Automatically identifying links displayed by a browser that is being used by a user that point to pages of web sites selected as being of interest to the user

• US 7,246,308 B1
• Filed: 02/27/2004
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Manber, Udi, Leblang, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, MANGLESH M
• Application Number:
  US10/788,885
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/500, 715/513, 705/26
• US Class Current: 715/205
• 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

Abstract

A facility for analyzing a web page is described. The facility receives the web page. For each link occurring in the web page, if the link points to a web site previously indicated by a user as being of interest, the facility modifies the web page to identify the link as pointing to a web site of interest.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for identifying links to web sites that are of interest to a user, comprising:

displaying a first web page;

displaying a web site selection control in conjunction with the first web page;

in response to activation of the web site selection control by the user while the first web page is displayed;

creating a new entry corresponding to the first web page in a list of web sites of interest,

identifying a web site containing the first web page, and

storing in the created entry information specifying the identified web site;

at a time after the storing, receiving a request for a second web page;

identifying within the second web page a link that points to the web site specified by the created entry;

modifying the second web page to indicate that the identified link points to a web site of interest and a first indicator associated with the identified link, the first indicator corresponding to content of the web site to which the identified link points, the content of the web site being obtained from a part of the web site of interest that is distinct from the pan of the web site to which the identified link initially points;

displaying the second web page as modified; and

in response to a change request from the web site that corresponds to the identified link, modifying the second web page to replace the first indicator with a second indicator associated with the identified link, the second indicator representing a change in the content of the web site,

wherein at least one of the first indicator and the second indicator is displayed indicative of information about the date on which the user has indicated the web site to be of interest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the web site selection control is usable by the user to indicate that a web site to which a presently-displayed web page belongs is of interest, and wherein displaying the second web page comprises modifying the display of the web site selection control to indicate that the web page belongs to a web site indicated to be of interest.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the website selection control is one of a plurality of buttons, each button of the plurality corresponding to a different list of web sites that have been indicated by the user to be of interest, and wherein the identified web site is added to the list of web sites to which the activated control corresponds.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein each button of the plurality corresponds to a list of web sites relating to a different user interest, a different browsing mode, or a different subject matter.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

displaying in conjunction with the browser window a second website selection control for bookmarking a web page;

receiving an indication that the user has activated the second website selection control during the display of the distinguished web page in the browser window; and

in response to receiving the indication that the user has activated the second website selection control, adding the distinguished web page to a list of web pages that have been bookmarked, the list of web pages that have been bookmarked being distinct from the list of web sites that have been indicated by the user to be of interest.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the browser window is displayed by a browser program, the method further comprising:

in response to the display of the distinguished web page in the browser window, adding the distinguished web page to a list of web pages visited by the browser program, the list of web pages visited by the browser program being distinct from the list of web sites that have been indicated by the user to be of interest.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an event to modify the second indicator.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the event is determined when there is a change in the content targeting the user.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the event is determined based on user interactions with respect to the second indicator.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

displaying the web page with a third indicator which has been modified from the second indicator based on the event.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first indicator, the second indicator, and the third indicator includes an image and text corresponding to the content.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a specific color to the identified link based on the content of the web site.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

including an image to at least one of the first indicator, the second indicator, and the third indicator, the image being obtained from the web site.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the web site is a promotion offer targeting a user group with which the user is associated.

7. A computer storage medium comprising computer executable instructions whose contents cause a computing system to track web sites by:

during the display of a distinguished web page in the browser window, receiving a user input event associated with a web site tracking command;

in response to receiving the user input event;

identifying a web site with which the distinguished web page is associated;

adding the identified web site to a list of web sites that have been selected for tracking by a user;

when a link to a web page associated with the identified web site is displayed in the browser window at a time after the adding, identifying and displaying a first indicator for the link, the first indicator being indicative of advertising content of the identified web site; and

updating the first indicator with a second indicator in response to a change in the advertising content while the link to a web page associated with the identified web site is displayed in the browser window, the second indicator representing the change in the content of the web site,

wherein at least one of the first indicator and the second indicator is displayed indicative of information about the date on which the user has indicated the web site to be of interest.