URL rescue by execution of search using information extracted from invalid URL

• US 8,898,137 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2010
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brundage, Michael L., Williams, Sarah E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US12/822,531
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 707/769, 707/758, 707/E17.107, 707/708
• US Class Current: 707/708
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

A server system is disclosed that is capable of providing responsive content to a user when a request for an invalid URL is received. In a preferred embodiment, the server system implements multiple rescue strategies for attempting to rescue the invalid URL. One such rescue strategy involves repairing the URL by correcting for encoding errors, such as errors introduced by some web clients. Another rescue strategy involves determining that the URL contains an obsolete or outdated item identifier (e.g., product identifier) that renders the URL invalid, and returning information regarding one or more related items to the user. Another rescue strategy involves mining the invalid URL for one or more text strings reflective of the type of content desired, and then using the one or more text strings to execute a keyword search to identify content to provide to the user. The various rescue strategies may be attempted in sequence according to a hierarchy.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented URL rescue process, said URL rescue process comprising:

receiving, by a hosting site, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) request from a user device, said URL request specifying a URL, the URL request including an address of the hosting site and a character string referencing a content location on the hosting web site;

detecting that the URL is invalid by detecting that the content location is not found on the hosting site;

in response to detecting that the URL is invalid, attempting, as a first URL rescue strategy, to repair the invalid URL through URL modification;

determining that the attempt to repair the invalid URL through URL modification has failed to produce a modified URL that resolves to a valid content location on the hosting site; and

executing an alternate URL rescue strategy that does not attempt to repair the invalid URL, said alternate URL rescue strategy comprising;

extracting from the invalid URL a set of one or more search terms for executing one or more searches, wherein extracting the set of one or more search terms comprises using delimiters in the invalid URL to identify a substring of the invalid URL, and comparing the substring to entries in a selection list to determine whether to use the substring as a search term, said extracting resulting in a selection of less than all text of said character string for use in executing the one or more searches;

executing one or more searches of content of the hosting site using the one or more extracted search terms, wherein executing the one or more searches comprises applying the one or more search terms to an index of the content of the hosting site;

incorporating results of the one or more searches into a page; and

returning the page to the user device in response to the URL request;

said URL rescue process implemented by a server system that comprises one or more computing devices.

2. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the alternate URL rescue strategy is executed after said failure of the attempt to repair the invalid URL through URL modification.

3. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the alternate URL rescue strategy is executed at least partly in response to the failure of the attempt to repair the invalid URL through URL modification.

4. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the selection list includes a whitelist.

5. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the selection list includes a blacklist.

6. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the selection list comprises a list of parameters.

7. The URL rescue process of claim 1, wherein the URL rescue process further comprises attempting a third URL rescue strategy that comprises:

extracting from the invalid URL an item identifier that identifies a first catalog item;

looking up in a mapping table a second catalog item that is related to the first catalog item; and

returning to the user device, in response to the URL request, a description of the second catalog item.

8. Non-transitory computer storage having stored thereon executable program code that directs a server system of a hosting site to implement a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) rescue process for responding to a resource request received by the server system from a user device, said URL rescue process comprising:

receiving, by the server system, the resource request from the user device, the resource request specifying a URL that comprises (1) an address of the hosting site, and (2) a character string referencing a content location;

determining that the URL specified in the resource request is invalid by determining that the character string does not reference a valid content location of the hosting site;

in response to determining that the URL is invalid, attempting, as a first URL rescue strategy, to repair the invalid URL through URL modification;

determining that the attempt to repair the invalid URL through URL modification is unsuccessful; and

attempting an alternate URL rescue strategy that does not repair the invalid URL, said alternate URL rescue strategy comprising;

extracting from the invalid URL a set of one or more search terms for executing one or more searches of content of the hosting site, wherein extracting the set of one or more search terms comprises using delimiters in the invalid URL to identify a substring of the invalid URL, and comparing the substring to entries in a selection list to determine whether to use the substring as a search term, said extracting resulting in a selection of less than all text of said character string for use in executing the one or more searches;

executing one or more searches of content of the hosting site using the one or more extracted search terms, wherein executing the one or more searches comprises applying the one or more search terms to an index of the content of the hosting site;

incorporating results of the one or more searches into a page; and

returning the page to the user device in response to the resource request.

9. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 8, wherein the alternate URL rescue strategy is attempted at least partly in response to determining that the attempt to repair the invalid URL is unsuccessful.

10. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 8, wherein the selection list includes a whitelist.

11. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 8, wherein the selection list includes a blacklist.

12. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 8, wherein the selection list comprises a list of parameters.

13. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 8, wherein the URL rescue process further comprises attempting a third URL rescue strategy that comprises:

extracting from the invalid URL an item identifier that identifies a first catalog item;

looking up in a mapping table a second catalog item that is related to the first catalog item; and

returning to the user device, in response to the resource request, a description of the second catalog item.

14. A server system comprising one or more computing devices, said server system programmed to respond to a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) request from a user device by a process that comprises:

identifying a URL specified by the URL request, said URL including an address of a hosting site and including a character string referencing a content location;

determining that the URL specified in the URL request is invalid by determining that the character string does not reference a valid content location of the hosting site;

in response to determining that the URL is invalid, executing a URL rescue process that comprises a plurality of URL rescue strategies, including;

a first URL rescue strategy that attempts to correct the invalid URL through URL modification, wherein the first URL rescue strategy attempts to modify the invalid URL to produce a valid URL that references a valid content location of the hosting site; and

a second URL rescue strategy that comprises (i) extracting from the invalid URL a set of one or more search terms for executing one or more searches of content of the hosting site, wherein extracting the set of one or more search terms comprises using delimiters in the invalid URL to identify a substring of the invalid URL, and comparing the substring to entries in a selection list, said extracting resulting in a selection of less than all text of said character string for use in executing the one or more searches, (ii) executing the one or more searches of content of the hosting site using the one or more extracted search terms, wherein executing the one or more searches comprises applying the one or more search terms to an index of the content of the hosting site, and (iii) incorporating results of the one or more searches into a page to provide to the user device in response to the URL request.

15. The server system of claim 14, wherein the server system is programmed to attempt the second URL rescue strategy only if the first URL rescue strategy is unsuccessful.

16. The server system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of URL rescue strategies further includes a third URL rescue strategy that comprises:

extracting from the invalid URL an item identifier that identifies a first item;

looking up in a mapping table a second item that is related to the first item; and

returning to the user device, in response to the URL request, a description of the second item.