Systems and methods for generating and providing previews of electronic files such as web files

• US 7,162,493 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2001
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Penta Trading Limited
• Original Assignee: Penta Trading Limited
• Inventors: Weiss, Yuval, Eyal, Ori
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo; Thuy N.
• Application Number:
  US10/203,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20030014415A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,147 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/104, 707/102, 707/523, 707/218, 707/228, 707/104.1, 345/335, 715/501.1, 715/513, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system for previewing contents of Web files is provided. The system includes a computing platform for executing a previewing application being designed and configured for: (a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of a Web file; and (b) generating a preview of the contents of said Web file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the content of said Web file.

Claims

1. A system for previewing contents of Web files, the system comprising a computing platform for executing a previewing application being designed and configured for:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of a content and/or a source code of a Web page; and

(b) generating an image preview of said content and/or said source code of said Web page, said preview presenting at least a portion of said content of said Web page, wherein said at least a portion of said content and/or said source code of said Web page is converted from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following said generating said image preview; and

wherein at least a portion of said image preview is in a vector format.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server being for providing a link to said Web page.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said link is a hyperlink representing a Web address of said Web page.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said server employs a search engine application and further wherein said hyperlink is presented thereby as a result of a search query.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional computing platform being capable of accessing and optionally displaying said image preview generated by said computing platform.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said image preview is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said image preview includes activatable links embedded therein.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said activatable links are hyperlinks.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said Web page is stored by at least one additional computing platform capable of communicating with said computing platform.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said computing platform is further designed and configured for storing said image preview generated thereby.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least a portion of said content and/or said source code of said Web page is retrieved from at least one user client communicating with said computing platform.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least a portion of said content and/or said source code of said Web page is retrieved from a server being in communication with said computing platform.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional computing platform being in communication with said computing platform, said at least one additional computing platform storing links to said Web pages.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said at least one additional computing platform executes a search engine application capable of providing said links to said Web pages as part of a search result list.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein said at least one additional computing platform is a server or a user client.

16. A method of previewing contents of a Web page comprising:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of a content and/or a source code of the Web file; and

(b) generating an image preview of said content and/or said source code of the Web page, said preview presenting at least a portion of said content, wherein said at least a portion of said content and/or said source code of said Web page is converted from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following said generating said image preview; and

wherein at least a portion of said image preview is in a vector format.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein step (a) is effected by linking to said Web page via a link thereof and downloading said contents and/or said source of said Web page.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said link is included in a results list of a Web search.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein said image preview is generated in a manner enabling embedding of activatable links therein.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said activatable links are hyperlinks.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein said image preview includes an activatable link to said content of the Web page.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein said image preview is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

23. A system enabling a user to surf the World Wide Web, the system comprising:

(a) a database server including image previews of Web pages each of said image previews presenting at least a portion of a content of a Web page, wherein said image previews are in a file format different than that of said Web pages; and

wherein at least a portion of each of said image previews is in a vector format; and

(b) at least one user client being in communication with said database, said at least one user client being capable of accessing and displaying each of said image previews thereby enabling a user of said at least one user client to surf the World Wide Web.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein at least one of said image previews is generated by said database server according to a user command.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein each of said image previews is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein each of said image previews includes an activatable link embedded therein.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said activatable link is a hyperlink of a Web page.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein activation of said hyperlink results in a display of an image preview of a content of a Web page represented by said hyperlink.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein activation of said hyperlink results in access to a Web page represented by said hyperlink.