Enhanced graphical interfaces for displaying visual data

• US 8,041,701 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2006
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andreas Acquisitions, LLC
• Original Assignee: DG Fastchannel Incorporated (Extreme Reach, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brun, Nicolas, Amato, Jerry S., Holecek, Ales, Touma, Costa Bassem
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOO, GARY J
• Application Number:
  US11/329,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20060265417A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,107 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/756, 707/707, 715/744, 715/781
• US Class Current: 707/707
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

Techniques and implementations for providing enhanced functionality for handling data in Internet browsers or other applications used for accessing data over a network, including providing thumbnail image displays of the current appearance of webpages referenced by URLs returned in a set of search results, providing thumbnail image displays of the webpages referenced by a list of favorite or bookmarked websites, providing thumbnail image displays of webpages which have been blocked from appearing on a user'"'"'s screen, and providing thumbnail image displays of images which have been extracted from webpages and stored for potential future use.

Claims

1. A method for visually displaying search results comprising:

receiving, by a processor from a first search engine, first search result data;

determining, by the processor, search query information from said first search result data;

transmitting said search query information to a second search engine;

receiving, from said second search engine, second search result data identifying a plurality of webpages;

determining network address information for a webpage of said plurality of webpages from the second search result data;

retrieving, at a first location, said webpage using said network address information determined from the second search result data;

creating, at said first location, a reduced size representation of said webpage as it would currently appear if presently displayed; and

displaying, at said first location, said representation of said webpage from the second search result data and said first search result data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said representation is displayed in a browser window with said first search result data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said representation is displayed separately from said first search result data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said representation is displayed in a browser toolbar.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying a placeholder image for said representation of said webpage; and

replacing said placeholder image with said representation of said webpage after completion of said creating step.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said placeholder image is an image of said webpage that was received with said second search result data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the placeholder image is a server-generated thumbnail image, which is a reduced-sized presentation of the first webpage from an indeterminate point in the past.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a selection of said represention of said webpage; and

navigating to said webpage.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the first search result data from the first search engine, executing comparative search instructions for analyzing the first search result data from the first search engine to determine the search query information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining network address information comprises:

in response to a determination that a uniform resource locator for the webpage is a redirect link, displaying a root webpage as the reduced sized presentation of the webpage.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when code from the webpage attempts to open a pop-up window, creating a reduced sized representation of the pop-up window; and

displaying the reduced sized representation of the pop-up window in a tool bar of a browser.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

opening a browser application prior to receiving first search data;

generating reduced sized representations of booked marked webpages upon navigation to the bookmarked webpage; and

periodically updating the reduced sized representation of the booked marked webpage.

13. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions adapted to be executed by a processor, the instructions which, when executed, define a series of steps to be used to visually display search results, said steps comprising:

receiving, from a first search engine, first search result data;

determining search query information from said first search result data;

transmitting said search query information to a second search engine;

receiving, from said second search engine, second search result data identifying a plurality of webpages;

determining network address information for a webpage of said plurality of webpages from the second search result data;

retrieving, at a first location, said webpage using said network address information determined from the second search result data;

creating, at said first location, a reduced size representation of how said webpage as it would currently appear if presently displayed; and

displaying, at said first location, said representation of said webpage and said first search result data.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13 wherein said representation is displayed in a browser window with said first search result data.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 13 wherein said representation is displayed separately from said first search result data.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 13 wherein said representation is displayed in a browser toolbar.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

displaying a placeholder image for said representation of said webpage; and

replacing said placeholder image with said representation of said webpage after completion of said creating step.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17 wherein said placeholder image is an image of said webpage that was received with said second search result data.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the placeholder image is a server-generated thumbnail image, which is a reduced-sized presentation of the first webpage from an indeterminate point in the past.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

detecting a selection of said representation of said webpage; and

navigating to said webpage.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 13, further comprising:

in response to receiving the first search result data from the first search engine, executing comparative search instructions for analyzing the first search result data from the first search engine to determine the search query information.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein the determining network address information comprises:

in response to a determination that a uniform resource locator for the webpage is a redirect link, displaying a root webpage as the reduced sized presentation of the webpage.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 13, said steps further comprising:

when code from the webpage attempts to open a pop-up window, creating a reduced sized representation of the pop-up window; and

displaying the reduced sized representation of the pop-up window in a tool bar of a browser.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 13, said steps further comprising:

opening a browser application prior to receiving first search data;

generating reduced sized representations of booked marked webpages upon navigation to the bookmarked webpage; and

periodically updating the reduced sized representation of the booked marked webpage.