Web page thumbnails and user configured complementary information provided from a server

• US 7,840,894 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Paolini, Michael A., Brown, Michael Wayne, Lawrence, Kelvin Roderick
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell; James H
• Application Number:
  US11/393,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20060174198A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method for presenting content from the page in a distributed database. In a preferred embodiment, a server receives a request from a client for a page from the database wherein the page has a plurality of links to linked pages in the database. The server retrieves the page and generates a set of thumbnails of the linked pages in the database. The server then sends the page and the set of thumbnails to the client.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of processing pages on the Internet, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving negative preferences and a request for a requested web page from a requestor, wherein the negative preferences indicate unwanted material or unwanted characteristics;

parsing the requested web page for a set of links to a set of web pages associated with the requested web page;

fetching the set of linked web pages found by parsing the requested web page;

parsing the set of linked web pages for the negative preferences;

responsive to a presence of the negative preferences on a linked page, modifying the requested page to indicate the presence of the negative preferences on the linked page; and

sending the modified requested page to the requestor.

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

receiving positive preferences from the requestor;

parsing the set of linked pages for the positive preferences;

responsive to finding the positive preferences on the linked page within the set of linked pages, modifying the requested page to indicate a presence of the positive preferences on the linked page.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, wherein the modified page contains modifications to the requested page that indicate a presence of positive preferences and negative preferences found on the linked pages associated with the requested page.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the modified page contains modifications to the requested page that indicate a presence of negative preferences found on the set of the linked pages associated with the requested page.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein all the linked pages within the set of linked pages associated with the requested page are parsed for negative preferences.

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

listing details as to which preferences are present on a particular link when a pointer is proximate to the particular link.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein negative preferences are not received from a requester, and further comprising:

parsing the set of linked web pages for preferences included in a default setting; and

modifying the requested page to indicate the presence of the preferences on a linked page in the set of linked web pages.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requested page is modified in different manners responsive to finding different preferences on respective linked pages.

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

modifying the requested page to indicate the absence of the negative preferences on the linked page.

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

generating a thumbnail of each of the linked pages in the set of linked web pages, wherein a thumbnail associated with a particular linked page is modified to indicate the presence of negative preferences on the linked page.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

modifying a thumbnail associated with a linked page to indicate an absence of the negative preferences on the linked page.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

placing an indicator on the requested page proximate to each link to an inactive site, wherein the indicator indicates that the link is inactive.

13. A computer program product recorded in a computer readable, recordable-type medium for processing requests for pages on the Internet, said computer program product comprising:

instructions for receiving negative preferences and a request from a requestor for a requested web page, wherein the negative preferences indicate unwanted material or unwanted characteristics;

parsing the web page requested by the requestor for a set of linked web pages associated with the page;

fetching the set of linked web pages found by parsing the requested web page;

parsing the set of linked web pages for the negative preferences;

responsive to a presence of the negative preferences on a linked page in the set of linked pages, modifying the requested page to indicate the presence of the negative preferences on the linked page; and

sending the modified requested page to the requestor.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the modified page contains modifications to the requested page that indicate a presence of negative preferences found on the set of the linked pages associated with the requested page.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions for receiving positive preferences from the requestor;

instructions for parsing the set of linked pages for the positive preferences;

instructions for responsive to finding the positive preferences on the linked page within the set of linked pages, modifying the requested page to indicate a presence of the positive preferences on the linked page.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein negative preferences are not received from a requester, and further comprising:

instructions for parsing the set of linked web pages for preferences included in a default setting; and

instructions for modifying the requested page to indicate the presence of the preferences on a linked page in the set of linked web pages.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions for listing details as to which preferences are present on a particular link when a pointer is proximate to the particular link.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions for modifying the requested page to indicate the absence of the negative preferences on the linked page.

19. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions for generating a thumbnail of each of the linked pages in the set of linked web pages, wherein a thumbnail associated with a particular linked page is modified to indicate the presence of negative preferences on the linked page.

20. A system for processing requests for pages on the Internet, said system comprising:

a storage device coupled to a bus, wherein the storage device contains a computer readable instructions;

a communications unit coupled to the bus; and

a processor unit coupled to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer readable instructions to receive negative preferences and a request from a requestor for a requested web page, wherein the negative preferences indicate unwanted material or unwanted characteristics;

parse the web page requested by the requestor for a set of linked web pages associated with the page;

fetch the set of linked web pages found by parsing the requested web page;

parse the set of linked web pages for the negative preferences;

modify the requested page to indicate the presence of the negative preferences on the linked page in response to a presence of the negative preferences on a linked page in the set of linked pages; and

send the modified requested page to the requestor.