System and method of searching for previously visited website information

• US 7,853,592 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2006
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Park, Tae Hyeon, Cheon, Se Jin, Kwak, Yong Jae, Seo, Beom Seok, Kim, Sungwon, Seo, Jang Won
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson; Greta L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US11/584,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 709/224, 707/662, 707/703, 707/736
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A visited website search system searching a website visited by a user. The visited website search system searching the website visited by the user includes: a mini web server installed in the local computer, receiving a search command with respect to data in the local computer from a web browser according to an HTTP protocol and providing a search result in a web document to the web browser; a searcher generating a search result by searching a website, corresponding to an query included in the search command, among the website visited by user and a web document generator generating the search result in the web document. Accordingly, the visited website by the user may be stably searched according to the HTTP protocol, similar to a web search.

Claims

1. A visited website search system to search for a website visited by a user, the system comprising:

a web browser configured to be executed on a computer used by the user, to receive a search command for results from destinations comprising a website visited by the user and addresses for resources stored on the computer;

a web site monitoring unit to monitor visits to the website by the user using the web browser, to determine whether the user is revisiting the same website within a determined time, to record, if the user revisits the same website after the determined time elapses, information about the user'"'"'s revisit in a website visit history database, and not to record information about the user'"'"'s revisit if the user revisits the same website before the determined time elapses;

a web server to store, in the website visit history database, information about the resources stored at the addresses on the computer, to receive the search command from the web browser according to a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) when at least one destination address of the search command is located on the computer, and to provide the web browser with a web document type search result indicating the resources stored on the computer that are relevant to the search command;

a search unit to generate a first search result by searching, corresponding to a query provided by the search command, the website history visit database for the website visited by the user and for the information about the stored resources; and

a web document generation unit to transform the first search result into the web document type search result,

wherein the system establishes a destination address of the search command as a computer address or a loopback address if the destination address is needed to search the website visited by the user,

wherein the web server investigates a sending address of the received search command, and provides a service if the sending address is identical to the computer address or the loopback address.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is embodied using a browser helper object (BHO).

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the website visit monitoring unit collects a history of the website visited by the user by monitoring the visits to the website by the user, and stores the history of the website visit in the website visit history database.

4. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

an index unit to generate an index database by indexing data in the website visit history database,

wherein the search unit generates the first search result by searching the index database using the query.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the website visit monitoring unit stores a website visit history for the visited by the user if the website visited by the user does not correspond to a previously-visited website, and stores the website visit history for the visited website if a determined time elapses from a previous visit of the user to the visited website and if the visited website corresponds to the previously-visited website.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the website visit monitoring unit determines whether the website is registered in a blacklist in response to the user visiting the website, and the website visit monitoring unit stores the website visit history for the website if the website is not registered in the blacklist.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a blacklist registration unit to register in the blacklist, a website provided by the user.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the website visit monitoring unit, in collecting the website visit history, parses a hyper text markup language (HTML) source of the website to extract a text type HTML source, and the website visit history comprises at least one of a uniform resource locator (URL) of the website, a title of the website, a text type HTML source, and a thumbnail image of a snapshot of the web browser.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the index unit deletes indexed data from the website visit history database if data in the website history database is indexed.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a resource component to provide a resource required for generating the web document type search result,

wherein the resource component provides the web document generation unit with the required resource.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the index unit accesses the website visit history database and indexes the data in the website visit history database within a time interval.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the index unit indexes the data in the website visit history database by initiating an event in the time interval using an additional timer independent from a central processing unit (CPU) of the computer.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an index unit to generate an index database storing index data corresponding to the website visited by the user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the search unit searches the index database and generates the first search result using the query.

15. A website visit search method to search for a website visited by user, the method comprising:

receiving, by a web browser configured to be executed on a computer used by the user, a search command for results from destinations comprising a website visited by the user and addresses for resources stored on the computer;

monitoring visits to the website by the user;

determining whether the user revisits the same website within a determined time;

recording, in a website visit history database, information about the user'"'"'s revisit to the same website if the user revisits the same website after the determined time elapses, and not recording information about the user'"'"'s revisit if the user revisits the same website before the determined time elapses;

receiving, by a web server, the search command from the web browser according to a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) established in the computer if at least one destination address of the search command is located on the computer, and wherein the web server stores, in the website visit history database, information about the resources stored at the addresses on the computer, and provides the web browser with a web document type search result indicating the resources stored on the computer relevant to the search command;

establishing a destination address of the search command as a computer address or a loopback address if the destination address is required to search the website visited by the user;

generating a first search result by retrieving the website, corresponding to a query provided by the search command, from among a history of websites visited by the user and the information about the stored resources, the history of websites being stored in the website visit history database;

generating the web document type search result by transforming the first search result into the web document type search result; and

providing, using the web server, the web browser with the web document type search result,

wherein the web server investigates a sending address of the received search command, and provides a service if the sending address is identical to the computer address or the loopback address.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

collecting the history by monitoring the visits to the website by the user, and storing the history in a website visit history database, the website visit monitoring unit being embodied as a browser helper object (BHO).

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

generating an index database by indexing data in the website visit history database,

wherein generating the first search result comprises searching the index database using the query.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein storing the history comprises storing the history for the website visited by the user if the website visited by the user does not correspond to a previously-visited website, and storing the history for the website visited by the user if a determined time from the previous visit is exceeded and if the website visited by the user corresponds to the previously-visited website.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the index database comprises indexing the data in the website visit history database by initiating an event in a time interval using an additional timer independent from a central processing unit (CPU) of the computer.

20. A tangible computer-readable storage medium comprising a program for implementing a website visit search method searching a website visited by a user, the method comprising:

receiving, by a web browser configured to be executed on a computer used by the user, a search command for results from destinations comprising a website visited by the user and addresses for resources stored on the computer;

monitoring visits to the website by the user;

determining whether the user revisits the same website within a determined time;

recording, in a website visit history database, information about the user'"'"'s revisit to the same website if the user revisits the same website after the determined time elapses, and not recording information about the user'"'"'s revisit if the user revisits the same website before the determined time elapses;

receiving, by a web server, a search command from the web browser according to a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) if at least one destination address of the search command is located on the computer, and wherein the web server stores, in the website visit history database, information about the resources stored at the addresses on the computer, and provides the web browser with a web document type search result indicating resources stored on the computer relevant to the search command;

establishing a destination address of the search command as a computer address or a loopback address if the destination address is required to search the website visited by the user;

generating a first search result by retrieving the website, corresponding to a query provided by the search command, from among a history of websites visited by the user and the information about the resources stored on the computer;

generating the web document type search result by transforming the first search result into a web document type search result; and

providing, using the web server, the web document type search result to the web server,

wherein the web server investigates a sending address of the received search command, and provides a service if the sending address is identical to the computer address or the loopback address.