Selectively deleting items that are not of interest to a user

• US 9,594,844 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zeigler, Andrew, Trahan, Jennifer C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Yongjia
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jiang, Haimei
• Application Number:
  US11/936,940
• Publication Number:
  US 20090125827A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,414 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/765, 707/768
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range

Abstract

Various embodiments enable a user to use their browser to selectively delete items that are not of interest to them. In at least some embodiments, a user'"'"'s interest in a particular item is implied by some action a user has taken with respect to the particular item. Responsive to this implied interest, various delete operations that can be performed relative to the items are performed so as to exclude items in which a user has some implied interest. In one or more embodiments, items that appear on a user-specified list, such as a favorites or a bookmarked list, are not deleted when a delete operation is performed relative to items to which a user browses. In at least some embodiments, a user interface is provided and enables a user to select classes of items that are to be retained when delete operations are performed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more computer-readable storage media;

a web browser embodied on the one or more computer-readable storage media;

a delete module embodied on the one or more computer-readable storage media, the delete module being associated with the web browser and being configured to;

receive input to conduct a delete operation;

during a browsing session, ascertain whether a user has an implied interest to retain an item targeted by the delete operation that is implied from a user action other than user selection of the item for retention, wherein the delete module ascertains that a user has an implied interest to retain an item based in part on whether the user recently browsed, using the web browser, to the item and without additional user interaction with the item;

delete the item if the user does not have an implied interest in the item, but retain items that the user has selectively defined are not to be deleted when a delete operation is conducted; and

retain both the item if the user has an implied interest in the item and the items that the user has selectively defined are not to be deleted when a delete operation is conducted; and

a user interface module embodied on the one or more computer-readable storage media, the user interface module being associated with the web browser and being configured to enable a user to selectively define the items that are not to be deleted when a delete operation is conducted.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the delete module ascertains that a user has an implied interest to retain an item based on an action that the user has taken with respect to the item.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the delete module ascertains that a user has an implied interest to retain an item if the item appears in a user-specified list.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user-specified list comprises a favorites list.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the delete module ascertains that a user has an implied interest to retain an item if the user frequently browses to the item.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the delete module and the user interface module comprise a native part of the web browser.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the delete module ascertains that a user has an implied interest to retain an item if the user has bookmarked an item.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said item comprises an item from the user'"'"'s browsing history.

9. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media embodying software instructions which, when executed, implement a method comprising;

receiving input to conduct a delete operation on a user'"'"'s browsing history;

during a browsing session, comparing items in the user'"'"'s browsing history to items that appear on an allow list that includes items that the user has an implied interest to retain and items that the user has selectively defined are not to be deleted when a delete operation is conducted, said interest being implied from user actions other than user selection of the items for retention, said interest being implied based in part on whether the user recently browsed, using a browser, to the item and without additional user actions with the item;

deleting one or more items if the one or more items do not appear on the allow list; and

retaining items that appear on the allow list.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the allow list includes a list of items that have been specified by the user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the list of items that have been specified by the user comprise a user'"'"'s favorites list.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the list of items that have been specified by the user comprise items that have been bookmarked by the user.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said deleting is performed via a user interface from which a user can select items to appear on the allow list.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein said comparing is performed by comparing at least portions of an URL'"'"'s domain, the URL being associated with an item.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a user interface, as part of a Web browser, that provides a number of different classes of items that can be deleted by a user;

providing, as part of the user interface, a single-action-selectable user interface instrumentality that is configured to enable a user to affect, through a single action, how a delete operation is performed relative to at least one class of items;

receiving input, via said user interface, to conduct a delete operation on a user'"'"'s browsing history; and

conducting a delete operation including allowing said single-action-selectable user interface instrumentality to affect the delete operation and retaining both items that the user has an implied interest to retain and items that the user has selectively defined are not to be deleted when a delete operation is conducted, wherein said interest to retain an item is implied based in part on whether the user frequently browses, using the Web browser and during one or more browsing sessions, to the item and without additional user interaction with the item.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the different classes of the items comprise temporary Internet files, cookies, and browsing history.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface instrumentality enables a user to selectively define favorite websites that are not to be deleted.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

responsive to said receiving input, via said user interface, to conduct a delete operation on a user'"'"'s browsing history;

comparing items in the user'"'"'s browsing history to items that appear on an allow list, wherein the allow list contains items defined via said user interface instrumentality;

deleting one or more items if the one or more items do not appear on the allow list; and

retaining items that appear on the allow list.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein said comparing is performed by comparing at least portions of a URL'"'"'s domain, the URL being associated with an item.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein said single-action-selectable user interface instrumentality comprises a check box.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein said single-action-selectable user interface instrumentality is configured to receive non-textual input.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein said single-action-selectable user interface instrumentality is configured to enable multiple items to be affected by the delete operation via the single action.