Presenting image previews of webpages

• US 9,619,784 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Shaugnessy, Timothy, Agrawal, Sudheer
• Primary Examiner(s): Sax, Steven
• Application Number:
  US13/619,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20130067354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,670 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

An instant message is received from an instant message sender and a determination is made that the instant message includes a link to a web page that was selected by the instant message sender. In response to determining that the instant message includes the link to the web page, an image corresponding to the web page is fetched and stored, and a thumbnail image preview of the fetched image is generated. In addition, the thumbnail image preview of the fetched portion of the web page is displayed while at least a portion of the instant message is displayed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, in a first web page, a first link to a second web page;

identifying at least a first feature and a second feature of the second web page;

generating an active preview of at least a portion of the second web page, wherein generating the active preview comprises generating a scaled down version of the second web page by scaling down the first feature by a first scaling factor and scaling down the second feature by a second scaling factor, the first scaling factor being smaller than the second scaling factor;

detecting, by at least one processor, a first triggering user-interaction with the first link;

upon detecting the first triggering user-interaction, providing the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page while at least a portion of the first web page is being displayed;

detecting, by the at least one processor, a second triggering user-interaction with a link to a third webpage provided in the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page; and

upon detecting the second triggering user-interaction, opening the third webpage.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein detecting the first triggering user-interaction with the first link comprises detecting a cursor is hovering over the first link.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first link is represented on the first web page as a textual description of content of the second web page.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein providing the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page while at least the portion of the first web page is being displayed comprises displaying the active preview as an overlay over the first web page.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a selection of the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page; and

providing the second web page in response to detecting the selection of the active preview.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the first web page is open in a first tab of a browser; and

providing the second web page comprises opening the second web page in a second tab of the browser.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an entry of a search query into a search query field in the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page; and

performing a search via the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page using the search query entered into the search query field in the active preview of the second web page.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first feature and the second feature each comprises one or more of text, links, or images.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the second feature comprises an image; and

the first feature comprises text.

10. A graphical user interface produced on a computing device having a display associated therewith, the graphical user interface comprising:

a first web page displayed on the display, the first web page including a first link to a second web page, the second web page comprising at least a first feature and a second feature;

an active preview of at least a portion of the second web page displayed on the display while a cursor is hovering over the first link, the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page being displayed as an overlay over at least a portion of the first web page, the active preview comprising the first feature scaled down by a first scaling factor and the second feature scaled down by a second scaling factor, the first scaling factor being smaller than the second scaling factor; and

a third web page displayed on the display upon detecting a second triggering user-interaction with a link to the third webpage provided in the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page.

11. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 10, further comprising displaying the first link as a textual description of content of the second web page.

12. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 11, wherein the first feature and the second feature each comprises one or more of text, links, or images.

13. The graphical user interface as recited in claim 12, wherein:

the second feature comprises an image; and

the first feature comprises text.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

provide a first web page having a first link to a second web page, the second web page comprising a first feature and a second feature;

generate an active preview of at least a portion of the second web page, wherein the active preview comprises a scaled down version of the second web page in which the first feature is scaled down by a first scaling factor and the second feature is scaled down by a second scaling factor, the first scaling factor being smaller than the second scaling factor;

in response to a first triggering user-interaction with the first link, provide the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page while at least a portion of the first web page is being displayed; and

in response to a second triggering user-interaction with a second link in the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page, provide a third web page.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the first triggering user-interaction is a selection of the first link.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein:

the first link is represented on the first web page as a textual description of content of the second web page; and

the second link is represented in the active preview as a textual description of content of the third web page.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, further comprising instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:

detect an entry of a search query into a search query field in the active preview of the second web page; and

perform a search via the active preview of the second web page using the search query entered into the search query field in the active preview of the second web page.

18. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:

provide the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page by providing the active preview of at least the portion of the second web page for display as an overlay over a rendering of the first web page.

19. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the first feature and the second feature each comprises one or more of text, links, or images.

20. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein:

the second feature comprises an image; and

the first feature comprises text.