Systems and methods for generating and providing previews of electronic files such as web files

• US 20030014415A1
• Filed: 08/22/2002
• Published: 01/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Penta Trading Limited
• Original Assignee: Penta Trading Limited
• Inventors: Weiss, Yuval, Eyal, Ori
• Granted Patent: US 7,162,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system for previewing contents of Web files is provided. The system includes a computing platform for executing a previewing application being designed and configured for: (a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of a Web file; and (b) generating a preview of the contents of said Web file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the content of said Web file.

Claims

1. A system for previewing contents of electronic files, the system comprising a computing platform for executing a previewing application being designed and configured for:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of an electronic file; and

(b) generating a preview of the contents of said electronic file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the contents of said electronic file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file includes at least one file type selected from the group consisting of text type electronic files, image type electronic files, olfactory type electronic files and multi-type electronic files.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file includes audio content.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said preview includes a sample of said audio content, said sample of said audio content is of reduced quality and/or file size as compared to said electronic files.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file includes video content.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said preview includes a sample of said video content, said sample of said video content is of reduced quality and/or file size as compared to said electronic file.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file is a Web file.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said preview is a viewable image.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said image is a thumbnail image.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said image is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of said image is in a vector format.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein said image includes activatable links embedded therein.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein said Web file is a Web page and further wherein said preview presents at least a portion of the contents of said Web page.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said preview is an image presenting at least a portion of said Web page.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file is stored by said computing platform.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said electronic file is stored by at least one additional computing platform capable of communicating with said computing platform.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said computing platform is further designed and configured for converting said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said electronic file retrieved thereby from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following generating said preview of the contents of said electronic file.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said preview is an editable file.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said preview is of a file size substantially smaller than that of said electronic file.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said computing platform is further designed and configured for storing said preview generated thereby.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said electronic file is retrieved from at least one user client communicating with said computing platform.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said electronic file is retrieved from a server being in communication with said computing platform.

23. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional computing platform being in communication with said computing platform, said at least one additional computing platform storing links to said electronic files.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein said at least one additional computing platform executes a search engine application capable of providing said links to said electronic files as part of a search result list.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein said at least one additional computing platform is a server or a user client.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein said at least one additional computing platform is capable of storing said preview generated by said computing platform.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said Web file is a Web page.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising a server being for providing a link to said Web file.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said link is a hyperlink representing a Web address of said Web file.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein said server employs a search engine application and further wherein said hyperlink is presented thereby as a result of a search query.

32. The system of claim 27, further comprising at least one additional computing platform being capable of accessing and optionally displaying said preview generated by said computing platform.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein said Web file includes audio content.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein said preview includes a sample of said audio content.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein said sample is of reduced quality and/or size as compared to said Web file.

36. The system of claim 26, wherein said Web file includes video content.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein said preview includes a sample of said video content.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein said sample is of reduced quality and/or size as compared to said Web file.

39. The system of claim 26, wherein said preview is a viewable image.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein said image is a thumbnail image.

41. The system of claim 38, wherein said image is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

42. The system of claim 39, wherein at least a portion of said image is in a vector format.

43. The system of claim 39, wherein said image includes activatable links embedded therein.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein said activatable links are hyperlinks.

45. The system of claim 27, wherein said Web file is stored by at least one additional computing platform capable of communicating with said computing platform.

46. The system of claim 27, wherein said computing platform is further designed and configured for converting said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said Web file retrieved thereby from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following generating said preview of the contents of said Web file.

47. The system of claim 27, wherein said computing platform is further designed and configured for storing said preview generated thereby.

48. The system of claim 27, wherein said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said Web file is retrieved from at least one user client communicating with said computing platform.

49. The system of claim 27, wherein said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said Web file is retrieved from a server being in communication with said computing platform.

50. The system of claim 27, further comprising at least one additional computing platform being in communication with said computing platform, said at least one additional computing platform storing links to said Web files.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein said at least one additional computing platform executes a search engine application capable of providing said links to said Web files as part of a search result list.

