Method and apparatus for creating, configuring and displaying a widget to display user-generated highlights

• US 7,844,891 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rohit Chandra
• Original Assignee: Rohit Chandra
• Inventors: Chandra, Rohit
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US11/766,792
• Publication Number:
  US 20080005664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/205, 715/206, 715/207, 715/208, 715/230, 715/233
• US Class Current: 715/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions

Abstract

A method and system for enabling the display of portions of internet documents that have been highlighted by users of a highlighting service are disclosed. Accordingly, a highlighting service includes a web portal with a web page providing users with a snippet of code, which, when inserted into an internet document, causes the internet document to display highlights from the highlighting service. The snippet of code can be configured to query the highlighting service for highlights that were made by certain users, or, highlights made on documents from certain domains, and so forth. The code associated with the user interface object displaying the highlights can e configured to periodically query the highlighting service to retrieve up-to-date highlights, thereby dynamically changing the highlights appearing on a web page or internet document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

generating, at a server and automatically in response to user-specified parameters provided via one or more user interface input mechanisms, a code snippet for a user interface object to be embedded in a first web page, the code snippet configured to query a highlighting service associated with the server for user-generated highlights of content from other web pages made by one or more visitors to the other web pages and to display the highlights within the user interface object;

following embedding, in response to user-specified action, of the code snippet in the first web page, the code snippet periodically querying the highlighting service for said user-generated highlights; and

upon receiving the highlights of content, displaying the highlights of content in the user interface object embedded in the first web page, said displaying being in a browser of a computer system.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein, in addition to the user-generated highlights, the user interface object displays information associated with the user-generated highlights, a URL highlights were made on, and/or users who generated the highlights.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the code snippet is configured to query the highlighting service for user- generated highlights that satisfy specific parameters, and the user interface object is configured to display user-generated highlights and/or associated objects having characteristics that satisfy the specific parameters.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the specific parameters include any of the following:

a parameter indicating the source of the highlight;

a parameter indicating a rating associated with a highlight;

a parameter indicating a popularity level of a highlight;

a parameter indicating how frequently a highlight has been emailed;

a parameter indicating a domain from which a document including the highlight is from;

a parameter indicating who has made comments on the highlight, on the document the highlight is from, or the domain the highlight came from; and

/or a parameter indicating a level of privacy associated with a highlight.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user-generated highlights as displayed by the user interface object are links, thereby enabling a user to retrieve a document associated with a highlight by selecting a particular user-generated highlight.

6. The user interface object of claim 1, wherein the user interface object displays one or more links to information associated with a user-generated highlight, a document containing a user-generated highlight, or a user who made a user-generated highlight.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein display characteristics of the user interface object are user-configurable from a web page.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the code snippet that queries the highlighting service for user-generated highlights is user-configurable from a web page.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the first web page on which the user interface object is displayed is hosted on a first server different the a second server hosting the web page.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

presenting a first web site for configuring, through user-specified parameters, a user interface object to be displayed on a web page of a second web site, the user interface object i) having associated code that queries a highlighting service for user-generated highlights associated with web pages other than the web page for configuring and the web page of the second web site, and ii) being configured to display the user-generated highlights within the second webpage;

receiving the user-specified parameters and configuring the code for the user interface object accordingly; and

following embedding of the user interface object in the web page of the second web site, the code periodically querying the highlighting service for said user-generated highlights, and upon receiving the highlights. displaying the highlights in the user interface object.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein, in addition to being configured to display the user-generated highlights within the second web page, the user interface object is configured to display information associated with the user-generated highlights, the URL the highlights were made on, and/or the users who generated the highlights.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein presenting a first web site for configuring a user interface object to be displayed on a web page of a second web site includes enabling configuration of the user interface object without having to edit any code hosted at the second web site.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the first web site provides a mechanism by which a user can establish search parameters for use by the code that queries the highlighting service for user-generated highlights.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the search parameters include:

source of a highlight, range of time during which a highlight was made, origin of document where the highlight was made, highlight containing specific keywords, privacy levels, comments sources, total number of highlights to be selected for display and/or minimum or maximum rating associated with a highlight.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the first web site provides a mechanism by which a user can configure display parameters that determine the display characteristics of the user interface object, user-generated highlights and/or associated data displayed by the user interface object.