Method and apparatus for merged browsing of network contents

• US 8,341,521 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Ennals, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US11/847,690
• Publication Number:
  US 20090063966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/201, 715/203, 715/234, 715/273, 715/277
• US Class Current: 715/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

Client devices capable of merged browsing, and a server for assisting merged browsing, are described herein. In various embodiments, client devices may receive suggestions of network content fragments to be merge browsed with network content being browsed by the user. The client device may then receive a user selection of fragment(s) and facilitate merged browsing of the fragment(s) with the network content. In some embodiments, the client device may facilitate a user in browsing first network content and in selecting a portion of the first network content. The client device may then facilitate the user in browsing second network content and in merged browsing the selected portion with the second network content. In various embodiments, the server may accept registrations of network content fragments, receive indications from client devices of network content being browsed, and assist in merged browsing the network content with one or more network content fragments.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

visually suggesting, by a client device on a display of the client device, network content fragments to add to network content being browsed using the client device to facilitate selection of at least one of the visually suggested network content fragments to be visually merged with the network content being browsed;

receiving, by the client device, the selection to merge the at least one of the visually suggested network content fragments with the network content being browsed; and

in response to said receiving the selection, facilitating, by the client device, a merger of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with the network content being browsed as merged content presented at the display of the client device,

wherein said facilitating the merger includes combining, by the client device, a specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with a specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to produce a combined specification/structural description, the combined specification/structural description specifying the merged content, and

wherein said combining includes;

comparing values of the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with values of the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to determine similarities; and

adding the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments to the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed, at one or more locations within the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed where similarities are determined to exist.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the suggested network content fragments is visually suggested as a category including multiple network content fragments to facilitate selection of the multiple network content fragments as the at least one of the network content fragments.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said visually suggesting includes rendering, on the display of the client device, representations of the network content fragments.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from a server, by the client device, a list of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments, at least a portion of the suggested network content fragments corresponding to entries of the received list.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the list of network content fragments includes data and rules to process the data, the data including extractors and/or argument handlers for each network content fragment of the list.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving, by the client device, the specifications/structural descriptions of the selected at least one of the network content fragments and of the network content being browsed, and wherein said retrieving is based on one or both of an extractor and/or an argument handler for the selected at least one of the network content fragments.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, prior to said visually suggesting, facilitating, by the client device, selection or identification of a specification of at least a portion of different network content being browsed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said facilitating the merger includes:

indicating to a server the selection of the at least one of the network content fragments; and

receiving the merged content from the server to be presented at the display of the client device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing to a server, by the client device, an indicator of the merged content presented at the display of the client device; and

receiving, by the client device, a list of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments to further visually suggest on the display of the client device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected at least one of the network content fragments includes one or more of text, pictures, audio files, video files, audio-visual files, form elements, or programs selected from one or more pages of network content.

11. A server, comprising:

a processor; and

a merged browsing service to be operated by the processor and configured to;

accept registration of one or more network content fragments from at least a first client device, the registration including an extractor expression to retrieve information from network content being browsed and from the one or more network content fragments, and an argument handler expression to specify arguments for the network content being browsed or for network content fragments to support merged browsing,

receive, from the at least the first client device, an indicator of network content being browsed on a display of the at least first client device, wherein the one or more network content fragments are visually suggested on the display of the at least the first client device to facilitate selection of at least one of the visually suggested network content fragments to be visually merged with the network content being browsed, and

in response to the received indicator, assist the at least the first client device to facilitate a merger of the network content being browsed with the selected at least one of the network content fragments and/or with categories of network content fragments as merged content presented on the display, said merger based at least on an association between;

(A) the indicated network content being browsed or a of the network content being browsed; and

(B) the selected at least one of the network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein to said assist, the merged browsing service is further configured to determine a list of the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments to be visually suggested on the display.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein the association includes information to indicate that the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments have been previously merged with the network content or the category of the network content.

