Categorized web browsing history

• US 7,424,476 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2004
• Issued: 09/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Apparao, Vidur, Waterson, Christopher Robert, Bandhauer, John Philip
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Shahid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ehichioya; Fred I
• Application Number:
  US10/826,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20050234940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/200, 709/224, 709/245, 715/513, 715/745, 715/748
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A simple, user-friendly method and apparatus for establishing and maintaining a categorized Web browsing history uses a directory service, such as the Open Directory Project, to get category metadata about visited URLs. Metadata thus obtained are used to present a user'"'"'s personal browser history in a category based hierarchy.

Claims

1. A method for establishing and maintaining a categorized Web browsing history of a user, comprising the steps of:

for websites previously visited by the user, performing a reverse lookup in a database to find a chain of categories for a URL, every time a URL that has not been previously seen is added to a history;

for URLs for which there is no category in said database, iteratively retrying said reverse lookup using a less specific part of said URL until a category is found;

presenting in an interactive user interface a resulting categorized web browsing history corresponding to said websites previously visited by the user;

for a given category of previously visited web pages within said interactive user interface, said interactive user interface providing a link to said given category within a database of Web content never visited by the user;

wherein the user views previously visited pares within said interactive user interface and follows a link to a wider view of similar pages through said link;

providing a plurality of Web browsing tools that display metadata and that allow capturing an image or Web page;

wherein said tools comprise any of Save Page and Stop Watching;

wherein said metadata comprise any of Rating, Comments, Snapshots, and Categories; and

viewing Web pages that have either been captured locally or that are part of a browsing history as any of a passively personalized Web favorites list and in a time-based history view.

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

using standard relational database technology to store and query a local representation of said categories.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of:

using a row in a first database table for each category node, wherein each row has a parent field to represent a node in a category chain.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

using a second database table to store a relationship between each URL and its one specific category node.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

given a category path, adding rows for any nodes that are not already in said local database; and

selling parent links appropriately.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of:

using standard relational database querying to find children categories of any given category by querying for all category nodes whose parent is a given category.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

finding all URLs for a given category by querying for all URLs associated with said category.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said user interface for a hierarchy of data is displayed as either of a tree list and a series of Web-style pages.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said user interface allows users to re-find Web sites by drilling down through familiar categories.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said user interface allows users to discover groups of previously visited pages which happen to fall into a same category, wherein said previously visited pages comprise pages previously visited by a user of said user interface.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein within a same user interface, a user can focus on pages previously visited by said user and then navigate to a wider view of similar pages.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said database comprises the Open Directory Project.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said database exposes a Web interface, and allows navigating through categories to find Web sites.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing captured Web pages as part of a media library;

wherein a captured Web page may be viewed and searched even if an original page is changed or becomes unavailable.