Technique for modifying presentation of information displayed to end users of a computer system

• US 8,302,011 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2005
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bryar, Colin, Leblang, Jonathan, Manber, Udi
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Quoc A
• Application Number:
  US11/127,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20060168510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,730 Days
• Field of Search: 715/513, 715/736, 715/202, 715/230, 715/231, 715/233, 715/234, 707/2, 705/26, 705/27, 345/173, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A technique is described for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network including a client system and a server system. A first portion of content relating to a first markup document may be displayed to a user of the client system, wherein the first markup document has a URL associated therewith. Information relating to the first portion of content is stored at the server system. An action to display a current version of the first markup document on the client system is received. A current version of content for the first markup document is retrieved from the host server. The stored information relating to the first portion of content may be used to identify a third portion of content associated with the first markup document which has not previously been displayed to the user. The display of markup document content associated with the first markup document may then be modified in a manner which facilitates the user in identifying the third portion of content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for modifying a display of content that includes a first portion that was previously displayed to a user, the method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a request for content to be displayed to a user, the content being associated with a markup document that is associated with a first URL such that the content is retrievable by accessing the markup document from a location specified by the first URL;

retrieving the content associated with the markup document;

determining if difference information is available, the difference information indicating a difference between a previous version and a current version of the markup document, the previous version having been presented to the user;

accessing user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

based on the difference information and the user activity tracking information, determining portions of the current version of the markup document that have not previously been displayed to the user;

providing the markup document for display to the user at a client system, the content of the markup document including one or more intra page bookmarks indicating portions of the content that were not previously displayed to the user;

enabling the user to use the intra page bookmarks to view the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed to the user;

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display or not display the intra page bookmarks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the markup document content includes content selected from a group of HTML content and XML content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user activity tracking information includes information for an action corresponding to a page turn operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing includes formatting the first portion differently than the second portion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing includes adding to the markup document a graphical indicator that identifies the second portion.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the graphical indicator includes text.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing user preference data, the user preference data at least including automatically highlighting previously not displayed portions of the content based on user preference.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user activity tracking information is stored on the client system or on a remote server.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one previous version of the markup document is stored in at least one of the client system and a server remote from the user.

11. A system for modifying a display of content that includes a first portion that was previously displayed to a user and that is capable of including a portion that was part of the content at the time the first portion was previously displayed to the user, but that has yet to be displayed to the user, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one interface configured or designed to provide a communication link to at least one other network device in the data network; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

receive a request for content to be displayed to a user, the content being associated with a markup document that is associated with a first URL such that the content is retrievable by accessing the markup document from a location specified by the first URL;

retrieve the content associated with the markup document;

determine difference information indicating any differences between a previous version and a current version of the markup document, the previous version having been previously presented to the user;

access user activity information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

based on the difference information and the user activity information, determine portions of the current version of the markup document that have not previously been displayed to the user;

provide the markup document for display to the user at a client system, the content of the markup document including one or more intra page bookmarks indicating portions of content that were not previously displayed to the user; and

enable the user to use the intra page bookmarks to locate the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed;

enable the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enable the user to selectively choose to display or not display the intra page bookmarks.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the markup document content includes content selected from a group of HTML content and XML content.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the user activity tracking information includes information for an action corresponding to a page turn operation.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first portion of content includes a fingerprint of markup document content which has been previously displayed to the user.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

store user preference data, the user preference data at least including automatically highlighting previously not displayed portions of the content based on user preference.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one previous version of the markup document is stored in at least one of the client system and a server remote from the user.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program product for modifying a display of content that was previously displayed to a user, the computer program product comprising executable instructions for:

receiving a request for content to be displayed to a user, the content being associated with a markup document;

retrieving the content associated;

obtaining difference information for the markup document when a current version of the markup document has not been displayed to the user, the difference information indicating a difference between the current version and a previous version of the markup document that was presented to the user;

accessing user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

based on the difference information and the user activity tracking information, determining portions of the current version of the markup document that have not previously been displayed to the user;

providing the markup document for display to the user at a client system, the content of the markup document being modified to include intra page bookmarks, such that the portion that was not previously displayed to the user is distinguished from the portion that was previously displayed in a manner enabling the user to locate and view the portion that was not previously displayed to the user;