14. The server of claim 11, further comprising a database, coupled to the merged browsing service, to store information to specify combinations of network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments with network contents or categories of network contents, as well as a count for each combination to track how often that combination is selected for merger, and the merged browsing service is further configured to draw the association from the information stored in the database.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein the stored information to specify the combinations includes registrations for each of the network content fragments, categories of network content fragments, network contents, and categories of network contents, the registrations including at least one of an extractor, an argument handler, or other information.

16. The server of claim 14, wherein the one or more network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments include network content fragments and/or categories of network content fragments whose combinations with the network content being browsed or with the category of the network content have highest counts.

17. The server of claim 11, wherein the merged browsing service is further configured to:

receive an indication from the at least the first client device of the selection of the at least one of the suggested network content fragments and/or a selection of the categories of network content fragments; and

in response to the received indication, retrieve specifications and/or structural descriptions for the network content being browsed and the selected at least one of the network content fragments, combine the retrieved specifications/structural descriptions to create the merged content, and provide the merged content to the at least the first client device to be presented on the display.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein to said combine the retrieved specifications/structural descriptions to create the merged content, the merged browsing service is configured to:

compare values of the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with values of the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to determine similarities; and

add the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments to the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed, at one or more locations within the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed where similarities are determined to exist.

19. The server of claim 11, wherein the at least the first client device includes:

a first client device to provide said registration to the merged browsing service; and

a second client device to provide the indicator of the network content being browsed to the merged browsing service.

20. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium; and

a plurality of programming instructions stored on the storage medium and configured to program a client device to enable the client device to;

first facilitate a user in separately browsing first and second network content visually presented on a display of the client device,

second facilitate the user in selection of at least a portion of the visually presented first network content,

merge the selected portion of the visually presented first network content with the second network content as merged content visually presented on the display of the client device, wherein said merge includes combine a specification/structural description of the selected portion of the first network content with a specification/structural description of the second network content to produce a combined specification/structural description, the combined specification/structural description specifying the merged content, and

visually suggest to the user one or more additional network content fragments to merge with the merged content having the selected portion of the first network content and the second network content, based at least in part on the selected portion of the first network content that is merged with the second network content.

21. The article of claim 20, the programming instructions to program the client device to enable the client device to said second facilitate include programming instructions to facilitate selection of a specification of the portion of the visually presented first network content.

22. The article of claim 20, wherein the programming instructions are further configured to program the client device to enable the client device to provide a visual component on the display, the visual component including at least one icon to said facilitate said selection and/or said merge.

23. The article of claim 20, wherein the programming instructions are further configured to program the client device to enable the client device to, in response to said merge, provide a server with an indicator of the merged content to facilitate the server in storage of a relation between the selected portion and the second network content.

24. The article of claim 20, wherein

wherein said instructions to combine include instructions configured to program the client device to enable the client device to:

compare values of the specification/structural description of the selected first network content with values of the specification/structural description of the second network content to determine similarities; and

add the specification/structural description of the selected first network content to the specification/structural description of the second network content, at one or more locations within the specification/structural description of the second network content where similarities are determined to exist.

25. An apparatus, comprising:

a client device that includes;

a processor;

a storage device coupled to the processor and configured to store client logic; and

the client logic, to be operated by the processor, and configured to;

visually suggest, on a display of the client device, network content fragments to add to network content being browsed using the client device to facilitate selection of at least one of the visually suggested network content fragments to be visually merged with the network content being browsed, wherein said visually suggest is based at least in part on an association at a server of the network content fragments with the network content being browsed,

receive the selection to merge the at least one of the visually suggested network content fragments with the network content being browsed, and

in response to the received selection, facilitate a merger of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with the network content being browsed as merged content presented on the display of the client device, wherein said facilitate the merger includes combine a specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with a specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to produce a combined specification/structural description, the combined specification/structural description specifying the merged content.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the client device further includes a browser with a browser plug-in to perform said visually suggest, said receive, and said facilitate.

27. The apparatus of claim 25,

wherein to said combine, the client logic is further configured to:

compare values of the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments with values of the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed to determine similarities; and

add the specification/structural description of the selected at least one of the network content fragments to the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed, at one or more locations within the specification/structural description of the network content being browsed where similarities are determined to exist.