Systems and methods for providing runtime universal resource locator (URL) analysis and correction

• US 7,853,719 B1
• Filed: 02/11/2002
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cao, Jian, Nog, Saurab, Chen, Zhanliang
• Primary Examiner(s): Neurauter, Jr.; George C
• Assistant Examiner(s): BILGRAMI, ASGHAR H
• Application Number:
  US10/073,618
• Time in Patent Office: 3,228 Days
• Field of Search: 709/245, 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that perform automatic URL analysis and correction in a computing system. The systems and methods automatically detect misentered or incorrect URLs, analyzing the invalid URLs with respect intelligent rules and valid URLs, and where a high likelihood exists for alternative URLs being intended, the alternative URLs are presented to the user as suggestions. The URLs used for comparison to the URL input may be collected through multiple channels or from multiple sources, which may be dynamically updated sources, including URLs commonly or newly found on the Web, users'"'"' favorite URLs and the like, as well as URLs from a standard URL list or database, all of which may be from one or more multi-lingual domain. In various embodiments, the alternative URL(s) are automatically presented when there is a very high confidence that the alternatives are desirable. Optionally, a mini search or a full blown search on the URL input may be performed and presented to the user to supplement the alternative URL suggestions. The systems allow a user to seek help or technical information about the URL navigation or search attempt and also allow a user to easily retry the query, ignoring the suggestions.

Claims

1. In a computing system, a method for providing automatic universal resource locator (URL) analysis in connection with a process implicating a URL input mechanism, comprising:

receiving URL input in a computing device;

determining whether the URL input is valid;

when the URL input is invalid, detecting whether said input is a likely candidate for multilingual analysis, further if said input is a likely candidate for said multilingual analysis, performing intelligent rules-based analysis including said multilingual analysis for identifying the invalid aspects of the invalid URL input; and

displaying a smart error page comprising a valid alternative URL obtained from at least one database of known URLs, wherein the at least one database of known URLs is a local copy of a portion of the Internet DNS URL database, the local copy updated dynamically for affirming the validity of the known URLs and for generating a blacklist of URLs to exclude socially undesirable domains, the smart error page further comprising a partial search result comprising a name of a topic related to the invalid URL input, and a link that when asserted provides an extensive listing of search results related to the invalid URL input.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a top URL list checked before any other database.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a secondary list which is analyzed after the top URL list if at least one alternative URL is not found based on an analysis of the top URL list.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a complete list of URLs which is analyzed after the secondary list if at least one alternative URL is not found based on an analysis of the secondary list.

5. A method according to claim 1, further including preprocessing the URL input to at least one of (1) remove non-domain name service (DNS) characters (2) to replace non-DNS characters and (3) to correct an error in protocol.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the computing device includes a browser and the is URL input intended for one of navigation to a Web site and search on a Web site.

7. A method according to claim 1, further including performing a search with the URL input as a query and displaying the results of the search on the error page, the results of the search comprising the name of a website pertinent to the URL input.

8. A method according to claim 1, further including displaying a link on the error page, which link, if asserted by the user, retries the original URL input.

9. A method according to claim 1, further including tracking user behavior in response to the display of the error page.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one database includes URLs that are weighted according to their popularity, wherein data for determining popularity is obtained from a report on Internet usage.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein said rules based analysis includes applying rules from a rules based table.

12. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a dynamically updated database of current URLs.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a top URL list checked before any other database.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes secondary list which is analyzed after the top URL list if at least one alternative URL is not found based on an analysis of the top URL list.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the at least one database of known URLs includes a complete list of URLs which is analyzed after the secondary list if at least one alternative URL is not found based on an analysis of the secondary list.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one database includes URLs that are weighted according to their popularity.

18. In a computing system, a method for providing runtime automatic universal resource locator (URL) analysis and suggestion in connection with a service accessed from a client computing device utilizing a URL input mechanism, comprising:

providing a URL input to the URL input mechanism of the client computing device;

determining whether the URL input is valid and if invalid, detecting whether said input is a likely candidate for multilingual analysis, further if said input is a likely candidate for said multilingual analysis, transmitting said URL input to a server computing device for intelligent rules-based analysis, including said multilingual analysis, for identifying the invalid aspects of the invalid URL input; and

displaying a smart error page comprising a valid alternative URL obtained from at least one database of known URLs, wherein the at least one database of known URLs is a local copy of a portion of the Internet DNS URL database, the local copy updated dynamically for affirming the validity of the known URLs and for generating a blacklist of URLs to exclude socially undesirable domains, the smart error page further comprising a partial search result comprising a name of a topic related to the invalid URL input, and a link that when asserted provides an extensive listing of search results related to the invalid URL input.

