Web page thumbnails and user configured complementary information provided from a server

• US 7,167,875 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2003
• Issued: 01/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Paolini, Michael A., Brown, Michael Wayne, Lawrence, Kelvin Roderick
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo; Thuy N.
• Application Number:
  US10/662,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20040064471A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,226 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.X, 707/104.1, 715/835, 715/501.1, 345/557, 709/217, 709/219, 348/207.11
• 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: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• 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
• 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 method for presenting content from the page in a distributed database. In a preferred embodiment, a server receives a request from a client for a page from the database wherein the page has a plurality of links to linked pages in the database. The server retrieves the page and generates a set of thumbnails of the linked pages in the database. The server then sends the page and the set of thumbnails to the client.

Claims

1. A method for providing content from the page in a distributed database, comprising the steps of:

providing a page of data from the database to a client, wherein the page has a plurality of links to linked pages in the database;

retrieving at least one cached thumbnail for links within the plurality of links; and

generating at least one uncached thumbnail for links within the plurality of links, wherein the at least one cached thumbnail and the at least one uncached thumbnail form a set of thumbnails for the plurality of links.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising embedding the thumbnails into the page prior to providing the page to the client.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising manually fine tuning the thumbnails prior to embedding the thumbnails into the page.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

selectively replacing the thumbnails by icons; and

embedding the icons into the page prior to providing the thumbnails to the client.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 wherein the icons are manually determined by the owner of the linked page associated with each icon.

6. A computer network, comprising:

a network;

a server connected to the network; and

client connected to the network;

wherein

the network provides communications between the client and the saver;

the server provides to the client a page of data from a database wherein the page has a plurality of links to linked pages in the database;

the server retrieves at least one cached thumbnail for links within the plurality of links;

the server generates at least one uncached thumbnail for links within the plurality of links, wherein the at least one cached thumbnail and the at least one uncached thumbnail form a set of thumbnails for the plurality of links; and

the server embeds in the page the set of the thumbnails of the linked pages in the database.

7. The network as recited in claim 6, wherein the set of thumbnails are manually fine tuned prior to being embedded in the page.

8. The network as recited in claim 6, wherein the thumbnails are selectively replaced by icons and the icons embedded in the page prior to providing the page to the client.