Systems and Methods for Processing Inoperative Document Links

• US 20090070306A1
• Filed: 09/07/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Stroe, Mihai, Berinde, Radu
• Granted Patent: US 8,201,081 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

A server computer performs multiple operations in response to a user-identified inoperative document link. The server computer extracts one or more query terms from the user-identified document link. At least one of the query terms is different from the user-identified document link. The server computer searches a set of operative document links for one or more candidate document links in accordance with the user-identified document link. The server computer queries a cached document server for a document link to a cached copy of a document corresponding to the user-identified document link. The server computer returns at least one of the extracted query terms, the candidate document links, and the document link to the cached copy to the client computer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a client computer with a display device,

receiving a user-identified document link;

submitting the document link to a server remotely located from the client computer;

receiving multiple information items from the server; and

displaying at least a subset of the information items on the screen display, including;

(i) displaying one or more user-editable query terms in a search box, wherein at least one of the query terms is selected from the group comprising text extracted from the user-identified document link and a term based on text extracted from the user-identified document link, and (ii) displaying one or more candidate document links, wherein at least one candidate document link references a document that is available at a storage device remote from the client computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying further includes displaying a link to a cached document, which is a cached copy of a document corresponding to the user-identified document link, wherein the link to the cached document is a link to location remote from the client computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifies the document link by entering the document link into an address field of a web browser application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifies the document link by entering the document link into a search box of a search engine application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifies the document link by selecting the document link embedded in a web page.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the document link is submitted to the server after the client computer determines that the user-identified document link is inoperative.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if the client computer is unable to retrieve a document from a location corresponding to the user-identified document link.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if it includes at least one misspelled term.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if it is incomplete.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-identified document link is a link to a URL.

11. A client computer, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors;

one or more programs stored in the memory and configured for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving a user-identified document link;

submitting the document link to a server remotely located from the client computer;

receiving multiple information items from the server; and

displaying at least a subset of the information items on the screen display, including;

(i) displaying one or more user-editable query terms in a search box, wherein at least one of the query terms is selected from the group comprising text extracted from the user-identified document link and a term based on text extracted from the user-identified document link, and (ii) displaying one or more candidate document links, wherein at least one candidate document link references a document that is available at a storage device remote from the client computer.

12. The client computer of claim 11, wherein the instructions for displaying include instructions for displaying a link to a cached document, which is a cached copy of a document corresponding to the user-identified document link, wherein the link to the cached document is a link to location remote from the client computer.

13. The client computer of claim 11, wherein the instructions for submitting the document link to the server include instructions for determining whether the user-identified document link is inoperative and for submitting the document link to the server if the user-identified document link is determined to be inoperative.

14. The client computer of claim 13, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if the client computer is unable to retrieve a document from a location corresponding to the user-identified document link.

15. The client computer of claim 13, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if it includes at least one misspelled term.

16. The client computer of claim 13, wherein the user-identified document link is inoperative if it is incomplete.

17. A computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs to be executed by a computer system comprising a client computer, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions for:

receiving a user-identified document link;

submitting the document link to a server remotely located from the client computer;

receiving multiple information items from the server; and

displaying at least a subset of the information items on the screen display, including;

(i) displaying one or more user-editable query terms in a search box, wherein at least one of the query terms is selected from the group comprising text extracted from the user-identified document link and a term based on text extracted from the user-identified document link, and (ii) displaying one or more candidate document links, wherein at least one candidate document link references a document that is available at a storage device remote from the client computer.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a server computer,

receiving a user-identified document link from a client computer, wherein the user-identified document link includes an identifier of the server computer;

submitting the document link to a document link server;

receiving multiple information items from the document link server; and

returning at least a subset of the information items to the client computer, the returned information items including;

(i) one or more query terms to be displayed in a search box, wherein at least one of the query terms is selected from the group comprising text extracted from the user-identified document link and a term based on text extracted from the user-identified document link, and (ii) one or more candidate document links, wherein at least one candidate document link references a document that is available at a remote storage device.

19. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a server computer,

receiving a user-identified document link from a client computer;

extracting one or more query terms from the user-identified document link, wherein at least one of the query terms is different from the user-identified document link;

searching a set of document links for one or more candidate document links in accordance with the user-identified document link, wherein at least one candidate document link references a document that is available at a storage device remote from the client computer; and

returning the query terms and the candidate document links to the client computer.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

at a server, in accordance with a request from a requesting device remotely located from the server;

searching a set of operative document links for one or more candidate complete document links in accordance with a user-identified document link and one or more quality values associated with the candidate complete document links;

searching the set of operative document links for one or more candidate approximate document links in accordance with the user-identified document link and one or more quality values associated with the candidate approximate document links;

selecting a subset of the candidate complete document links and the candidate approximate document links, wherein at least one selected document link has an associated quality value above a predefined threshold level; and

transmitting, to the requesting device, information associated with the selected subset of the candidate complete document links and the candidate approximate document links.

21. A computer system for processing document links, comprising:

memory;

one or more processors;

one or more programs stored in the memory and configured for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including;

instructions for searching a set of operative document links for one or more candidate complete document links, if any, in accordance with a user-identified document link and one or more quality values associated with candidate complete document links;

instructions for searching the set of operative document links for one or more candidate approximate document links, if any, in accordance with the user-identified document link and one or more quality values associated with the candidate approximate document links; and

instructions for selecting a subset, if any, of the candidate complete document links and the candidate approximate document links, wherein at least one selected document links has an associated quality value above a predefined threshold level; and

instructions for transmitting, to a requesting device, information associated with the selected subset of the candidate complete document links and the candidate approximate document links.