Acquiring web page information without commitment to downloading the web page

• US 7,155,489 B1
• Filed: 06/28/2000
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Heilbron, Lisa, Platt, John C., Schoelkopf, Bernhard, Simard, Patrice Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duong, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US09/609,001
• Time in Patent Office: 2,372 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 707/10, 715/501.1
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

What is disclosed is acquiring information regarding a web page, without having to commit to downloading that page. In one embodiment, after a current web page is downloaded from one source, and information regarding web pages linked to by links in the current web page are downloaded from a second source, when a user hovers a cursor over a link on a current web page, an informational region is displayed by the link that includes the information from the second source. The informational region may include, for example, a text box that apparently floats by the link. The information in the region can include, for example, keywords in the meta tags of the web page; paragraph headings of the web page; links on the web page to other pages; etc.

Claims

1. A client-side computer-implemented method comprising:

fetching a current web page, the current web page including one or more links, each link pointing to a web page;

fetching current information from each linked web page, the information regarding the web page to which each link points, wherein the fetching comprises accessing each linked web page and retrieving information from each linked web page such that current information is then stored separately from the current web page once fetched;

assembling relational information based on the fetched information from each linked web page and based on previously stored historical information, the relational information including at least one newly generated historical relationship between the current fetched information and the previously stored information regarding a user of the client-side computer;

displaying the current web page; and

,

displaying an informational region in response to a cursor hovering over a particular link of the one or more links, the region including the current information previously fetched regarding the web page to which the link points and the relational information previously assembled.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the informational region comprises displaying the informational region by the link.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is such that a user is able to retrieve the information regarding the web page without selecting the link and committing to downloading the web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the informational region comprises a text box apparently floating near the link.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the web page includes at least one of:

keywords of the web page;

paragraph headings of the web page;

links on the web page to other web pages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the relational information includes at least information based on a user'"'"'s relationship to the web page.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the relational information based on the user'"'"'s relationship to the web page includes the user'"'"'s prior web browsing history for the web page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the relational information includes at least information based on a user relative to the web page.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the relational information based on the user relative to the web page includes whether the user is likely to be interested in browsing the web page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the web page includes at least information regarding whether the link is broken.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising disabling the link in response to determining that the web page includes content that a user is not allowed to view.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the link in one of a number of colors based on a predetermined criteria.

13. A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a client processor to perform a method comprising:

fetching a current web page, the current web page including one or more links, each link pointing to a web page;

fetching current information from each linked web page, the information regarding the web page to which each link points, wherein the fetching comprises accessing each linked web page and retrieving information from each linked web page such that current information is then stored separately from the current web page once fetched;

assembling relational information based on the current fetched information from each linked web page and based on previously stored historical information, the relational information including at least one newly generated historical relationship between the contemporaneously fetched information and the previously stored information regarding a user of the client-side computer;

displaying the current web page; and

displaying an informational region, in response to a cursor hovering over a particular link of the one or more links, the region including the current information previously fetched regarding the web page to which the link points and the relational information previously assembled.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein displaying the informational region comprises displaying the informational region by the particular link.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein fetching the information regarding the web page to which each link points comprises retrieving the information from a server on which the information is stored.

16. The medium of claim 13, wherein fetching the information regarding the web page to which each link points comprises retrieving the information from a local cache in which the information is stored.

17. The medium of claim 13, wherein fetching the information regarding the web page to which each link points comprises retrieving the information from a proxy cache in which the information is stored.

18. The medium of claim 13, wherein fetching the information regarding the web page to which each link points comprises:

sending a request to an entity for the information; and

returning the information by the entity in response to the entity determining that the information exists.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein fetching the information regarding the web page to which each link points further comprises, otherwise,

generating by the entity of the information for the web page;

and,

returning the information by the entity.

20. The medium of claim 18, wherein the entity comprises at least one of:

a proxy cache, a local cache; and

a server.

21. The medium of claim 13, wherein the information for the web page to which each link points comprises at least one of:

automatically generated content and manually generated content.

22. A computerized system comprising:

at least one first entity storing web pages;

at least one second entity separate from the first entity storing information regarding the web pages; and

at least one client, each client able to browse web pages such that fetching of a web page having one or more linked web pages from at least one first entity causes the fetching of current information from each of the one or more linked web pages about the one ore more linked web pages from at least one second entity and causes the assembling of relational information based on the current fetched information and based on previously stored historical information, the relational information including at least one newly generated historical relationship between the current fetched information and the previously stored information regarding a user of the client-side computer, the and the client further operable such that positioning of a cursor over a link of a current web page causes display of an informational region including information regarding a web page to which the link points as stored on the at least one second entity and causes display of the assembled relational information.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the informational region is displayed by the link.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the second entity comprises at least one of:

a proxy cache;

a local cache; and

a server.

25. A computerized system comprising:

at least one first entity capable of storing web pages;

at least one second entity capable of providing summaries of the web pages, wherein the summaries include at least one historical relationship between a user of the first entity and a web page stored on the first entity;

at least one third entity capable of providing for a given web page stored by the first entity, a list of all links on the web page and for each of the links, the corresponding summary, provided by the second entity; and

at least one client, each able to browse web pages such that fetching of a web page from the at least one first entity causes fetching current information provided by the third entity and such that positioning of a cursor over a link of a current web page causes display of an informational region including at least one newly generated historical relationship that is based on previously stored historical information and the current fetched information regarding a web page to which the link points.