Webpages with conditional content

• US 8,689,117 B1
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Vasilik, Kenneth Eric, Reiter, Kobi
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Doon
• Assistant Examiner(s): PACK, CONRAD R
• Application Number:
  US12/610,242
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 715/760
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Systems and techniques for generating a markup language document that has content to be conditionally display are disclosed. The markup language document includes JavaScript code and one or more comment tags indicating that content between the one or more comment tags is not to be processed for display by a client computer. The markup language document further defines a variable to hold a value. When the variable is a first value, at least one of the comment tags is ignored as a comment tag such that the content between the comment tags is processed for display. When the variable is a second value, the one or more comment tags are processed normally, such that the content between the comment tags is not displayed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a client computing device and as having been sent from a server system, a markup language document for a webpage that includes JavaScript code, a comment tag, a variable, and an attribute that is separate from the variable and that is associated with a second markup language tag other than the comment tag, the comment tag being separate from the JavaScript code and arranged to indicate particular content in the markup language document that is not to be processed by the client computing device for display when the comment tag is interpreted as a comment tag by the client computing device;

determining that the variable holds a first value;

in response to determining that the variable holds the first value, rendering a first version of the webpage that includes a representation of the particular content for display, wherein the rendering includes using the JavaScript code to write the second markup language tag in the markup language document such that the characters that form the comment tag are set as a value of the attribute and the comment tag is ignored as a comment tag as a result of the client computing device interpreting the characters that form the comment tag as the value of the attribute; and

providing, to the server system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, first conversion data that indicates that the first version of the webpage has been rendered,

wherein the markup language document is structured to cause the client computing device, in response to the variable holding a second value that is different from the first value, (i) to render a second version of the webpage that does not include the representation of the particular content for display, the comment tag being arranged for interpretation as a comment tag in the second version of the webpage, and (ii) to provide, to the server system for monitoring the conversion rate of the webpage, second conversion data that indicates that the second version of the webpage has been rendered.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the JavaScript code defines the variable to hold the value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

when the variable is the first value, ignoring at the comment tag as a comment tag comprises disregarding the comment tag even though the comment tag remains present in the markup language document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the particular content in the markup language document that is indicated by the comment tag includes conditional content that is conditionally displayed in a webpage represented by the markup language document depending on the value of the variable, where the conditional content is displayed if the variable holds the first value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if the JavaScript code is not executed by the client computing device, then the conditional content is not displayed in the webpage as a result of the JavaScript code not being executed by the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the markup language document further includes code that is operable to determine the value of the variable.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the code that is operable to determine the value of the variable bases the determination on a setting of the client computing device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the code operable to determine the value of the variable comprises a random number generator.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the code operable to determine the value of the variable includes a call to a universal resource identifier from which a value can be returned assigning a value to the variable.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the code operable to determine the value of the variable includes a call to a universal resource identifier from which a function can be returned that can be executed to determine the value to the variable.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, perform operations comprising:

generating, by a server system, a markup language document for a webpage, the markup language document comprising JavaScript code, a comment tag, a variable, and an attribute that is separate from the variable and that is associated with a second markup language tag other than the comment tag, the comment tag being separate from the JavaScript code and arranged to indicate particular content in the markup language document that is not to be processed for display when the comment tag is interpreted as a comment tag by a first computing device that is caused to execute the markup language document;

wherein the markup language document is structured to cause the first computing device, when the markup language document is executed by the first computing device and in response to the variable being determined to hold a first value, (i) to render a first version of the webpage, wherein the rendering includes using the JavaScript code to write the second markup language tag in the markup language document such that the characters that form the comment tag are set as a value of the attribute and the comment tag is ignored as a comment tag as a result of the first computing device being caused to interpret the characters that form the comment tag as the value of the attribute, and (ii) to provide, to the server system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, first conversion data that indicates that the first version of the webpage has been rendered, and

wherein the markup language document is further structured to cause the first computing device, when the markup language document is executed by the first computing device and in response to the variable being determined to hold a second value that is different from the first value, (i) to render a second version of the webpage, wherein the rendering includes interpreting the comment tag normally such that the particular content in the markup language document indicated by the comment tag is not processed by the first computing device for display, and (ii) to provide, to the server system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, second conversion data that indicates that the second version of the webpage has been rendered; and

transmitting the markup language document to the first computing device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the JavaScript code defines the variable to hold the value.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein:

as a result of the variable being determined to hold the first value, ignoring the comment tag as a comment tag comprises disregarding the comment tag even though the comment tag remains present in the markup language document.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein:

the particular content in the markup language document that is indicated by the comment tag includes conditional content that is conditionally displayed in a webpage represented by the markup language document depending on the value of the variable, where the conditional content is displayed if the variable holds the first value.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein if the JavaScript code is not executed by the first computing device, then the conditional content is not displayed in the webpage as a result of the first computing device not executing the JavaScript code.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the markup language document further comprises code operable to determine the value of the variable.

