Apparatus and method for determining compatibility of web sites with designated requirements based on functional characteristics of the web sites

• US 7,254,526 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2001
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Aupperle, Bryan E., Peters, Marcia L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Knight; Anthony
• Assistant Examiner(s): STEVENS, THOMAS H
• Application Number:
  US09/938,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20030051027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,174 Days
• Field of Search: 703/27, 703/22, 709/223, 709217-219, 715/530.T
• US Class Current: 703/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

An apparatus and method for searching a database of web site functional characteristics to identify web sites that are compatible with designated functions are provided. With the apparatus and method, a database of functional characteristics is compiled and a search interface is provided. The database may be compiled in an automatic, manual, or semiautomatic manner by, for example, retrieving web site content with various functions of a web browser disabled and analyzing the resultant output through the web browser. With the search interface, a user may enter designations of the functional characteristics that the user is either interested in having or not having in the resultant list of web sites. Based on the user'"'"'s designation of functional characteristics, the search engine associated with the search interface searches the database of web sites and identifies the web site entries in the database that are compatible with the designated functional characteristics. The search engine then provides a listing of these web site entries through a search output interface which may then be used by the user that requested the search.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of identifying web sites, comprising:

identifying at least one functional characteristic of a web site to be tested, the at least one functional characteristic comprising at least one of use of active scripting, a type of active scripting used, a plug-in application used, use of forms, storing of cookies on a client device, providing dynamic web page content, providing dynamic user interfaces, displaying digital movies, and broadcasting audio data;

retrieving content for the web site;

testing the content of the web site for a presence of the at least one functional characteristic; and

storing results of the testing of the content of the web site.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one functional characteristic identifies a functional characteristic of web sites that requires a function to be enabled by a client device in order to output the web site content on the client device.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

disabling, in a web browser, at least one functional characteristic prior to retrieving the content for the web site.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein testing the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic comprises determining if a portion of the content is not output to the web browser due to the at least one functional characteristic in the web browser being disabled.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein storing the results of the testing comprises generating an entry in a web site functional characteristics database based on the results of the testing.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein retrieving content for the web site comprises generating a list of web sites to be tested, and selecting a next web site in the list of web sites to be tested.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein identifying at least one functional characteristic to be tested comprises generating a list of functional characteristics to be tested, and selecting a next functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics to be tested.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein testing the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic comprises for each web site in the list of web sites, testing each functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a search request including a designation of one or more web site functional characteristics;

searching the web site functional characteristics database based on the search request; and

returning results of searching the web site functional characteristics database to thereby identify zero or more web sites having or not having the designated one or more web site functional characteristics.

35. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the results of the testing of the content of the web site are stored in a network attached storage unit.

38. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one functional characteristic comprises use of active scripting.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for identifying web sites, said computer program product including;

computer usable program code for identifying at least one functional characteristic of a web site to be tested, the at least one functional characteristic comprising at least one of use of active scripting, a type of active scripting used, a plug-in application used, use of forms, storing of cookies on a client device, providing dynamic web page content, providing dynamic user interfaces, displaying digital movies, and broadcasting audio data;

computer usable program code for retrieving content for the web site;

computer usable program code for testing the content of the web site for a presence of the at least one functional characteristic; and

computer usable program code for storing results of the testing of the content of the web site.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the at least one functional characteristic identifies a functional characteristic of web sites that requires a function to be enabled by a client device in order to output the web site content on the client device.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer usable program code for disabling, in a web browser, at least one functional characteristic prior to retrieving the content for the web site.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer usable program code for testing the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic comprises computer usable program code for determining if a portion of the content is not output to the web browser due to the at least one functional characteristic of the web browser being disabled.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for storing the results of the testing comprises computer usable program code for generating an entry in a web site functional characteristics database based on the results of the testing.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for retrieving content for the web site comprises computer usable program code for generating a list of web sites to be tested, and computer usable program code for selecting a next web site in the list of web sites to be tested.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer usable program code for identifying at least one functional characteristic to be tested comprises computer usable program code for generating a list of functional characteristics to be tested, and computer usable program code for selecting a next functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics to be tested.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the computer usable program code for testing the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic comprises computer usable program code for testing each functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics for each web site in the list of web sites.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

computer usable program code for receiving a search request including a designation of one or more web site functional characteristics;

computer usable program code for searching the web site functional characteristics database based on the search request; and

computer usable program code for returning results of searching the web site functional characteristics database to thereby identify zero or more web sites having or not having the designated one or more web site functional characteristics.

36. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer usable program code for storing the results of the testing of the content of the web site comprises computer usable program code for storing the results of the testing in a network attached storage unit.

39. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the at least one functional characteristic comprises use of active scripting.

19. An apparatus for identifying web sites, comprising:

a network interface;

a database interface; and

a web site content analysis engine coupled to the network interface and the database interface, wherein the web site content analysis engine identifies at least one functional characteristic of a web site to be tested, the at least one functional characteristic comprises at least one of use of active scripting, a type of active scripting used, a plug-in application used, use of forms, storing of cookies on a client device, providing dynamic web page content, providing dynamic user interfaces, displaying digital movies, and broadcasting audio data, retrieves content for the web site via the network interface, tests the content of the web site for a presence of the at least one functional characteristic, and stores results of the testing of the content of the web site via the database interface.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one functional characteristic identifies a functional characteristic of web sites that requires a function to be enabled by a client device in order to output the web site content on the client device.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the web site content analysis engine disables, in a web browser, at least one functional characteristic prior to retrieving the content for the web site.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the web site content analysis engine tests the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic by determining if a portion of the content is not output to the web browser due to the at least one functional characteristic of the web browser being disabled.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the web site content analysis engine stores the results of the testing by generating an entry in a web site functional characteristics database based on the results of the testing.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the web site content analysis engine retrieves content for the web site by generating a list of web sites to be tested, and selecting a next web site in the list of web sites to be tested.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the web site content analysis engine identifies at least one functional characteristic to be tested by generating a list of functional characteristics to be tested, and selecting a next functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics to be tested.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the web site content analysis engine tests the content of the web site for the presence of the at least one functional characteristic by, for each web site in the list of web site, testing each functional characteristic in the list of functional characteristics.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising:

a search engine coupled to a search request input interface generation device and a search results interface generation device, wherein the search engine receives a search request including a designation of one or more web site functional characteristics, searches the web site functional characteristics database based on the search request, and returns results of searching the web site functional characteristics database to thereby identify zero or more web sites having or not having the designated one or more web site functional characteristics.

37. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the web site content analysis engine stores the results of the testing of the web site in a database stored on a network attached storage unit.

40. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the at least one functional characteristic comprises use of active scripting.

28. A computer implemented method of identifying web sites, comprising:

receiving a search request including a designation of one or more web site functional characteristics, wherein the one or more web site functional characteristics comprise at least one of use of active scripting, a type of active scripting used, a plug-in application used, use of forms, storing of cookies on a client device, providing dynamic web page content, providing dynamic user interfaces, displaying digital movies, and broadcasting audio data;

searching a web site functional characteristics database based on the search request; and

returning results of searching the web site functional characteristics database to thereby identify zero or more web sites having or not having the designated one or more web site functional characteristics.

29. The computer implemented method of claim 28, wherein the one or more web site functional characteristics identify functions that are enabled on a client device web browser in order to output the web site content on the client device.

30. The computer implemented method of claim 28, further comprising:

charging a fee to an account of a source of the search request for searching the web site functional characteristics database based on the search request.

41. The computer implemented method of claim 28, wherein the one web site functional characteristic comprises use of active scripting.

31. A data structure having entries corresponding to web sites for use by a computing device to identify web sites based on functional characteristics, each entry comprising:

a web site identifier field for identifying a web site; and

one or more functional characteristic fields for identifying one or more functional characteristics of the web site identified in the web site identifier field, wherein the one or more functional characteristics comprise at least one of use of active scripting, a type of active scripting used, a plug-in application used, use of forms, storing of cookies on a client device, providing dynamic web page content, providing dynamic user interfaces, displaying digital movies, and broadcasting audio data.

32. The data structure of claim 31, wherein the functional characteristics identify functions that are enabled on a client device web browser in order to output the web site content on the client device.

33. The data structure of claim 31, wherein the data structure is stored on a computer usable medium.

34. The data structure of claim 33, wherein the computer usable medium is part of a network attached storage unit.

42. The data structure of claim 31, wherein the one functional characteristic comprises use of active scripting.