System and method for managing bookmark buttons on a browser toolbar

• US 8,402,375 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bilinski, Brandon, Skare, Travis Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): HEFFINGTON, JOHN M
• Application Number:
  US13/245,758
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/854, 715/744, 715/745, 715/747, 715/754, 715/763, 715/765, 715/781
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for managing bookmark buttons on a web browser toolbar. A web browser stores the number of times it is used to navigate to a website. On navigating to a website a predetermined number of times, a bookmark button that links to the website is automatically generated and displayed on the toolbar. The number of bookmark buttons displayed at any one time is limited, and they are arranged by the number of times their associated websites have been viewed. On determining that a new website has been viewed more than a website associated with a currently displayed bookmark button, the currently displayed bookmark button is replaced by a new bookmark button that links to the new website.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing bookmark buttons on a toolbar based on web page visit frequency, comprising:

storing an address and a visit count for each web page visited by a web browser;

for each address, incrementing the respective visit count on each visit to the web page;

creating for display a bookmark button on the toolbar for each web page having a visit count greater than a threshold value, each bookmark button operable to initiate a request by the web browser for the associated web page using the stored address for the associated web page; and

determining that at least two web pages of a parent website were displayed by the web browser as a result of separate navigation requests not made from within the parent website, wherein a button corresponding to the parent website is displayed on the toolbar and operable to initiate a request by the web browser for a parent web page.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the visit count is incremented for a corresponding web page over a predetermined period of time.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the visit count is reset after the predetermined period of time has expired.

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

providing instructions to remove from the toolbar a displayed bookmark button for a website having a visit count lower than websites for other displayed bookmark buttons when a number of bookmarks reaches a predefined number.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein each displayed bookmark button is moved in position to the left as it overtakes an adjacent button in visit count.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

locking a selected bookmark button such that the selected bookmark button may not be overtaken by a newer bookmark button with a greater visit count.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, replacing a currently displayed bookmark button with a new button when an address associated with the currently displayed bookmark button has not been navigated by the browser for a predetermined period of time.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the respective visit count is incremented by a significantly smaller amount when using a bookmark or bookmark button to visit the web page, than an amount incremented when visiting the web page by other means.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the bookmark buttons are displayed on a startup of the web browser based on their corresponding visit counts.

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

on determining a favicon of a website corresponding to a displayed bookmark button, including the favicon as part of the displayed bookmark button, otherwise including a graphic icon selected from one or more predefined icons as part of the displayed bookmark button.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the graphic icon is selected to be different than icons of other displayed bookmark buttons.

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

storing a combined visit count for the at least two web pages displayed by the web browser; and

incrementing the combined visit count on a visit to one of the at least two web pages.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the at least two web pages are associated with each other and the parent website is in a parent-child relationship with at least one of the at least two web pages.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising:

displaying a bookmark button on the toolbar for one of the at least two web pages having an individual visit count greater than a parent threshold value.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a machine or computer cause the machine or computer to perform a method of managing bookmark buttons on a toolbar based on web page visit frequency, the method comprising:

on determining a number of times one or more websites was displayed by a browser meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold, automatically displaying, on a startup of the browser, one or more corresponding buttons on a toolbar of the browser, each corresponding button representative of a hyperlink to a respective one of the one or more websites; and

determining that at least two web pages of a parent website were displayed by the browser as a result of separate navigation requests not made from within the parent website, wherein a button corresponding to the parent website is displayed on the browser toolbar and operable to initiate a request by the browser for a parent web page.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

storing the number of times as a visit count for each of the one or more web sites displayed by the browser; and

incrementing a respective visit count on a visit to a corresponding website.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the visit count is incremented for a corresponding web page over a predetermined period of time.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the visit count is reset after the predetermined period of time has expired.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein storing a visit count for each of the one or more websites includes associating the visit count with a single web address of each of the web sites.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

on determining a number of times one or more of the at least two web pages was displayed by the browser meets or exceeds a parent threshold value, automatically displaying on the toolbar one or more respective buttons.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

removing a currently displayed button from the toolbar and replacing it with a new button on determining a number of currently displayed buttons is at a maximum limit, and a website corresponding to the new button was displayed by the browser a greater number of times than a website corresponding to the currently displayed button.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein each of the one or more corresponding buttons displayed on the toolbar are arranged according to a number of times each corresponding website was displayed by the browser, in decreasing order from left to right.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, the method further comprising:

locking a selected button such that the selected button may not be overtaken by a newer button corresponding to a website that was displayed by the browser a greater number of times than the selected button.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein a number of times a website is displayed in response to a navigation request initiated from an associated button is given less weight than a number of times a website is displayed in response to a navigation request not made from a button.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, the method further comprising:

on determining a favicon of a website corresponding to a displayed button, including the favicon as part of the displayed button, otherwise including a graphic icon selected from one or more predefined icons as part of the displayed button, wherein the graphic icon is selected to be different than icons of other displayed bookmark buttons.

26. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including software for generating a web browser that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

display a web browser including a toolbar;

for each web address navigated by the web browser, store a number of times the web address was navigated over a predetermined period of time;

on navigating to a web address a predetermined number of times, generate and display on the toolbar a bookmark button operable to generate a navigation request to a respective website associated with the web address; and

determine that at least two web pages of a parent website were displayed by the web browser as a result of separate navigation requests not made from within the parent website, wherein a button corresponding to the parent website is displayed on the toolbar and operable to initiate a request by the web browser for a parent web page.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the software, when executed, further causes the processor to:

remove a currently displayed bookmark button from the toolbar and replace it with a new bookmark button when a number of currently displayed bookmark buttons is at a maximum limit, and a web address corresponding to the new bookmark button was navigated by the browser a greater number of times than a web address corresponding to the currently displayed button.