Systems and methods for context personalized web browsing based on a browser companion agent and associated services

• US 20070300161A1
• Filed: 12/20/2005
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Connexity, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Shopzilla Incorporated
• Inventors: Bhatia, Rajesh, Ganju, Nikhil, Kamath, Anil, Kulkarni, Prashant, Tan, Phoumrin
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,478 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/745
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Computer software, systems and methods for providing context personalized browsing over computer networks. In the foregoing, an intelligent agent referred to as a “browser companion agent” includes a service component for holding one or more service modules that may assist a user by providing services that are contextually relevant to content on a browser on the user'"'"'s computer system. The agent also includes a data component for holding data objects related to and sharable by one or more service modules. The agent further includes a tracking component for tracking the pages on a browser and for communicating browser page data to a remote computer system that may respond to the agent with data or code for use by service modules. Contemplated service modules include a comparison shopping service, a transaction tracking service, and automated form filling service.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium which includes computer executable instructions, comprising:

a service component for holding one or more service modules that assist a user by providing services that are contextually relevant to content on a user'"'"'s browser on the user'"'"'s computer system;

a data component for holding data related to one or more service modules;

a tracking component for tracking the location identifier of a page on a browser and for communicating page data to a remote computer system; and

a receiving component for receiving data or instructions from the remote computer system responsive to the page data.

2. The medium of claim 1 further including code for providing a user interface that is coupable to the browser, the user interface being capable of receiving user input and sending the user input to a remote computer system and/or displaying information received from a remote computer system.

3. The medium of claim 1 wherein the service component includes one or more of a form filling service, a transaction tracking service, and a comparison shopping service.

4. The medium of claim 1 wherein the service component includes code for two or more of a form filling service;

a transaction tracking service; and

a comparison shopping service.

5. The medium of claim 1 wherein code for a proxy object is included on the medium, the proxy object being adapted to facilitate communication between the browser companion agent and a browser associated with a computer system on which the service modules are executed.

6. A browser companion agent stored on a computer medium, the agent being coupable to a browser on a user'"'"'s computer system and a remote computer system, the agent comprising:

a user interface including means for display of information related to one or more associated service modules that assist a user by providing services that are contextually relevant to content on a browser on the user'"'"'s computer system;

a code component for holding executable code related to a service module, the code being receivable from a remote computer system; and

a data component for holding data received from a remote computer system, the data being used by a service module to present information to the user interface for display to a user; and

a tracking component for tracking the domain of a page presented on the browser and communicating the domain to a remote computer system so that the remote computer system may determine code and/or data to send to the code component and/or data component.

7. The agent of claim 6 wherein the user interface further includes a user input area for accepting input from a user for transmission to a remote computer system.

8. The agent of claim 6 wherein the code component includes one or more of a form-filling service module, a transaction tracking module and a comparison shopping module.

9. The agent of claim 8 wherein the code component includes at least two of the modules.

10. The agent of claim 6 wherein the browser comprises a version of Internet Explorer and the browser companion agent comprises a browser helper object.

11. The agent of claim 6 wherein a service module comprises a COM object.

12. The agent of claim 6 wherein the services are invoked in a predetermined order based on assigned priorities.

13. The agent of claim 12 wherein the priority is assignable by the remote computer system.

14. The agent of claim 12 wherein the priority is set by one of the service modules.

15. The agent of claim 6 wherein the two or more services include common interfaces for sharing data or code in a data or code component.

16. The agent of claim 15 wherein two or more services share common data in a data component.

17. The agent of claim 6 wherein the data and code components are stored at a higher level accessible by two or more service modules in a global manner.

18. The agent of claim 6 wherein the browser companion agent only runs services that are authenticated by a security code.

19. The agent of claim 6 wherein predetermined types of data for each domain tracked by the browser companion agent in connection with a -service are cached in the data object component, and the data are accessible by a plurality of service modules.

20. The agent of claim 19 wherein the data may be called by a service module if a user returns to a previously visited domain in the same session.

21. The agent of claim 19 wherein the agent includes code for determining when to cease persisting cached data in memory.

22. The agent of claim 6 wherein a proxy object is provided to facilitate communication between the browser companion agent and a main browser.

23. The agent of claim 6 wherein a proxy object is provided to facilitate communication between the browser companion agent and a remote computer system.

24. The agent of claim 22 wherein the proxy object also facilitates communication between the browser companion agent and a remote computer system.

25. The agent of claim 6 wherein the browser companion agent provides a storing mechanism for receiving and storing client-side scripting variables as name and value pairs so that as a user navigates content on a browser, the state of the variables is not lost.