19. A method according to claim 18, further including preprocessing said URL input.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said preprocessing includes preprocessing the URL input to at least one of (1) remove non-domain name service (DNS) characters (2) to replace non-DNS characters and (3) to correct an error in protocol.

21. A method according to claim 18, wherein the client computing device includes a browser and the URL input is URL input intended for one of navigation to a Web site and search on a Web site.

22. A method according to claim 18, wherein the smart error page further comprises a link that is assertable by a user for re-trying the original URL input.

23. A method according to claim 18, further including tracking user behavior in response to the display of the error page.

24. A method according to claim 18, wherein said rules based analysis includes applying rules from a rules based table.

25. A method according to claim 18, wherein said rules based analysis includes applying rules to the analysis based upon at least one known URLs database.

26. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 18.

27. A method according to claim 18, wherein said server computing device performs analysis based upon at least one database of known URLs.

28. In a computing system, a method for displaying alternative suggestions for an invalid universal resource locator (URL) input, comprising:

determining whether the URL input is valid and if invalid, detecting whether said input is a likely candidate for multilingual analysis;

analyzing the invalid URL input based upon intelligent rules-based analysis and said multilingual analysis when said input is a candidate for said multilingual analysis, and identifying the invalid aspects of the invalid URL;

referring to a local copy of a portion of the Internet DNS URL database, the local copy updated dynamically for affirming the validity of the URLs contained in the local copy;

determining from said local copy, a valid alternative URL based on analyzing the invalid URL input;

determining availability of a website corresponding to said valid alternative URL;

if the website is currently unavailable, displaying a browser DNS error page to indicate that a page cannot be displayed; and

if the website is currently available, displaying a smart error page comprising said valid alternative URL, a partial search result comprising a name of a topic related to the invalid URL input, and a link that when asserted provides an extensive listing of search results related to the invalid URL input.

29. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 28.

30. A method according to claim 28, further comprising third displaying a link which enables full blown search utilizing the invalid URL input as a query search term.

31. A method according to claim 28, wherein the smart error message further comprises a mini-search result of topics related to the invalid URL input.

32. A method according to claim 28, further comprising analyzing the invalid URL input based upon at least one database of known URLs.

33. A method according to claim 28, wherein the browser DNS error page further comprises a text warning that the web site might be experiencing technical difficulties thereby preventing display of said page.

34. A computing device providing automatic universal resource locator (URL) analysis in connection with a process implicating a URL input mechanism, comprising:

means for providing input to the URL input mechanism of the computing device;

means for determining whether the URL input is valid and if invalid, detecting whether said input is a likely candidate for multilingual analysis, and if said input is a likely candidate for said multilingual analysis, transmitting said URL input with a means for transmitting to a server computing device for intelligent rules-based analysis of the invalid URL input, including said multilingual analysis, and identification of the invalid aspects of the invalid URL; and

means for displaying an error page containing a valid alternative URL that is obtained by said server from a local copy of a portion of the Internet DNS URL database, the local copy updated dynamically for affirming the validity of the known URLs and the local copy comprising a block list for blocking the use of undesirable domains, the error page further comprising a partial search result comprising a name of a topic related to the invalid URL input, and a link that when asserted provides an extensive listing of search results related to the invalid URL input.

35. A computing device according to claim 34, further including means for preprocessing said URL input.

36. A computing device according to claim 35, wherein said means for preprocessing includes means for preprocessing the URL input to at least one of (1) remove non-domain name service (DNS) characters (2) to replace non-DNS characters and (3) to correct an error in protocol.

37. A computing device according to claim 34, wherein said computing device includes a browser and the URL input is intended for one of navigation to and search on a Web site.

38. A computing device according to claim 34, further including means for performing a search with the invalid URL input as a query and means for displaying the results of the search on the error page.

39. A computing device according to claim 34, further including means for displaying a link on the error page, which link, if asserted by a user, retries the original URL input.

40. A computing device according to claim 34, further including means for tracking user behavior in response to the display of the error page.

41. A computing device according to claim 34, wherein said rules based analysis includes means for applying rules from a rules based table.