Webpage-flags sensitive toolbar

• US 20090007013A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Perion Network Limited (KGB)
• Original Assignee: Conduit Limited (KGB)
• Inventors: Shilo, Ronen
• Granted Patent: US 7,814,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/826
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management

Abstract

A browser add-on toolbar that offers users to collect toolbars from visited webpages that offer such toolbars and which, later, the user may select any one of the collected toolbars to become the current toolbar that the browser provides to the user. These abilities are imparted by having the toolbar be sensitive to one or more particular flags in visited pages. When a browser that contains this toolbar visits a website, the browser parses and searches the visited website page for presence of one or more of the particular flags, and when such a flag is found, the user is given a visual indication of the find and is given the choice to include within the browser'"'"'s toolbar the ability to instantiate a toolbar based on information associated with the flag.

Claims

1. A web browser product that is stored in a computer readable medium and executed in a computer device with which said medium is associated, said browser including a communication module that enables said computer to interact via the Internet with remote devices, and a toolbar having a look-and-feel and a set of functionalities, the improvement comprising:

a first module associated with the toolbar that provides a visual indication to a user of said browser when a webpage visited by the browser contains one or more preselected flags.

2. The browser of claim 1 further comprising:

a second module associated with the toolbar for displaying information about said one or more preselected flags in response to a request by said user;

a third module associated with the toolbar, responsive to a selection of said information about a flag of said one or more flags, for obtaining parameters relative to said flag, and storing said parameters in said toolbar in a manner that makes them available to be selected by said user.

3. The browser of claim 1 further comprising an instantiation module that modifies look-and-feel, or functionalities, or both, of said toolbar.

4. The browser of claim 1 further comprising a fourth module associated with the toolbar that is adapted to display, when a user of said computer device clicks on a visual object of said toolbar, a listing of said toolbars from which said user can select a toolbar, where a toolbar is characterized by parameters that had been provided to said toolbar by said third module.

5. The browser of claim 1 where said fourth module is further adapted to modify the look and feel and/or functionalities of the toolbar pursuant to said parameters stored in said toolbar for a flag that is selected by said user from the displayed list.

6. The browser of claim 1 where said third module obtains the parameters from a pre-specified server, from a server specified by the visited page, or from the visited page.

7. The browser of claim 1 where said first module parses a visited webpage to identify therein presence of one or more of said preselected flags.

8. The browser of claim 7 further comprising a fifth module that is adapted to

receive a current list of said preselected flags from said server;

and

store said current list.

9. The browser of claim 8 where the fifth module is adapted to receive, and store said list periodically, or each time the browser'"'"'s execution is initiated.

10. The browser of claim 8 where said list includes an update marker associated with at least one flag in said list.

11. The browser of claim 8 where said fifth module is further adapted to request that said current list be sent so that it can be received.

12. The browser of claim 11 where the fifth module is adapted to request, receive, and store said list repetitively, pursuant to a preselected algorithm.

13. The browser of claim 7 where said preselected flags are webpage elements that are identified in said current list.

14. The browser of claim 7 where said preselected flags are domain names.

15. A method executed by a toolbar installed in a browser product that is resident in computer device that includes a display monitor, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a webpage from a remote site through a communication module of the browser that interfaces the Internet;

parsing the webpage to find therein one or more flags having a preselected characteristic;

when said one or more flags are found, presenting to said monitor a visual indication of the fact that said one or more flags were found; and

in response to a received request, presenting to said monitor a label for each of the found one or more flags.

16. The method of claim 15 where said preselected characteristic is a webpage element that constitutes, or includes, an identifier.

17. The method of claim 15 where said preselected characteristic is a webpage element that constitutes, or includes, an identifier that is included in a list maintained by the toolbar.

18. The method of claim 17 where said identifier is a domain name.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of

receiving a message, in response to said presenting, that identifies a label selected from the labels presented to said monitor;

obtaining information pertaining to the selected label via the Internet; and

storing the obtained information in association with said selected label in a toolbars database of said toolbar.

20. The method of claim 19 where the information is obtained from a pre-specified server, from a server specified by a string associated with the selected label, or from information in said webpage that is associated with the selected label.

21. The method of claim 19 where said information is parameters information that control look-and-feel and/or functionalities of said toolbar.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising the steps of:

in response to a request, displaying on said monitor toolbars contained in said toolbars database; and

in response to a selection of one of said toolbars,

retrieving from said toolbars database parameters associated with said selected one of said toolbars; and

modifying the toolbar in accordance with the retrieved parameters.

23. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of

based on a preselected algorithm, accessing a server for the purpose of obtaining a collection of flags to be employed by said step of parsing;

storing the obtained collection of flags.

24. The method of claim 23 where said accessing is carried out periodically, or each time the browser'"'"'s execution is initiated.