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

• US 8,645,813 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2012
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• 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 B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Quoc A
• Application Number:
  US13/621,150
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 507 Days
• Field of Search: 715/202, 715230-234, 715/736, 715/751, 715/854, 715/206, 345/173
• US Class Current: 715/206
• 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 first portion of content relating to a first markup document may be displayed to a user of the client system. Information relating to the first portion of content is stored at a 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 comprising:

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

upon receiving a request from a user to view a markup document via a display element of a computing device, accessing user information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

determining a difference between a version of the markup document previously presented to the user and a current version of the markup document;

based on the difference and the user information, determining one or more portions of the current version that have not been displayed to the user;

providing one or more intra-page bookmarks to provide a visual indication of the one or more portions of the current version that were not previously displayed to the user;

providing at least a portion of the current version of the markup document with the one or more intra-page bookmarks for display on the display element of the computing device;

enabling the user to use the one or more intra-page bookmarks to view the one or more portions of the current version of the markup document that were not previously displayed to the user;

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

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

enabling the user to selectively choose to display the one or more intra-page bookmarks.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining the one or more portions of the current version that have not been displayed to the user, notifying the user that the current version of the markup document are available.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:

upon receiving a request from a user to view a markup document, access user information to determine portions of the markup document that were previously displayed to the user;

based at least in part on the accessed user information, determine one or more portions of a modified version of the markup document that have not been displayed 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 one or more portions of the modified version of the markup document that have not been displayed to the user and the user activity tracking information, determining portions of a 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, content of the markup document being modified to include one or more intra-page bookmarks, such that the portions of the modified version of the markup document that have not previously been displayed to the user are distinguished from the portion that was previously displayed in a manner enabling the user to locate and view the portions that have not previously displayed to the user;

enabling the user to manually insert one or more 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.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the user information includes information associated with a page turn operation.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

display the modified version of the markup document to the user starting from a location within the markup document where a previous version of the markup document was previously displayed to the user.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the one or more intra-page bookmarks includes highlighting a portion of the markup document, the highlighted portion corresponding to a portion of a previous version of the markup document that was previously displayed to the user.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

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

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

enable the user to use the one or more intra-page bookmarks to view the one or more portions of the markup document that were not previously displayed to the user.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the markup document is associated with at least one of HTML content or XML content.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein determining the one or more portions of the modified version of the markup document that have not been displayed to the user includes determining a difference between a version of the markup document previously displayed to the user and the modified version of the markup document.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the user information is stored on a client system or on a remote server.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing device to:

notify the user that the one or more portions of the modified version that were not previously displayed to the user are available.

14. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

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

upon receiving a request from a user to view a markup document, determining a difference between a version of the markup document previously presented to the user; and

a current version of the markup document;

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

based on the determined difference between versions and the user activity tracking information, determine one or more portions of the current version that have not been 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, content of the markup document being modified to include one or more 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 the one or more 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 one or more intra-page bookmarks.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the markup document is associated with at least one of HTML content or XML content.

16. The computing system of claim 14, further comprising:

enable the user to use the one or more intra-page bookmarks to view the one or more portions of the current version of the markup document that were not previously displayed to the user.

17. The computing system of claim 14, wherein at least one previous version of the markup document is stored in at least one of a client system and a server remote from the user.

18. The computing system of claim 14, further comprising:

display the current version of the markup document to the user starting from a location within the markup document where a previous version of the markup document was previously displayed to the user.

19. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the one or more intra-page bookmarks includes at least one of highlighting a portion of the markup document or text.

20. The computing system of claim 14, further comprising:

notify the user that the one or more portions of the current version that were not previously displayed to the user are available.