52. The system of claim 50, wherein said at least one additional computing platform is a server or a user client.

27. A system for previewing contents of Web files, the system comprising a computing platform for executing a previewing application being designed and configured for:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of a Web file; and

(b) generating a preview of the contents of said Web file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the content of said Web file.

53. A computer readable storage media comprising a database including a plurality of records each record being a preview of a content of an electronic file.

54. The computer readable storage media of claim 53, wherein said electronic file is selected from the group consisting of a Web page, an audio file, a video file and a text file.

55. The computer readable storage media of claim 54, wherein said preview of said Web page is an image.

56. The computer readable storage media of claim 55, wherein said image is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

57. The computer readable storage media of claim 55, wherein said image includes activatable links to Web pages embedded within said image.

58. The computer readable storage media of claim 54, wherein said preview of said audio file includes an audio sample of said content of said audio file.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein said sample is of reduced quality and/or size as compared to said audio file.

60. The computer readable storage media of claim 54, wherein said preview of said video file includes an audio sample of said content of said video file.

61. A method of previewing contents of a Web file comprising:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of the Web file; and

(b) generating a preview of the contents of the Web file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the contents.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the Web file is a Web page.

63. The method of claim 61, wherein step (a) is effected by linking to said Web file via a link thereof and downloading said contents and/or said source of said Web file.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein said link is included in a results list of a Web search.

65. The method of claim 61, further comprising the step of converting said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of the Web file from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following step (b).

66. The method of claim 61, wherein said preview is generated in a manner enabling embedding of activatable links therein.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein said activatable links are hyperlinks.

68. The method of claim 61, wherein said preview includes an activatable link to said content of the Web file.

69. The method of claim 61, wherein said preview is a viewable image.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein said image is a thumbnail image.

71. The method of claim 69, wherein said image is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

72. The method of claim 69, wherein at least a portion of said image is in a vector format.

73. A method of previewing results of a search query comprising:

(a) retrieving at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of at least one search result file; and

(b) generating a preview of the contents of said at least one search result file, said preview presenting at least a portion of the contents of said at least one search result file.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein said search result file is a Web page included in a results list of a Web search.

75. The method of claim 73, further comprising the step of converting said at least a portion of the contents and/or source code of said search result file from a first file type to a second file type prior to, during or following step (b).

76. The method of claim 73, wherein said preview is generated in a manner enabling embedding of activatable links therein.

77. The method of claim 73, wherein said preview includes an active link to said content of said at least one search result file.

79. The system of claim 78, wherein at least one of said previews is generated by said database server according to a user command.

80. The system of claim 78, wherein each of said previews includes a viewable image.

81. The system of claim 80, wherein said image is a thumbnail image.

82. The system of claim 80, wherein said image is scaleable without substantial loss of quality.

83. The system of claim 80, wherein at least a portion of said image is in a vector format.

84. The system of claim 78, wherein said image includes an activatable link embedded therein.

85. The system of claim 80, wherein said activatable link is a hyperlink of a Web page.

86. The system of claim 85, wherein activation of said hyperlink results in a display of a preview of a content of a Web page represented by said hyperlink.

87. The system of claim 85, wherein activation of said hyperlink results in access to a Web page represented by said hyperlink.

78. A system enabling a user to surf the World Wide Web, the system comprising:

(a) a database server including previews of Web pages each of said previews presenting at least a portion of a content of a Web page; and

(b) at least one user client being in communication with said database, said at least one user client being capable of accessing and displaying each of said previews thereby enabling a user of said at least one user client to surf the World Wide Web.

88. A method of displaying Web pages comprising:

(a) providing a thumbnail image of at least a portion of a Web page; and

(b) enabling resizing of said thumbnail image in response to a command.

89. The method of claim 88, further comprising the step of providing a second thumbnail image of an additional Web in response to an activation of an activatable link embedded within said thumbnail image.