphical toolbar in proximity to said cursor while said cursor is in proximity to said hyperlink, wherein said graphical toolbar is adapted to provide a plurality of user-selectable link enhancements, said plurality of user-selectable link enhancements comprising a user-selectable link enhancement to display a link snapshot based on said hyperlink;

receiving a first user selection of said link enhancement; and

as a result of said first user selection,

capturing a displayable element and said URL associated with said hyperlink; and

displaying a link snapshot, wherein said link snapshot comprises said captured displayable element, and is associated with said captured URL, and wherein said link snapshot is adapted to cause said page to be displayed as a result of a second user selection of said link snapshot, said page to be displayed based on said captured URL.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing said displayable element further comprises:

reducing the size of said captured displayable element.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said link snapshot is displayed at an edge of a display displaying said first window.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying said page in a second window upon said second user selection of said link snapshot.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retaining said link snapshot when said first window is closed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said capturing and said displaying said link snapshot are performed by a second application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said displayable element comprises a graphic element.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said displayable element comprises a text element.

9. A method for enhancing a hyperlink, comprising:

displaying a first page having a hyperlink in a first window of an application, wherein said first page is associated with a first uniform resource locator (URL), wherein said hyperlink is associated with a second URL and a second page;

detecting a cursor in proximity to said hyperlink;

displaying a graphical toolbar in proximity to said cursor while said cursor is in proximity to said hyperlink, wherein said graphical toolbar is adapted to provide a plurality of user-selectable link enhancements, said plurality of user-selectable link enhancements comprising a user-selectable link enhancement to display an icon based on said first URL;

receiving a first user selection of said link enhancement; and

as a result of said first user selection,

capturing said first URL associated with said first page;

displaying an icon, said icon associated with said captured first URL, said icon adapted to cause said first page to be displayed as a result of a second user selection of said icon; and

displaying said second page in said first window.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said icon is displayed at an edge of a display displaying said first window.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said icon is displayed as a button in said graphical toolbar.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said capturing and said displaying said icon are performed by a second application.

13. A method for enhancing a hyperlink, comprising:

displaying a first page having a hyperlink in a first window of an application, wherein said first page is associated with a first uniform resource locator (URL), wherein said hyperlink is associated with a second URL and a second page;

detecting a cursor in proximity to said hyperlink;

displaying a graphical toolbar in proximity to said cursor while said cursor is in proximity to said hyperlink, wherein said graphical toolbar is adapted to provide at least one user-selectable link enhancement selected from a user-selectable link enhancement to display a link snapshot based on said hyperlink, a user-selectable link enhancement to display an icon based on said first URL, a user-selectable link enhancement to store a copy of said second page, and a user-selectable link enhancement to display said second page in a second window; and

receiving a first user selection of one of said user-selectable link enhancements.