Efficiently displaying and researching information about the interrelationships between documents

• US 7,246,310 B1
• Filed: 04/05/2006
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Northbrook Digital LLC (Northbrook Digital)
• Inventors: Wolfe, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon, Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Botts, Michael K.
• Application Number:
  US11/278,688
• Time in Patent Office: 468 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/526, 715/501.1, 707/3, 358/1.5
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system for displaying, on a computer screen, information concerning the interrelationships of documents. A system employing the present invention also allows for the efficient research of documents that cite a document shown on the computer screen. In one embodiment, the present invention involves displaying at least a portion of a first document and simultaneously displaying a representation of one or more citing documents. The citing documents cite some portion of the displayed document. In another embodiment, the invention involves displaying at least a portion of a first document, and displaying a representation of one or more citing documents, wherein the displayed citing documents cite the displayed portion of the first document.

Claims

1. A method for making information available on a network, the method comprising the acts of:

making a large number of web pages available on a network for the purpose of providing content created by a plurality of different and independent authors to those having access to the network;

making a first web page available on a web server connected to the network so that it can be viewed over the network using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the first web page is created by a first author, and where the content includes the first author'"'"'s commentary about a particular topic, and where the first author'"'"'s commentary is published in the first web page so that it is widely available to those having access to the network;

responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the first web page over the network and enabling the display of the first web page;

making a second web page available on the network so that it can be viewed over the network independently of the first web page using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the second web page is created by a second author, and where the second author'"'"'s content is published in the second web page so that it is widely available to those having access to the network;

responding to requests for the second web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the second web page over the network and enabling the display of the second web page;

detecting that the second web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, where the second web page is not part of the first web page, where the second author is different from the first author and is unrelated to the first author, and where the content included within the second web page is created by the second author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author;

after detecting that the second web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page, where automatically incorporated into the first web page is a representation of the second web page for display within the first web page;

making a third web page available on the network so that it can be viewed over the network independently of the first web page and the second web page using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the third web page is created by a third author, and where the third author'"'"'s content is published in the third web page so that it is widely available to those having access to the network;

responding to requests for the third web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the third web page over the network and enabling the display of the third web page;

detecting that a fourth web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, where the fourth web page is an independent web page that is not part of the first web page, where content included within the fourth web page is created by a fourth author, where the fourth author is different from the first author, where content included within the fourth web page is created by the fourth author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author and after the content included within the second web page is created by the second author, and where the fourth web page is published so that it is widely available to those having access to the network; and

after detecting that a fourth web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page, where incorporated into the first web page is at least one representation for display within the first web page, where the at least one representation corresponds to the second web page and the fourth web page, and

where included in the requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers is a request for the first web page received over the network from a client computer that has not accessed the fourth web page.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the acts of:

detecting that the third web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, where the content included within the third web page is created by the third author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author; and

after detecting that the third web page available on the network includes a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page,

where automatically incorporated into the first web page is at least one representation for display within the first web page, and where the at least one representation corresponds to the second web page, the third web page, and the fourth web page.

3. A system for making information available on a network, where the system is configured to be capable of carrying out the operations of:

making a large number of web pages available on the network for the purpose of providing content created by a plurality of different and independent authors to client computers having access to the network;

making a first web page available on a web server connected to the network so that the first web page can be viewed over the network using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the first web page is created by a first author, where the content includes the first author'"'"'s commentary about a particular topic, and where the first author'"'"'s commentary is published in the first web page so that it is widely available to client computers having access to the network;

responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the first web page over the network and enabling the display of the first web page;

making a second web page available on the network so that the second web page can be viewed over the network independently of the first web page using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the second web page is created by a second author, and where the second author'"'"'s content is published in the second web page so that it is widely available to client computers having access to the network;

responding to requests for the second web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the second web page over the network and enabling the display of the second web page;

enabling a third web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, where the third web page is widely available on the network independently of the first web page, where content included within the third web page is created by a third author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author, and where the reference to the content created by the first author is included within the content created by the third author;

after enabling a third web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page,

where automatically incorporated into the first web page is a representation of the third web page for display within the first web page;

enabling a fourth web page to include a reference to the content created by the second author, where the fourth web page is widely available on the network independently of the second web page, where content included within the fourth web page is created by a fourth author after the content included within the second web page is created by the second author, and where the reference to the content created by the second author is included within the content created by the fourth author; and

after enabling a fourth web page to include a reference to the content created by the second author, responding to requests for the second web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the second web page and enabling the display of the second web page,

where automatically incorporated into the second web page is a representation of the fourth web page for display within the second web page.