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

19. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to retrieve content in response to an action by a user of the client system, the content being associated with a markup document that is associated with a first URL such that the content is retrievable by accessing the markup document from a location specified by the first URL;

retrieving a first portion of content associated with a previous version of the markup document associated with the first URL, wherein at least a portion of the first portion of content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

retrieving a second portion of content associated with a current version of the markup document associated with the first URL, wherein at least a portion of the second portion of content was not previously displayed to the user on the client system;

comparing the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document with the second portion of content associated with the current version of the markup document using user activity tracking information to identify a third portion of content associated with the markup document, the third portion including content in the current version which was not previously displayed to the user and capable of including content from the previous version that was not previously displayed to the user on the client system;

inserting an intra page bookmark into the content associated with the markup document indicating the location of the third portion of the content associated with the markup document;

enabling the user to use the intra page bookmark to identify and view the third portion of the markup document that was not previously displayed;

storing user preferences associated with the display of the third portion of the content, wherein the user is able to selectively turn on and off the intra page bookmark; and

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document to allow the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising displaying the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document was last displayed to the user.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the intra page bookmark includes highlighting a portion of the markup document content displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the markup document corresponds to a weblog page;

the first portion of content includes information relating to a previous version of the weblog page content that had been previously displayed to the user;

the second portion of content includes information relating to a current version of the weblog page content; and

a third portion of content includes information relating to new or modified weblog page content which was not previously displayed to the user.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising initially displaying the third portion of content to the user in response to the action.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

highlighting a portion of the weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the weblog page content that was last displayed to the user the last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially displaying the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.

25. A system for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one interface configured or designed to provide a communication link to at least one other network device in the data network; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to;

receive a request to retrieve content in response to an action by a user of the client system, the content being associated with a markup document that is associated with a first URL such that the content is retrievable by accessing the document from a location specified by the first URL;

retrieve a first portion of content associated with a previous version of the markup document associated with the first URL, wherein at least a portion of the first portion of content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

retrieve a second portion of content associated with a current version of the markup document associated with the first URL, wherein at least a portion of the second portion of content was not previously displayed to the user on the client system;

access user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

compare the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document with the second portion of content associated with the current version of the markup document using the user activity tracking information to identify a third portion of content associated with the markup document, the third portion including content in the current version which was not previously displayed to the user and capable of including content from the previous version which was not previously displayed to the user;

provide the markup document for display to the user at a client system, the content of the markup document including one or more intra page bookmarks in the third portion indicating a location of content that was not previously displayed to the user;

enable the user to use the intra page bookmarks to identify and view the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed;

enable the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enable the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

26. The system of claim 25, being further configured to display the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document was previously displayed to the user.

27. The system of claim 25, being further configured to highlight a portion of markup document content displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the first portion of content associated with the previous version of the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page:

wherein the first portion of content includes information relating to a previous version of the weblog page content that had been previously displayed to the user;

wherein the second portion of content includes information relating to a current version of the weblog page content;

wherein the third portion of content includes information relating to new or modified weblog page content that was not previously displayed to the user.

29. The system of claim 28, being further configured or designed to initially display the third portion of content to the user in response to the action.

30. The system of claim 28, being further configured or designed to:

highlight a portion of weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the markup document content that was last displayed to the user a last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially display the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program product for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the computer program product comprising executable instructions for:

receiving a request for content to be displayed to a user, the content being associated with a markup document that is associated with a URL such that the content is retrievable by accessing the markup document from a location specified by the URL;

retrieving a first portion of content associated with the markup document associated with the URL, wherein at least a portion of the first portion of content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

retrieving a second portion of content associated with a current version of the markup document associated with the URL, wherein at least a portion of the second portion of content was not previously displayed to the user on the client system;

accessing user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

comparing the first portion of content associated with the markup document with the second portion of content associated with the current version of the markup document to identify a difference portion of content associated with the markup document;

based on the difference portion of content and the user activity tracking information, determining a portion of the current version of the markup document that has not previously been displayed to the user;

causing portion of the current version of the markup document that has not previously been displayed to the user to be distinguished from the previously displayed portion using one or more intra page bookmarks;

providing the markup document for display to the user at a client system enabling the user to identify and view the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed;

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components for displaying the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the first portion of content associated with the markup document was last displayed to the user.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components for highlighting a portion of markup document content displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the first portion of content associated with the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 31, encoded with a computer program product, wherein:

the first markup document corresponds to a weblog page;

the first portion of content includes information relating to a previous version of the weblog page content that had been previously displayed to the user;

the second portion of content includes information relating to a current version of the weblog page content; and

the difference portion of content includes information relating to new or modified weblog page content that was not previously displayed to the user.

35. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components further configured or designed to initially display the difference portion of content to the user in response to the action.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components further configured or designed to;

highlight a portion of weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the markup document content that was last displayed to the user a last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially display the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.

37. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the method comprising:

tracking interaction of a user with the markup document;

storing user activity tracking information for the user with respect to the markup document;

in response to receiving a request corresponding to an action by a user of the client system, the request corresponding to a URL associated with the markup document such that the markup document is accessible from a location specified by the URL;

retrieving content associated with the markup document associated with the URL, wherein at least a portion of the content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

determining if difference information is available, the difference information indicating a difference between a previous version and a current version of the markup document, the previous version having been presented to the user;

accessing user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

based on the difference information and the user activity tracking information, determining portions of the current version of the markup document that have not previously been displayed to the user;

providing the markup document for display to the user at a client system, the content of the markup document including one or more intra page bookmarks indicating portions of content that were not previously displayed to the user;

enabling the user to use the intra page bookmarks to view the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed;

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising displaying the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the content associated with the markup document was last displayed to the user.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein said intra page bookmarks includes highlighting a portion of markup document content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the portion of the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

highlighting a portion of the weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the weblog page content that was last displayed to the user the last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially displaying the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.

42. A system for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one interface configured or designed to provide a communication link to at least one other network device in the data network; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to;

track interaction of a user with the markup document;

store user activity tracking information for the user with respect to the markup document, the user activity tracking information relating to at least one relative position within content associated with the markup document that indicates a first portion of the content associated with a previous version of the markup document that was previously displayed to the user;

receive a request in response to an action by a user of the client system, the action triggering the request corresponding to the markup document;

retrieve content associated with the markup document, wherein at least a portion of the content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

identify, based at least in part of the user activity tracking information, intra page bookmark information that enables display of the retrieved content associated with the markup document according to the relative position such that said at least a portion of the markup document that was previously displayed to the user is distinguished from another portion of the retrieved content that has yet to be displayed to the user, said another portion that has yet to be displayed to the user being capable of including content that was part of the markup document when said at least a portion of the markup document was previously displayed to the user;

modify, based at least in part on the intra page bookmark information, display information for the markup document such that the portion of the markup document that was previously displayed to the user is distinguished from said another portion in a manner enabling the user to locate a beginning of the second portion;

enable the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks to bookmark a desired location within the markup document, the bookmark allowing the user to start at the desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

43. The system of claim 42, being further configured to display the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the content associated with the markup document was previously displayed to the user.

44. The system of claim 42, being further configured to highlight a portion of the markup document content displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the portion of content associated with the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

45. The system of claim 42, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page.

46. The system of claim 45, being further configured or designed to:

highlight a portion of the weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the markup document content that was last displayed to the user a last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially display the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.

47. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program product for facilitating a display of markup document content retrieved from a host server on a computer network, the computer network including a client system and a server system, the computer program product comprising executable instructions for:

tracking interaction of a user with the markup document;

storing user activity tracking information for the user with respect to the markup document, the user activity tracking information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

receiving a request corresponding to an action at the client system, the action being initiated by a user of the client system, the request associated with a first URL such that the markup document is accessible from a location specified by the first URL;

retrieving content associated with the markup document associated with the first URL, wherein at least a portion of the content was previously displayed to the user on the client system;

determining if difference information is available, the difference information indicating a difference between a previous version and a current version of the markup document, the previous version having been presented to the user;

modifying, based on the difference information and the user activity tracking information, display information for the markup document using one or more intra page bookmarks such that the portion of the markup document that was previously displayed to the user is distinguished from said another portion; and

enabling the user to use the modified display information to identify and view the portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed;

enabling the user to manually insert intra page bookmarks in the markup document allowing the user to start at a desired location after closing the markup document; and

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the intra page bookmarks.

48. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components for displaying the markup document content to the user starting from a location within the markup document where the content associated with the markup document was last displayed to the user.

49. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components for highlighting a portion of the markup document content displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to the portion of content associated with the markup document that was last displayed to the user.

50. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the markup document corresponds to a weblog page.

51. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 50, encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product further comprising:

components further configured or designed to;

highlight a portion of the weblog page content to be displayed to the user, wherein the highlighted portion corresponds to a portion of the markup document content that was last displayed to the user a last time that the user viewed the weblog page; and

initially display the weblog page to the user, in response to the action, starting from a location corresponding to the highlighted portion of content.