Graphical web browser history toolbar

• US 8,205,172 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Curtis G., Glenner, Steve C., Drucker, Steven M.
• Primary Examiner(s): ENGLAND, SARA M
• Application Number:
  US11/097,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20060224997A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,637 Days
• Field of Search: 715/733, 715/738, 715/751, 715/760, 715/838, 715/855, 715/704
• US Class Current: 715/855
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management

Abstract

The present subject matter describes a graphical web browser toolbar the stores visual representations of user-selected web pages. A saved page is included in the toolbar as a tile that shows a thumbnail image of at least a portion of the page. A user may customize the thumbnail image by zooming onto an area of the page. The user selects a tile from the toolbar to show an enlarged version of the thumbnail image with data from the web page, such as a link to the web page. A comments section allows a user to enter comments related to the web page into the tile. Tiles may be arranged according to groups as configured by the user. The toolbar may be stored and transmitted to a remote location. Using the described techniques, a web shopper can save images in a graphical toolbar and send items saved therein to an acquaintance.

Claims

1. A method performed by a web browser executing on a computing device, the method comprising:

displaying web pages acquired by the browser via a network from remote servers, the browser comprising a main display area where the web pages are displayed and where a user can interact with a currently displayed web page to activate interactive controls therein that are part of the web page, the browser further comprising a history display area displayed simultaneously with the main display area, the history display area displaying thumbnails of stored previously-visited web pages, wherein when a thumbnail is selected a copy or partial copy of the web page is retrieved from one of a plurality of web page records and displayed in the main display area with user interface elements for inputting a comment and a display area displaying a price extracted from the displayed copy or partial copy of the web page;

storing the web page records for at least some of the web pages, respectively, a web page record having been stored responsive to the user interacting with the browser to invoke a store command when the corresponding web page was displayed in the main display area, whereby the store command is used to store only some of the visited web pages, each web page record comprising an address of the corresponding web page, a thumbnail of the corresponding web page, a copy or partial copy of the corresponding web page, and a price extracted from the corresponding web page, wherein when the user interacts with the web browser to invoke the store command to indicate that a web page currently displayed in the main display area is to be stored, the browser, while displaying the web page in the main display area, adds and displays a thumbnail of the current web page in the history display area and stores a new web page record for the current web page;

responding to the user selecting a thumbnail displayed in the history display area by obtaining a corresponding stored web page record and displaying the copy or partial copy of the web page in the main display area, and displaying a data input area comprising a comment input area for receiving user-inputted comments, a data field for displaying a price extracted from the displayed copy or partial copy of the web page responsive to user interaction therewith, wherein the extracted price and the user-inputted comments are stored in the corresponding web page record, and the extracted price is extracted and stored in the web page record in response to the user interactively selecting the price in the corresponding display of web page in the main display area;

storing groupings of the web page records, the groupings having been interactively created by the user using the browser, the web browser allowing the user to define new groupings and add any of the stored web page records to any of the groupings; and

while displaying the main display area and the history display area, displaying a grouping display area in the browser, the grouping display area comprising individual group icons of respective groupings, an icon of a grouping being comprised of thumbnails of web pages in the grouping, wherein, when a user selects an icon, a total of the prices of the web pages in the grouping is displayed and the thumbnails of the web page records in the corresponding grouping are automatically displayed in the history display area such that any of the thumbnails of the grouping can be interactively selected to display a corresponding copy or partial copy of a corresponding web page record in the main display area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a thumbnail comprises an image configured such that a portion of the image may be selected to create a zoomed thumbnail image which is subsequently used to graphically represent the electronic page.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the web browser further comprises a data summary area that displays the total of the prices of the web page records in a currently selected grouping of web page records.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a network address of a web page; and

storing the network address with the thumbnail in the corresponding web page record so that the network address is displayed as an actuatable link with the thumbnail image.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the web browser is further configured to:

receive user annotations related to the currently displayed web page; and

store the user annotations with the corresponding thumbnail so that the user annotations are displayed when the thumbnail image is displayed.

6. A computing device comprising a processor and storage media storing a web browser, the web browser configured to perform a process comprising:

displaying web pages selected by a user and acquired by the browser via a network from remote servers, the browser comprising a main display area where the acquired web pages are displayed and where the user can interact with a currently displayed web page to activate interactive components therein that are included in the acquired web page, the browser further comprising a history display area displayed simultaneously with and separately from the main display area, the history display area displaying interactive thumbnails of stored previously-visited web pages, wherein when a thumbnail is interactively selected a copy or partial copy of the web page represented by the selected thumbnail is retrieved from one of a plurality of stored web page records and displayed in the main display area with user interface elements for inputting a comment and for displaying a price extracted from the displayed copy or partial copy of the web page;

storing and accessing the web page records, which correspond to respective web pages, a web page record having been selectively stored by the browser responsive to the user interacting with the browser to invoke a store operation when the corresponding web page was displayed in the main display area, whereby the user interactively chooses only a subset of visited web pages to be stored and a displayed current web page is stored only if the user invokes the store operation, each web page record comprising an address of the corresponding web page, a thumbnail of the corresponding web page, a copy or partial copy of the corresponding web page, and data extracted from the web page, wherein when the user interacts with the web browser to invoke the store operation to indicate that a web page currently displayed in the main display area is to be stored, the web page having been retrieved directly from a server and not from a locally stored web page record, the browser, while displaying the web page in the main display area, adds and displays a thumbnail of the current web page in the history display area and stores a new web page record for the current web page;

responding to the user selecting a web page record thumbnail displayed in the history display area by accessing a corresponding stored web page record and displaying the copy or partial copy of the web page in the main display area, and also in response to the selecting the web page record thumbnail, displaying in the main display area a data input area comprising a comment input area for receiving user-inputted comments, a data field for displaying text data extracted from the displayed copy or partial copy of the web page responsive to user interaction therewith, wherein extracted data and user-inputted comments are stored in the corresponding web page record;

storing groupings of the web page records; and

while displaying the main display area and the history display area, displaying a grouping display area in the browser, the grouping display area separate from the main display area and the history display area, the grouping display area comprising individual group icons of respective groupings, a group icon being comprised of thumbnails of web pages in the grouping, the groupings having been interactively created at least in part by a user using the browser to drag a thumbnail out of one group icon in the grouping display area and into another group icon in the grouping display area, wherein responsive to a user selecting a group icon, a total of the prices of the web page records in the selected grouping is computed and displayed, and the thumbnails of the web page records in the corresponding grouping are retrieved and displayed in the history display area and any of the so-displayed thumbnails of the grouping can be interactively selected to cause a corresponding copy or partial copy of a corresponding web page record to be displayed in the main display area.

7. The computing device according to claim 6, wherein some of the thumbnails in the web page records comprise original images of the respective web pages.

8. The computing device as recited in claim 6, wherein the browser is further configured to:

identify an address associated with a web page, the address comprising a URL;

store the address with the thumbnail in the corresponding web page record;

display the address with the thumbnail when displaying the thumbnail in the history display area;

identifying a user actuation of the address in the history display area and in response the web browser navigating to the web page associated with the web page address.