4. The system of claim 3, where the system is further configured to be capable of carrying out the operations of:

enabling the display of the third web page upon selection by a user of the representation of the third web page.

5. The system of claim 3, where the system is further configured to be capable of carrying out the operations of:

enabling the display of the third web page in a web browser window upon selection by a user of the representation of the third web page, where the third web page is displayed by replacing the first web page in the web browser window.

6. The system of claim 3, where the system is further configured to capable of carrying out the operations of:

enabling a fifth web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, where the fifth web page is an independent web page that is not part of the first web page and that is widely available on the network, where content included within the fifth web page is created by a fifth author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author, and where the reference to the content created by the first author is included within the content created by the fifth author; and

after enabling a third web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, and after enabling a fifth web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page,

where automatically incorporated into the first web page is at least one representation of the third web page and the fifth web page for display within the first web page.

7. The system of claim 6, where the at least one representation indicates that a plurality of web pages referring to the content created by the first author are available on the network.

8. The system of claim 6, where the at least one representation is a hyperlink indicating how many references to the content created by the first author correspond to the at least one representation.

9. The system of claim 6, where the at least one representation includes a hyperlink to the third web page and a hyperlink to the fifth web page.

10. The system of claim 9, where the third web page is displayed upon selection by a user of the hyperlink to the third web page.

11. The system of claim 3, where the first web page and the third web page each include at least a portion of a judicial opinion.

12. The system of claim 3, where the representation of the third web page is displayed within the first web page below the content created by the first author.

13. A method for making information available on a network, the method comprising the acts of:

making a large number of web pages available on the network for the purpose of providing content created by a plurality of different and independent authors to client computers having access to the network;

making a first web page available on a web server connected to the network so that the first web page can be viewed over the network using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the first web page is created by a first author, where the content includes the first author'"'"'s commentary about a particular topic, and where the first author'"'"'s commentary is published in the first web page so that it is widely available to client computers having access to the network;

responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the first web page over the network and enabling the display of the first web page;

making a second web page available on the network so that the second web page can be viewed over the network independently of the first web page using a web browser application executing on a client computer connected to the network, where content included within the second web page is created by a second author, and where the second author'"'"'s content is published in the second web page so that it is widely available to client computers having access to the network;

responding to requests for the second web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting the second web page over the network and enabling the display of the second web page;

enabling a third web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, where the third web page is an independent web page that is widely available on the network and is not part of the first web page, where content included within the third web page is created by a third author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author, and where the reference to the content created by the first author is included within the content created by the third author;

after enabling a third web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page,

where automatically incorporated into the first web page is a representation of the third web page for display within the first web page;

enabling a fourth web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, where the fourth web page is an independent web page that is widely available on the network and is not part of the first web page, where content included within the fourth web page is created by a fourth author after the content included within the first web page is created by the first author, and where the reference to the content created by the first author is included within the content created by the fourth author; and

after enabling a fourth web page to include a reference to the content created by the first author, responding to requests for the first web page received over the network from client computers by transmitting over the network the first web page and enabling the display of the first web page,

where automatically incorporated into the first web page is at least one representation for display within the first web page, and where the at least one representation corresponds to the third web page and the fourth web page.

14. The method of claim 13, where the at least one representation indicates that a plurality of web pages referring to the content created by the first author are available on the network.

15. The method of claim 13, where the at least one representation is a hyperlink indicating how many web pages it corresponds to.

16. The method of claim 13, where the at least one representation includes a hyperlink to the third web page and a hyperlink to the fourth web page.

17. The method of claim 16, where the third web page is displayed upon selection by a user of the hyperlink to the third web page.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the acts of:

enabling the display of the third web page in a web browser window upon selection by a user of the hyperlink to the third web page, where the third web page replaces the first web page in the web browser window.

19. The method of claim 13, where the at least one representation is displayed within the first web page below the content created by the first author.