17. A system comprising:

a processor;

a storage device coupled to the processor and configurable for storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

generating, by the system, a markup language document for a webpage, the markup language document comprising JavaScript code, a comment tag, a variable, and an attribute that is separate from the variable and that is associated with a second markup language tag other than the comment tag, the comment tag being separate from the JavaScript code and arranged to indicate particular content in the markup language document that is not to be processed for display when the comment tag is interpreted as a comment tag by a first computing device that is caused to execute the markup language document;

wherein the markup language document is structured to cause the first computing device, when the markup language document is executed by the first computing device and in response to the variable being determined to hold a first value, (i) to render a first version of the webpage, wherein the rendering includes using the JavaScript code to write the second markup language tag in the markup language document such that the characters that form the comment tag are set as a value of the attribute and the comment tag is ignored as a comment tag as a result of the first computing device being caused to interpret the characters that form the comment tag as the value of the attribute, and (ii) to provide, to the system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, first conversion data that indicates that the first version of the webpage has been rendered, and

wherein the markup language document is further structured to cause the first computing device, when the markup language document is executed by the first computing device and in response to the variable being determined to hold a second value that is different from the first value, (i) to render a second version of the webpage, wherein the rendering includes interpreting the comment tag normally such that the particular content in the markup language document indicated by the comment tag is not processed by the first computing device for display, and (ii) to provide, to the system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, second conversion data that indicates that the second version of the webpage has been rendered; and

transmitting the markup language document to the first computing device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the JavaScript code defines the variable to hold the value.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein:

as a result of the variable being determined to hold the first value, ignoring the comment tag as a comment tag comprises disregarding the comment tag even though the comment tag remains present in the markup language document.

20. The system of claim 17, where:

the particular content in the markup language document that is indicated by the comment tag includes conditional content that is conditionally displayed in a webpage represented by the markup language document depending on the value of the variable, where the conditional content is displayed if the variable holds the first value.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein if the JavaScript code is not executed by the first computing device, then the conditional content is not displayed in the webpage as a result of the first computing device not executing the JavaScript code.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the markup language document further comprises code operable to determine the value of the variable.

23. One or more non-transitory computer-readable devices including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations, the operations comprising:

receiving, by a client computing device and as having been sent from a server system, a markup language document for a webpage that includes JavaScript code, a comment tag, a variable, and an attribute that is separate from the variable and that is associated with a second markup language tag other than the comment tag, the comment tag being separate from the JavaScript code and arranged to indicate particular content in the markup language document that is not to be processed by the client computing device for display when the comment tag is interpreted as a comment tag by the client computing device;

determining that the variable holds a first value;

in response to determining that the variable holds the first value, rendering a first version of the webpage that includes a representation of the particular content for display, wherein the rendering includes using the JavaScript code to write the second markup language tag in the markup language document such that the characters that form the comment tag are set as a value of the attribute and the comment tag is ignored as a comment tag as a result of the client computing device interpreting the characters that form the comment tag as the value of the attribute; and

providing, to the server system for monitoring a conversion rate of the webpage, first conversion data that indicates that the first version of the webpage has been rendered,

wherein the markup language document is structured to cause the client computing device, in response to the variable holding a second value that is different from the first value, (i) to render a second version of the webpage that does not include the representation of the particular content for display, the comment tag being arranged for interpretation as a comment tag in the second version of the webpage, and (ii) to provide, to the server system for monitoring the conversion rate of the webpage, second conversion data that indicates that the second version of the webpage has been rendered.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable devices of claim 23, wherein the JavaScript code defines the variable to hold the value.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable devices of claim 23, wherein, as a result of the variable holding the first value, ignoring at the comment tag as a comment tag comprises disregarding the comment tag even though the comment tag remains present in the markup language document.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable devices of claim 23, wherein the markup language document further comprises code that is operable to determine the value of the variable.