Decentralised web annotation

• US 8,095,528 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2010
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Rakowski, Brian, Boodman, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleurantin, Jean B
• Application Number:
  US12/795,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20110082849A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-831, 715/760
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Annotations relating to web sites may be based on blog posts relating to the web sites. A user viewing a web site may concurrently view related blog posts about the web site. More particularly, in one implementation, a method includes detecting when a user visits a web page and receiving, in response to the detection, a group of blog posts that link to the web page. The method further includes displaying an indication of the group of blog posts to the user while the user is visiting the web site.

Claims

1. A method performed by a client device, the method comprising:

transmitting, by one or more processors of the client device, a search request to a blog search engine, where the search request specifies that the blog search engine perform a search for blog posts that link to a website;

receiving, at one or more processors of the client device and in response to transmitting the search request, a plurality of annotations that link to the website, where each annotation is a portion of a blog post that links to a website;

displaying the plurality of annotations while the client device is visiting the website;

calculating, by one or more processors of the client device, a rating for the website based on one or more characteristics relating to the plurality of annotations; and

displaying an icon that reflects the calculated rating.

2. The method of claim 1, where the rating is based on a quantity of blog posts received from the blog search engine in a particular period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, where the rating is based on a quantity of blog posts received from the blog search engine since the client device last visited the website.

4. The method of claim 1, where the icon is displayed in a visually more distinctive manner for a higher rating than for a lower rating.

5. The method of claim 1, where displaying the plurality of annotations includes displaying a sidebar or popup window that includes the plurality of annotations.

6. A graphical user interface embodied in a computer-readable memory device, the graphical user interface comprising:

a browser window that displays a web page in response to a transmission of a search request, from a client device to a blog search engine, the search request specifying that the blog search engine perform a search for blog posts that link to the web page;

a window that displays a plurality of blog posts associated with the web page; and

an icon, that is part of the browser window, that displays a rating associated with the web page, where the rating is based on one or more characteristics of the plurality of blog posts.

7. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the window includes a popup window or a sidebar.

8. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the window further displays a header link associated with each blog post of the plurality of blog posts.

9. The graphical user interface of claim 8, where a header link for a particular blog post, when selected, causes a window associated with the particular blog post to be opened.

10. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the window further displays a first link that, when selected, opens a window in which to leave a comment associated with the web page.

11. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the window further displays a first link that, when selected, causes additional blog posts to be displayed in the window.

12. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the icon is displayed in a visually more distinctive manner when a higher rating is associated with the web page than when a lower rating is associated with the web page.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the icon includes a graphical bar.

14. The graphical user interface of claim 13, where the graphical bar has a longer length when a higher rating is associated with the web page than when a lower rating is associated with the web page.

15. The graphical user interface of claim 6, where the window further displays a sizing icon that, when selected, changes a size of the window.

16. A system comprising:

a client device connected to a blog search engine over a network, the client device to transmit a search request to the blog search engine, where the search request specifies that the blog search engine perform a search for blog posts that link to a web site, the client device including;

a processor to implement;

a software component to display;

the web site,

portions of blog posts that link to the web site, where the blog posts are received from the blog search engine in response to the transmission of the search request, and

a rating for the web site, where the rating is calculated based on one or more characteristics of the blog posts.

17. The system of claim 16, where the rating is calculated based on a quantity of blog posts received from the blog search engine in a particular period of time.

18. The system of claim 16, where the rating is based on a quantity of blog posts received from the blog search engine since the client device last visited the web site.

19. The system of claim 16, where the rating is displayed as an icon that is displayed in a visually more distinctive manner for a higher rating than for a lower rating.