Configurable disablement of display objects in a browser

• US 6,356,924 B2
• Filed: 11/26/1997
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mullen-Schultz, Gary Lee
• Primary Examiner(s): Homere, Jean R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US08/979,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20010011261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,567 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/102, 707/104, 707/513, 707/500, 707/501, 707/512, 707/526, 707/539, 345/112, 345/339, 345/348, 345/333, 345/334, 345/533
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A browser selectively disables the display of viewable objects in a document. The document contains control tags that describe how associated data is to be displayed. A browser interprets the control tags and formats the associated data to display viewable objects on a display-screen. The user selects a portion of the display screen, containing viewable objects, that the user desires to be blocked. In response to this selection, the browser saves a description of the user-selected area. When the browser subsequently retrieves the document, the browser compares the saved description to locations on the display screen associated with the control tags in the document. When the viewable object associated with a compared control tag is outside the saved description, the browser downloads and displays the viewable object. When the viewable object associated with the compared control tag is within the saved description, the browser blocks the display of the viewable object by not downloading the object and by blanking the screen at that location or by replacing the viewable object with an icon. In this way, the user can select which objects are downloaded and visible on the screen and which are not.

Claims

1. An apparatus that browses a document, wherein the document contains a plurality of control tags, and wherein data is associated with the plurality of control tags, comprising:

a processor;

memory coupled to the processor;

a blocked display-area list residing in the memory; and

a browser residing in the memory and executed by the processor, wherein the browser;

(a) interprets the plurality of control tags and formats the data to create a plurality of viewable objects displayed on a display-screen,

(b) maps a user-selected display-screen area to a description of a display-screen area, said user-selected display screen area corresponding to a portion of a displayable image of said document,

(c) saves the description of the display-screen area to the blocked display-area list,

(d) after the browser subsequently retrieves the document again, the browser compares the saved display-screen area description in the blocked display-area list to locations on the display screen associated with the plurality of control tags contained in the document in order to identify at least one blocked viewable object defined by at least one control tag of said plurality of control tags, each said blocked viewable object being a viewable object of said plurality of viewable objects which is defined for display within said user-selected display-screen area, and

(e) generates and displays a modified form of said document, wherein said modified form includes each respective viewable object which is not among said blocked viewable objects, and wherein said modified form does not include any viewable object which is among said blocked viewable objects.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the browser blocks the display of the viewable object by displaying a blank area on the display screen.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the browser blocks the display of the viewable object by substituting a blocking icon in place of the viewable object.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the browser operates at a client and downloads the document from a server, and wherein the associated data is contained in a file separate from the document, and when the browser blocks the display of the viewable object, the browser refrains from downloading the data associated with the blocked viewable object.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the blocked display-area list further comprises a bookmark list, and wherein the bookmark list further comprises an address of the document.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the browser further removes the description of the user-selected display-screen from the blocked display-area list in response to a user request.

7. A program product that browses a document, wherein the document contains a plurality of control tags, and wherein data is associated with the plurality of control tags, comprising:

a blocked display-area list;

a browser, wherein the browser;

(a) interprets the plurality of control tags and formats the data to create a plurality of viewable objects displayed on a display-screen,

(b) maps a user-selected display-screen area to a description of a display-screen area, said user-selected display screen area corresponding to a portion of a displayable image of said document,

(c) saves the description of the display-screen area to the blocked display-area list,

(d) after the browser subsequently retrieves the document again, the browser compares the saved display-screen area description in the blocked display-area list to locations on the display screen associated with the plurality of control tags contained in the document in order to identify at least one blocked viewable object defined by at least one control tag of said plurality of control tags, each said blocked viewable object being a viewable object of said plurality of viewable objects which is defined for display within said user-selected display-screen area, and

(e) generates and displays a modified form of said document, wherein said modified form includes each respective viewable object which is not among said blocked viewable objects, and wherein said modified form does not include any viewable object which is among said blocked viewable objects; and

signal-bearing media bearing the blocked display-area list and the browser.

8. The program product of claims 7, wherein the browser blocks the display of the viewable object by displaying a blank area on the display screen.

9. The program product of claim 7, wherein the browser blocks the display of the viewable object by substituting a blocking icon in place of the viewable object.

10. The program product of claim 7, wherein the browser operates at a client and downloads the document from a server, and wherein the associated data is contained in a file separate from the document, and when the browser blocks the display of the viewable object, the browser refrains from downloading the data associated with the blocked viewable object.

11. The program product of claim 7, wherein the blocked display-area list further comprises a bookmark list, and wherein the bookmark list further comprises an address of the document.

12. The program product of claim 7, wherein the browser further removes the description of the user-selected display-screen from the blocked display-area list in response to a user request.

13. A method for browsing a document, wherein the document contains a plurality of control tags, and wherein data is associated with the plurality of control tags, comprising the computer-executed steps of:

interpreting the plurality of control tags and formatting the data to create a plurality of viewable objects displayed on a display-screen;

mapping a user-selected display-screen area to a description of a display-screen area, said user-selected display screen area corresponding to a portion of a displayable image of said document,

saving to a blocked display-area list the description of the display-screen area; and

after subsequently retrieving the document again, performing the following steps;

comparing the saved display-screen area description in the blocked display-area list to locations on the display screen associated with the plurality of control tags contained in the document in order to identify blocked viewable objects defined by said plurality of control tags, said blocked viewable objects being viewable objects of said plurality of viewable objects which are displayed within said user-selected display-screen area, and

generating and displaying a modified form of said document, wherein said modified form includes each viewable object which is not among said blocked viewable objects, and wherein said modified form does not include any viewable object which is among said blocked viewable objects.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the blocking step blocks the display of the viewable object by displaying a blank area on the display screen.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the blocking step blocks the display of the viewable object by substituting a blocking icon in place of the viewable object.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the blocking step further comprises

downloading the data in the data associated with the blocked viewable object, from a server.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the blocked display-area list further comprises a bookmark list, and wherein the bookmark list further comprises an address of the document.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

removing the description of the user-selected display-screen from the blocked display-area list in response to a user request.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the blocked display-area list is in a bookmark list.

19. A method for browsing and displaying an Internet document on a display screen, wherein the document contains a plurality of links to information, and the information is external to the document, comprising the computer-executed steps of:

mapping a user-selected display-screen area to a description of a blocked area, said user-selected display screen area corresponding to a portion of a displayable image of said Internet document;

saving the description of the blocked area in a blocked display-area list;

determining whether a first link is within the blocked area;

retrieving first information linked by the first link only if the first information is not within the blocked area; and

displaying a modified form of said Internet document, said modified form being generated using information retrieved by said retrieving step.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying blank space in the blocked area.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying a blocking icon in the blocked area.