Ubiquitous visited links

• US 7,359,977 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2003
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lewis, Scott M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter; Kenneth R.
• Application Number:
  US10/427,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20040083294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,811 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/229, 715/853, 715/805
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Where a user logs on to a web page server, the server can maintain a history of links to web pages hosted by the server to indicate which links are visited by the user. In consequence, a user may log on to the web page server from any web page-enabled device and the server will be able to differentiate for the user links the user has visited from links that have yet to be visited.

Claims

1. A method of operating a server, comprising:

maintaining a plurality of history files of said web page indicators on a server, one history file for each of a plurality of users, regardless of the client devices implemented by each of the plurality of users; and

responsive to said user requesting a given web page from said server, for each link in said given web page, comparing a web page indicator for said each link with web page indicators stored in a history file for said user;

where a first web page indicator for said given web paste has been included in at least one of said plurality of history files and content of said given web page is updated by an authorized user, deleting said first web page indicator of said given web page from said at least one of the plurality of history files prior to said plurality of users requesting said given web page in order for said given web page to appear unvisited by any of the plurality of users; and

responsive to a match, modifying said each link matched prior to serving up said web page.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when said user requests said given web page, updating said one history file of said user to include a first web page indicator for said given web page.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

prior to serving Lip said given web page, adding an indicator to said given web page so that if said given web page is subsequently requested by said user at a client caching of said given web page, said given web page is re-loaded from said server.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein modifying said each link comprises modifying said each link to display in a particular color.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein modifying said each link comprises modifying said each link to display in a different font.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said given web page is coded in hypertext markup language (“

html”

), each said web page indicator comprises a universal resource locator (“

URL”

), and modifying said each link comprises adding html code to said each link.